80s Tama Imperialstar Snare Drums

J

JLoveDrums94

Senior Member
I`m just asking these questions out of curiosity. I`m thinking about maybe buying one when I get back to the US. So, from what I understand, there are three models of (steel) Imperialstar snare drums from the 1980s, there`s the Kingbeat, the Powerline, and the Mastercraft. Are there any other models that I`m missing here, that come in14x6.5?
Now, I hear that the Kingbeat was the best of the three models that I mentioned. As much as I like it, I think the Kingbeat looks very sophisticated to use because of its snare throw-off system. I see dials on both sides of the throw-off, and I start thinking about the Ludwig Super Sensitive Snare, or the Rogers Dynasonic Snare. So, I think I might want one of the other two Imperialstars. Any of you guys have experiance with the Kingbeat Snare? Is it really difficult to use? If you were to compare the Powerline with the Mastercraft model Imperialstar, which one would you say is the better and earsier to use? Also, If any of you have experiance with any of the other two models, please fill me in. Thanks
 
I had a Mastercraft 6.5x14 with the die cast hoops and thought it was a great snare. I remember the Kingbeat was Tama's competitor to the Super-Sensitive or the Rogers Dynasonic. My take on all of those snare mechanisms is that they're too complicated. Too many parts therefore too many things that can go wrong. And since that particular snare hasn't been manufactured for 30 years, parts are scarcer than Dyna-sonic parts. I would avoid it unless you know the parts are good and you could fabricate what you needed provided something broke.
 
The Kingbeat and mastercraft came with a roller type strainer or the dual type on the Kingbeat.Both at one time came with diecast rims

The powerline used a simpler strainer and came with triple flange 2.3mm steel hoops

All three models had the same heavy seel,seamless shell in 5 or 6.5 x 14.

My Kingbeat is a 6.5 x14 and when tuned med-high,if you hit rimshots,it sounds like gunfire

They are great drums and they all basicly sound the same,with the Kingbeat having a bit more sensitivity,dryness,and focus with a bit less ring because of the different extended snare wires and diecast rims.

The powerline is a great drums also,and sounds similar because of the same shell.

Tama swingstar metal drums for a short time in the early 80's,also used the same shell.The strainer is a little different and the badge is a maroon "flying T" instead of the black badge on mastercraft,powerline and Kingbeat.

Steve B
 
JLoveDrums94 said:
Both 14x6.5 Steel Swingstar and Powerline Imperialstar snare drums had 10 lugs, right? None of the two had 8?
Click to expand...

I'd say the Swingstar has 8 lugs.
 
The Swingstar has 8 lugs,but thats NOT a bad thing.Ten lugs isn't always better.

There are plenty of excellent and even legendary 8 lug snare drums out there.

Slingerland Artist and Radio King,Ludwig Jazz festival and Acrolite are just a few.

Steve B
 
Last edited:
Hi,
Just picked up this thread. I recently bought an old Kingbeat 6 1/2" snare for $50 and have overhauled it and I am really pleased with it. Over the last 30 years I've had a lot of different snares; Black Beauty, Collesium, Sonar birch and even an old Premier marching snare for a while! The Kingbeat is as good as any of those in terms of sensitivity and volume and whilst i take on board earlier comments about the complexity of the snare mechamism, it's pretty robust and parts can always by substituted or repaired.
 
RockApe said:
Hi,
Just picked up this thread. I recently bought an old Kingbeat 6 1/2" snare for $50 and have overhauled it and I am really pleased with it. Over the last 30 years I've had a lot of different snares; Black Beauty, Collesium, Sonar birch and even an old Premier marching snare for a while! The Kingbeat is as good as any of those in terms of sensitivity and volume and whilst i take on board earlier comments about the complexity of the snare mechamism, it's pretty robust and parts can always by substituted or repaired.
Click to expand...

+1

I have a 6.5x14 King Beat and it is one of the best sounding snares that I've heard and I've used and owned a lot of nice high end snares (DW Edge, DW/Craviotto, Ludwig BB, etc). The dual strainer isn't hard to work at all! I love the snare!

