MUSIC GEAR
SEPTEMBER 25, 2021
History Of Tama Drum Company
The history of Tama drum company started from a family called Hoshino Gakki.
For many years, the Hoshino family owned and operated a family bookstore out of Japan. In the year of 1908, Hoshino started selling musical instruments included Ludwig and Slingerland drum equipment and other US made hardware. It wasn’t until early 1960’s when Hoshino decided to get into the drum manufacturing business.
Hoshino Gakki Co., Ltd. became a Japanese music instruments manufacturer and the owner of Ibanez guitars and amplifiers in 1962. Hoshino, the family name of the founder meaning “Star” in English. In 1961, the company began manufacturing drums under the name “Star Drums” at Hoshino’s subsidiary, Tama Seisakusho.
The Imperial Star and Royal Star drum models were successful lower-cost drums in the American market despite competition against more expensive drums such as Ludwig and Slingerland at time.
By 1974, Hoshino decided to make high quality drums and hardware under the “Tama” brand. It was the name of the owner’s wife and in Japanese word meaning “jewel”. The headquarters are located in Seto, Aichi, Japan. This explains why we won’t find any drum kit with the Tama brand from 1950’s and 1960’s era.
The Tama Drums is a brand of drum kits and hardware manufactured and marketed by the Hoshino company after then. The flagship series and expensive drums are made in Japan while for the affordable drums and hardware are manufactured in China. The “Star” name continues to be used in Tama’s drum models to this day.
In the 1970’s Tama was one of the first companies to offer new innovation in drum mounting systems. The Tama super heavy-duty hardware did not intrude in the the drums shell like other brands.
Tama also invented unique tubular drums called Octobans which is a set of eight different shells in lengths with the same 6-inches diameter each. The pitch variations depends on the shell lengths rather than the widths.
Another significant advancement in hardware was when Tama and Drum Workshop (DW) bought the bankrupt Camco Drum Company. DW received the Camco tooling and manufacturing equipment as part of the deal while Tama received the Camco name, designs, engineering and patent rights.
DW continues producing the Camdo pedal using the original tooling, rebadging it as the DW 5000 pedal series while Tama began production of the same pedal under the Camco name or commonly known as the Tamco pedal.
Besides producing drum kits, today Tama also manufacture hardware, snare drums and drum pedals. Tama created sturdy hardware in 1970’s due to the rise of rock music. They created solid double braced cymbal stands and heavy-duty equipment for hard hitter drum players.
Starclassic and STAR series are the Tama’s flagship, high-end line of drums. Before 2009 the Starclassic was hand-crafted in Japan but lost of this lines are now manufactured in their Chinese factory.
The snare drums from Tama are mostly made of maple, brass, stainless steel, bubinga aluminum or copper. The Tama pedals are one of the best drum pedals in the market today. Speed Cobra and iron Cobra series features a selection of Tama’s top of the line pedals, double pedals and also hi-hat stands.
Some legendary drummers have used or currently using the Tama drums. They are Neil Peart (Rush), Lars Ulrich (Metallica), Steward Copeland (The Police), Mike Portnoy, Simon Phillips (Toto), Pat Torpey (Mr. Big), Tim Alexander (Primus) and Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters).
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