It's true. Tama has literally entered the field. Ayala and James Logan high schools (Both in southern CA I think) have been used as the initial testbed for their new marching line. If you are at all familiar with Tama starclassic maple kits and their hardware, you need to be excited about this! There are a couple of videos of Ayala's drumline playing their new Tamas on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2j4lAw-0GI

Nice looking drums! Looking forward to learning more about them. Design of the snare hardware looks pretty conventional. Logan's using Randall May carrier hardware. RM would probably be happy to pick up Tama after losing Pearl.

BTW - Ayala's in SoCal. James Logan is in the San Francisco Bay Area.

it's about time. If I didn't see the badge I'd probably say it's a Pearl. Why didn't they go with independent lines for testing, that's probably going to tick off the Tama dealers at least.

I just thought of a question, are those the prototype drums Ayala got or the second gen drums in that video? Tama actually filled a patent claim for some sort of marching snare but it looks nothing like the ones in the video or picture.

Skydog, your right about James Logan. I actually copy/pasted that from somewhere else, I was in a rush. Just pretty surprised these were floating around since summer and nobody leaked a picture till now. I really want to see these up close.. My biggest problem with Tama was the price. I know the quality will be there but will the drums be closer to Yamaha's price point. Or Mapex. or in the middle like Pearl. Either way it still looks pretty nice. Snares not so different then anybody else. Looks like a hybrid of Yamaha stress ring. Pearls tubes, Premier's bottom ring from the 784. Really nobody does finishes like Tama. such a classy look.

The carriers look like older Yamaha's (carbon ply) from their last set of drums. Maybe they just got the drums and no carriers. Either way if RM was smart they would go after them for hardware support.




Warboy. from what I read, those are the next gen prototypes. Ayala sent the first gen back earlier and got those for BOA maybe even sooner.. James Logan did not get the second gen prototypes yet and apparently the drums are falling apart.

Again I wouldn't jump on a set of these right off the bat. It usually takes a couple years of production to get all the bugs out.. either way its nice to see another player in this market..

I'd hope so. I used to compete against them.

There are plenty of pics of the drums on the James Logan band website. It looks like Tama is making their own carries which seems to be an attempt to follow the Pearl design, but I'd say they look far less comfortable.

http://www.loganbandandcolorguard.org/g2/main.php?g2_itemId=57468

It looks like they're making their own stands too. From the looks of it the stuff looks super heavy duty.

That drum looks really nice. You can tell they attempted to combine aspects of other drums that worked really well for them. The finish looks great, also.

Please excuse my ignorance, but what's the thin metal bar that's angled at the bottom of the drum, almost directly below the Tama logo? Is that supposed to be the equivalent of a foot on a yamaha drum?

Its part of the "feet" for the drum to rest on. much like Pearls

What I don’t understand is why the “feet” aren’t around the snare strainer. Most companies put them around the strainer incase there are any accidental drops. It’s a shame if that happens, but it does happen.

Yamaha has abandoned that level of protection as well to go with the smaller feet, which do look nicer (form over function). I guess I’m all for anything that will protect equipment when working with younger individuals.