 
Last edited:
Even though I love most all Ludwig snares,the supersensitive P-80/77 is not the best design out there,and that Tama dual roller type set up,just blows it away.

I love my King beat,but the whole line of powerline,mastercraft/imperialstar and even the overlooked swingstar(of that period ONLY) are great drums,thsnks to the heavy steel shell,and excellent snare wires.

Enjoy.

Steve B
 
I have just 3 snares, all 6.5x14: Supra, BB, and an '80s steel Tama Mastercraft/Imperialstar. I love all three and ain't none of them going nowhere. The Tama is just a beast!
 
The Kingbeat is definately one of the most underrated drums.I have only owned a 5X14,but it is an amazing snare.And the only snare i own that hardly has any snare buzz for some reason.
 
Thanks for this thread (I'm late to the game). I remember buying a mint condition Imperialstar from the mid 80s back in 1992, and loving the snare it came with. I did some research and only really found the Kingbeat stuff at first, and then had shell questions that were all answered here.

In fact, I'm moments away from ordering a 1982 Swingstar version for a good price!

another fact, I sold mine as a teenager to get a 3.5 X 14 Tama brass piccolo. What a regrettable choice, but that was the 90s.
 
I love thes drums, they're only steel snare to get close to the quality of sound of the Sonor Phonic and Signature Ferro Manganese steel drums, and there's not much between them.

I presume it's because they're both spun and seamless.
 
mpthomson said:
I love thes drums, they're only steel snare to get close to the quality of sound of the Sonor Phonic and Signature Ferro Manganese steel drums, and there's not much between them.

I presume it's because they're both spun and seamless.
Click to expand...




I to this day don't know of any 'spun steel' snare drum. They spin aluminum, ferro steel etc. bc they're softer, easier to form. I've never seen, nor heard of a spun steel snare drum.


Ask Vukan from ORIOLLO about spinning steel, he's the one spinning metal into snare drums professionally.

In TAMA'S case 'Seamless' the word doesn't necessarily mean the shell has been spun/drawn, we would assume it to tho. People reference old TAMA catalogs for information on the seamless (KINGBEAT) steel snare shells, tho never did TAMA use the word 'spun', or 'drawn', they simply referred to them as 'seamless' steel (1mm).

So its expected that ppl would think "Hey, seamless means spun/drawn right?"
 
The Sonor drums were certainly spun, the folklore regarding the machine that used to perform the task is well known amongst Sonor fans, and there used to be a video (probably still knocking round somewhere online) of the machine in action.

Sonor stopped making drums in this way when the material became impossible to get hold of and the machine allegedly broke down, but they manufactured spun and seamless ferro-mang steel shells for most of the 70s and 80s and part of the 90s. The last ones were the early Designer steel drums. On some early Centennial drums that I've had you could actually see the marks left by the machine in the chrome plating

How else would Tama make a seamless drum? They certainly aren't cast at 1mm thick.
 
mpthomson said:
Sonor stopped making drums in this way when the material became impossible to get hold of and the machine allegedly broke down, but they manufactured spun and seamless ferro-mang steel shells for most of the 70s and 80s and part of the 90s. The last ones were the early Designer steel drums. On some early Centennial drums that I've had you could actually see the marks left by the machine in the chrome plating

How else would Tama make a seamless drum? They certainly aren't cast at 1mm thick.
Click to expand...



Material became impossible to get ahold of? They could've just called TAMA if that were the case.



SONOR D series snares were referred to as 'Seamless metal' by SONOR, not steel. If you have one, see if a magnet sticks to it.


I had an early KING-BEAT snare, it was advertised as 'seamless', one day while changing heads I noticed a seam on the inside. These shell's were also coated on the insides, early models had a thicker spray on coat, later models as the finishing was improved, were thiner paint style coatings. Take your pick, tho if spinning/drawing a metal shell the last thing you want to do is coat the inside with a paint, this moves counter to the whole process, but apparently its what TAMA did, sorta their take on SILVER SEALER.

