Tamburo Original: maple stave snare

sacco

Senior Member
I recently found on eBay a Tamburo Original stave snare which will perfectly complement my Tamburo Original maple set (see the last picture: this was a minimum set up - with a 6.5" x 14" snare - to jam a little bit with friends).

The snare is only 4.25" deep (by 14"), but has an incredible body and is extremely sensitive and powerful. I could not really check its sound at different tunings (for different reasons I currently can't play very much), but I can say that it is a quite incredible drum (like all Tamburo Original drums). Tuned high, it has killer rimshots.

As you can see, the shell is extremely thin with reinforcing rings. The inside of the shell is rounded only near the edges, which creates a kind of diamond design. The seller said the hoops are brass, but I am not really sure they are. The strainer is similar to the one found on Pearl snares at the beginning of the nineties: it is not very nice, but it works correctly (it is the same mounted on the 6.5" snare shown on the last picture).

In my opinion the lugs deserve a particular mention: in fact, I personally find that those old Tamburo Original lugs are extremely classy.

I can post more pictures in case some of you are interested. As soon as possible I will post the entire set with both snares.
 

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Welcome to the Tamburo Owners' Club - fortunately for you, your kit is much higher-end than mine, but they do make a fantastic drum, don't they?
 
Extremely beautiful and high-end work!
In the beginning I didn`t really know that Tamburo makes drums at such a high quality standard and even creates masterpieces of stave drums.

The hoops should be flanged steal hoops with a brass electroplating kind of thing.

Can you maybe give us the specs of your kit and eventually some more pics? That would be so nice. :)

Karl
 
Tamburo are known for their stave kits. They really are a thing of beauty. Only recently did they enter the ply market and even then, the cheaper ply kits sound great - I've owned one for three years now.
 
Tamburo are known for their stave kits. They really are a thing of beauty. Only recently did they enter the ply market and even then, the cheaper ply kits sound great - I've owned one for three years now.

Cool!
My neighbour recently started drumming and got himself a Tamburo T5 kit.
When I got the chance to set it up and tune it for/with him I could not believe that it is considered a beginner kit. Great price and even greater sound. The bearing edges were cut very precisely and all the hardware parts occur stable and well processed.

Seems like very reliable gear!

Karl
 
Extremely beautiful and high-end work!
In the beginning I didn`t really know that Tamburo makes drums at such a high quality standard and even creates masterpieces of stave drums.

The hoops should be flanged steal hoops with a brass electroplating kind of thing.

Can you maybe give us the specs of your kit and eventually some more pics? That would be so nice. :)

Karl

Tamburo started their activity as stave drums builders in 1984. For at least ten years they were almost known only for their Original model.

The Original set you see in the picture was built in 1991 by Tullio Granatello (Tamburo's founder) based on my whishes and on his experience both as a drum builder and a drummer (Tullio was the drummer of a very interesting Italian prog band called Jumbo).

The set (all maple shells, all coming from the same tree) is as follows: 6.5x14 snare, 8x8, 8x10, 8x12, 13x13, 14x14 toms (floor toms suspended), 16x18 bass drum. Actually, it looks a little like Steve Smith's current set, but mine was designed and built in 1991, Steve's one only recently! (Mediocrefunkybeat: thank you for welcoming me in the Tamburo Owners' Club 17 years after I bought my first Tamburo set! Just kidding, I appreciate!)

Despite the old Yamaha tom holders (at that time suspension mounts were not common at all), the set has an incredible power and a very focused sound (which not everybody likes). The snare drum is a real bijoux (I mean the 6.5"): by far one of the most impressive snares I tried (and during the last thirty years I tried quite a lot of snares).

Sadly, I can't post other pictures of this set because it is stored at a friend's place (due to my job I almost had to give up playing for a while). Maybe, in a couple of weeks I will be able to post pictures of my other Tamburo Original set (a walnut set also built at the beginning of the nineties), which is stored a little closer to where I currently live.
 
I too had no idea tamburo made such nice drums, they do look great. Congrats on the find.

Thank you!

It was totally unexpected to find a Tamburo Original in the USA! Actually, Tullio Granatello once told me that quite a lot of American top drummers own Tamburo drums (in particular old Original snares), but obviously they cannot show them due to endorsement contracts. I also remember I saw a picture of Vinnie Colaiuta playing a white Yamaha 9000 but with an unmistakable Tamburo Original snare.

Tamburo had to radically change their business policy at he end of the nineties (the brand was sold to Proel), but I played several new kits (not stave) and I found them absolutely fantastic (and they are much cheaper than most Japanese and American sets). In my opinion ,Tamburo drums are underrated, and the old Original are among the most impressive drumsets ever built worldwide.
 
I go to Italy a few times a year, anybody know where I can see them when I am there?

I am usually in Rome but sometimes I go to Milan.
 
I go to Italy a few times a year, anybody know where I can see them when I am there?

I am usually in Rome but sometimes I go to Milan.

First of all here is the link to the Tamburo website: http://www.tamburodrums.com/tamburodrums/en/index.jsp

In Italy Tamburo drums are quite common and the new models (mainly ply shells) can be found more or less in all major music stores. Tamburo Original sets are almost impossible to find in stores (as far as I know they are built only on specific order). With a little bit of chance you can find the other stave model, i.e. the Opera, which is not as exclusive as the Original but still is quite impressive. Concerning the Opera, have a look at this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aCy1G1wHgA

It's a kid playing an Opera set at NAMM'S, and both the kid and the sound of the Opera are impressive!

