I have a red "T" badge concert tom set that is Luan with interior speckle paint. I'd say they were entry level Tamas. These would be Tama drums, not Royal Star drums, which are earlier...

One of the forum members, Ralf, has a fairly extensive site dedicated to 'Star' drums, which was the start of the 'Royal Star' line and eventually morphed into 'Tama'.

Go here:

http://www.star-drums.de/index.html

Thanks fishwaltz, appreciated!

I must say that my knowledge exactly stops at the end of the Star era: to me there's too much diversity in the TAMA-time thereafter.

Shortly I bought and sold a TAMA 'RoyalStar' set from the late 70's: it had the Zola coating inside. It's making cannot be compared with my Star 'Royal Star' sets, which have multylayer sheels and re-rings and which are high-end shells to me. I'd say those TAMA RoyalStars were midline level, not more. Useful for Rock-sound (tone is not ringing too much).

Ralf

Thx Ralf....so even the shells with the shina layer were not so good quality?..I guess they look better than they sound...The shina was used over luan i suppose?

Sorry, wayne, ... as I stated: I'm not familiar with the details on TAMA drums.

My apologies.

Ralf

As I remember the Tama Royalstar line at one time was a lower line,well built good quality,but was much less expensive than the Superstar. But they sold well and got some upgrades,like the veneer outer ply,I am not sure if they ever upgraded to a matchhing veneer inside,Like some of the Crestars.

Tama used to have a bunch of older catalogues on thier site but I could not find them last time I was there.

For me, a drum comes down to the shell material, especially wood.No matter how nice a drum looks if its made of inexpensive,2nd grade, cheap "wood", im not interested. You can change out heads,hoops,hardware, re do edges and beds etc, but you cant do a thing about the most important component.

@wayne: very well spoken!. But in this case, it's behind a curtain called Zola-coating ...

@eamesuser: you mean this one? http://www.tamadrum.co.jp/anniversary/

Ralf

Like it was said before, the Tama Royal Star is a very good kit for Rocksound. I have one myself and for Rock it´s really good vintage Drumset thats just as good as the Drums you get sold for Rock today. I upgraded mine a wee bit, with good heads and for me it´s togehter with my Rockstar a perfect set for Rock.

But it´s like everyone here said, the magic lys behind the coating;-)

@Ralf

Your Drumate works brilliant, even when you would not regnozie the sound anymore:-) Now it ROCKS;-)

Cheers buddyGuitar Dude Man