On lower lines (7065- same shell) TAMA used the term 'seamless design' to describe the construction. The 81' General catalog states 'TAMA uses a deep-drawn seamless metal shell (not steel) to assure roundness' on KING BEAT, these were also coated on the insides.

83' General catalog states- ' the 'MASTERCRAFT Seamless Metal snare is the result of an absolute precision molding process'.

KING-BEAT of the same 83' year were advertised as 'employing the same seamless metal shell construction as MASTERCRAFT' (MC had the roller-action strainer). POWERLINE shells of the same year were essentially the same shell, different lugs/strainer.
 
Les Ismore said:
Material became impossible to get ahold of? They could've just called TAMA if that were the case.



SONOR D series snares were referred to as 'Seamless metal' by SONOR, not steel. If you have one, see if a magnet sticks to it.


I had an early KING-BEAT snare, it was advertised as 'seamless', one day while changing heads I noticed a seam on the inside. These shell's were also coated on the insides, early models had a thicker spray on coat, later models as the finishing was improved, were thiner paint style coatings. Take your pick, tho if spinning/drawing a metal shell the last thing you want to do is coat the inside with a paint, this moves counter to the whole process, but apparently its what TAMA did, sorta their take on SILVER SEALER.

On lower lines (7065- same shell) TAMA used the term 'seamless design' to describe the construction. The 81' General catalog states 'TAMA uses a deep-drawn seamless metal shell (not steel) to assure roundness' on KING BEAT, these were also coated on the insides.

83' General catalog states- ' the 'MASTERCRAFT Seamless Metal snare is the result of an absolute precision molding process'.

KING-BEAT of the same 83' year were advertised as 'employing the same seamless metal shell construction as MASTERCRAFT' (MC had the roller-action strainer). POWERLINE shells of the same year were essentially the same shell, different lugs/strainer.
Click to expand...

Where to start....

You're simply incorrect in your assumption that the Sonor 'metal' drums weren't spun/drawn, seamless steel shells.

I currently have one D and two HLD Signature series Sonor steel drums (I've a large collection of Horst Link era Sonor snare drums)and a magnet sticks to all of them. It's worth pointing out here that magnets don't stick to some stainless steel alloys, so just because a magnet doesn't stick doesn't necessarily mean that it's not steel.

When the D series Ferro Managnese steel drums came out (mid 70's) no-one cared exactly what material drums were made of. Wood drums were normally just made of 'wood' or 'hardwood' at a push and metal drums were normally just 'metal' drums. However after 1975 Sonor always referred to them in catalogs as seamless steel shells, see here http://sonormuseum.com/1979/1979smallcat/1979smallcat.html . They were already being referred to as seamless steel shells by the 1977 catalog, which from memory also contains a pic of the infamous machine used to make the shells. The hoops on all Sonor drums (except the very cheapest) up until the early 90s are also seamless ferro-mang steel and drawn on the same machine.


The history of the Sonor steel shells is well known. Sonor used a very particular alloy of ferro-manganese steel that no-one else used for drums. They bought this in small quantities from an automotive industry manufacturer who used vast quantities of the stuff (almost certainly Mercedes, though Sonor haven't said publically).

Mercedes (or whichever car company) stopped using that particular alloy of ferro-manganese steel in the early 90's. At that point it became financially unviable for Sonor to use the alloy as they'd have to buy it in such a huge quantity that they could make every steel drum they'd ever made many times over. This is also the reason why they haven't done a reissue version of these iconic drums. If they could get the metal the drums would be so ludicrously expensive that only a tiny handful of people could buy them. If you add that to the fact that you can get a good original for $350 then it's not going to happen.

That and the end of the spinning/drawing machine meant the end of the seamless steel Sonor drums. You can still get steel Sonor snares, but they are rolled and welded now and made of a more 'normal' steel.

Incidentally Yamaha also made spun/drawn seamless steel shells for many years. I had one in the 90s as well as a seamless Tama steel (they are steel, however they're described in the catalogue).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top