I haven't been in Marching Band since 1967, but I still Rock out on my 1972 Clear Fibes.
I came upon these abandoned puppies recently, and I'm trying to evaluate them.

I was visiting a friend who works at a tow yard and as we were looking through the warehouse of abandoned property (left in Unclaimed vehicles) she showed me what she had been calling, "her drumset".
Not quite a drumset, but I immediately recognized the beginning of a Drumline.
Yamaha Field Corps Drums, one 20x16 Bass, one 16x16 Bass, both a Dark/Black Stained Mahogany finish, and one Five piece Multi-Tom Set up (14, 13, 12, 10, 8), seems like a vinyl finish. All 8100 series, all Black with Chrome. Also, one 12 and one 13 Marching toms from the Power Line 500? Series. The Field Corps 13 is missing its head, rim and lug nuts, but the Power Line 13 looks like a match. Otherwise, typical wear and tear, with no serious damgage.

From what I've read, the Field Corps are apparently Build to competition standards, while the Power Line series aren't quite as robust.
Now that my friend knows she doesn't have the beginnings of a trap set, she wants to sell them, and I told her I'd find out what the market is like.
That's where I ground to a halt . . .

The 8100 Series has apparently been discontinued, replaced by the 8200, and Yamaha's website seems to be dedicated to current products. There is a link to discontinued products, but no 8100s are listed.

The drums all have their tags, so I have model and serial numbers, I find it weird that it is so difficult to find anything a about them on the Internet. How old are they, anyway?
Did they Suck, and Yamaha is covering their tracks?
8100s? What 8100s?

I was hoping to find when these drums were manufactured, what parts might be available, and if there is a market.

I have found some 8200 Series products for sale on ebay, put there is hardly a mention of the 8100 Series on the Internet.

If anyone knows anything about these drums, or of somewhere I could find some info, any assistance would be appreciated.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/rickmccamy/multitom2.jpg

Yamaha recently updated their drums (tenors especially) which is why there's the 8200 series now and why that is a 8100 series. Honestly, the more you look at the tenors, the more issues you will probably find. The newer version updated the lugs on those drum so they actually lasted a good amount of time. As those drums got older, the bolts holding the lugs onto the drum tended to weaken and shear off. One of the schools I am working with now is having this issue and I am guessing if you attempted to tune those to a competitive tuning range that you will too. I don't imagine the bass drums will have many issues unless there are cracked rims as I've never even herd of a bass drum lug breaking. check the bearing edges on everything though just to check for dings and other defects.

Sort story: They aren't junk, but they aren't worth very much in cash. You can try and get something from Ebay for them, but it won't be much for each drum and if there's anything wrong with them you will be "sol."

For someone who hasn't been around marching drums in a few decades, it sounds like you have a pretty good handle on what you've got. The Field Corps line is the flagship of Yamaha's product line while the PowerLite stuff is designed to be lighter and cheaper.

The 8200 series is Yamaha's current Field Corps offering. They're similar to the 8100 series they replaced, with a few incremental upgrades like stronger/lighter lugs and wider claws on the basses. Parts for the 8100 series are still readily available from any Yamaha dealer.

Used marching drums don't fetch a huge sum, but you shouldn't have any problems selling at least some of these. The tenors, if they're in decent shape, will almost certainly fetch a few hundred bucks from an interested buyer. It's a plus that they're a "big block" 10-12-13-14 set. The 16" bass would likely attract the attention of a group wanting to add a smaller bass to an existing line. The 20" drum might be harder to find a home for and the PowerLite drums likely won't generate much interest. The stained black finish is called "Black Forest Stain".

By the way, for sake of accuracy whenever you might list these drums for sale, The depth of those basses is 14", not 16". (Don't count the hoops when measuring shell depth.)

Good luck! (And cool old Fibes, by the way!)

Thanks Guys.

Hello, We just had a post for a bass drum and you could sell one of those to ZSharma(on this board)right now and he was willing to go up to $300. So if you don`t have the case and harness maybe bring down the price. Also with the tenors it looks like you have a quint/quad set that if you took a better picture with a drum head on the missing drum you should be able to sell that quickly as well for a practice set. You could try selling right on this site and also over at Snare Science where they are always looking for practice instruments. I have an old Premier HT snare from the 1990`s and it sounds great but is a problem to get replacement parts if needed. So with that in mind you will have a chance to sell all this equipment on line here and at ebay as well.

You'll be happy to know Premier now has a distributor in the states again so parts aren't as much of an issue anymore. Marching.com is carrying them and the first thing they did was buy a shipload of parts for the drums. Learned this by talking to them at PASIC.

Good to hear Premier has a distributor on this side of the pond now. It's a step in the right direction!

But with that said, parts availability has been an issue with Premier for decades -- even when there's a distribution network in place. I'd expect MarchingUSA.com to stock some common parts for recent drums, but SCV75 might still be S.O.L. for his old HTS.

Very true. I don't really know what kind of modifications Premier has done to their drums over the years so I don't know what's compatible. I talked to these guys at PASIC and they seemed to know what was the issue with the Premier name and they are really working to fix that. I have faith in them.

Well, I posted the Basses together on ebay with a buy it now price of $200. They were snagged up by mid afternoon . . .
As for the Tenors, we are digging looking for the missing rim, whether or not we find it, I have no problem letting board members have first shot.
I'll keep you posted.

Just a thought,

You should look for a 1A or 2A or private schools, that's probably enough to set them up. Most down Dixie way that are 1A or 2A have that small a line. Just a thought.