Indeed, some STAR King Beat snare drums also had a STAR silver/ round badge on it, stating 'Imperial Star'!

Apparently TAMA continued to use the heavy metal shells of the King Beat for other snare drums, too, by adding just a 'normal' snare strainer.

The STAR King Beats had 10 lugs as well, plus the 'one touch tone control' knob, which appeared also at the early TAMA models.

The only difference I see, are the die cast hoops at your's.

Ralf

I'm guessing the difference between Wayne's snare is just the die cast hoops and the strainer mechanism. Could be either an SS or a CL strainer. Shells has minor differences, and maybe the Imperialstar you have is COS, and so far I know the Stars are COB. But those are my not-so-educated guesses.

Neo - very nice catch! A cool snare drum - congratulations. I love those old Japanese drums.

Thanks Kona, I'm very happy to have found it :)