Anyway, here is a couple of stores in Milan:
  • KF – Strumenti musicali, Piazza Napoli 21, Milan, phone: 02 - 4231963 / 02 - 48952882
  • Lucky Music Network srl, Viale Cassala, 7/2, Milan, phone: 02 - 58103239 / 02 - 8395060

I do not have any adress in Rome, but I guess you will find a list of stores searching in Internet (try with Google: "Strumenti musicali Roma" or "Batterie Roma").
 
It's unfortunate that they lack dealership outside of Italy. When I bought my kit back in 2005, I was really impressed with it and for the price I paid, I would've recommended it to scores of people. I've never seen another Tamburo product in the UK - which is a GREAT shame. Even the stock snare (which ended up with a broken lug, it happens) was really excellent. Which reminds me - I'm going to resurrect it at some point.
 
It's unfortunate that they lack dealership outside of Italy. When I bought my kit back in 2005, I was really impressed with it and for the price I paid, I would've recommended it to scores of people. I've never seen another Tamburo product in the UK - which is a GREAT shame. Even the stock snare (which ended up with a broken lug, it happens) was really excellent. Which reminds me - I'm going to resurrect it at some point.

I couldn`t agree more with your statement. I`ve hardly seen any Tamburo dealers over here in Germany. From what I`ve seen and heard so far it`s a shame indeed.
This situation may be compareable with Istanbul`s. Especially Agops don`t have a German distributor. I can`t believe that the next shop selling Agops is in the Netherlands.

THen again it could be a lack of promotion as well. I didn`t see kind of a Tamburo ad seomwhere around. On the one hand I wonder why they aren`t doing more promotions and creating dealerships...

...on the other hand: Maybe secrets aren`t simply supposed to be revealed? =)

So anyway, impressive drums you and sacco got!

Karl
 
I couldn`t agree more with your statement. I`ve hardly seen any Tamburo dealers over here in Germany. From what I`ve seen and heard so far it`s a shame indeed.
This situation may be compareable with Istanbul`s. Especially Agops don`t have a German distributor. I can`t believe that the next shop selling Agops is in the Netherlands.

THen again it could be a lack of promotion as well. I didn`t see kind of a Tamburo ad seomwhere around. On the one hand I wonder why they aren`t doing more promotions and creating dealerships...

...on the other hand: Maybe secrets aren`t simply supposed to be revealed? =)

So anyway, impressive drums you and sacco got!

Karl

Your statements are really interesting, and it would take more than a post to discuss them exensively. I know quite well the Tamburo history since I know Tullio Granatello since 1990 and I had the opportunity to share some thoughts with him about his drums and, more in general, about the drum market. PLEASE BE CAREFUL: what follows is MY OPINION, and NOT THE OPINION OF TULLIO. It is not my duty nor my right to speak in the name of Proel (current owner of the Tamburo brand) or of Tullio Granatello: I simply want to put out some thoughts based, among others, on the discussions I had with Tullio. OK, enough said. Now, in a very simple way, some ideas to think about:
  • Tamburo had to enter the ply drum market (and they make excellent ply drums) probably because it was almost impossible for them to survive only with high end stave drums in a relatively small market like Italy;
  • in Italy, what we could call the "market & business oriented strategies" during the eighties and nineties were not as common as they were (and are) say in the USA: I think it was difficult both from a socio-political point of view as well as from a merely economic point of view to find people ready to enter the drum market with such an approach;
  • in recent years Tamburo made some advertising through major drum magazines (Modern drummer in the US), but I guess that until you don't get a real review, it does not help that much;
  • as far as I can see, in Europe Tamburo is getting some results (they have a distribution network at least in France and Germany);
  • at the end of the day, what really counts is the advertising and the endorsement policy: I think that in general quality has dramatically increased in the drum industry since I started drumming a long time ago, and a lot of brands offer good stuff: nevertheless, people tend to buy what others buy, and most people tend to buy more based on advertising than on other reasons (as the marketing gurus A. Ries & J. Trout said, marketing is a perception war, not a product war).
It would be interesting to share ideas on those thoughts.
 
Beautiful snare, just one question why are the tension rods and strainer are chromed and not brass plated, I think the snare would look even better that way.
 
That is B.E.A. utiful!!!! i love gold hardware wish i had that for my snare. Gold looks so cool on natural wood. nice kit man!!!

Well, if you like gold on natural wood, here is a picture of my other Tamburo Original stave set (walnut), where the gold (brass) lug cases show all their beauty.

Some day I will try to take good pictures of both sets (with all drums and cymbals) and then I will post them.
 

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Simply beautiful! I love the finish combined with the golden hardware.
Though why did Tamburo drill through these magnific shells?? Why didn`t they use a suspension system to mount the toms?

Still, that`s a real highlight...brilliant set of drums! In addition, this way of mounting the drum won`t seriously affect its sound anyway.

Karl
 
Simply beautiful! I love the finish combined with the golden hardware.
Though why did Tamburo drill through these magnific shells?? Why didn`t they use a suspension system to mount the toms?

Still, that`s a real highlight...brilliant set of drums! In addition, this way of mounting the drum won`t seriously affect its sound anyway.

Karl

Both kits were built in 1991, when suspension mounts were not common at all (at least in Italy). The maple set, which was built based on my whishes, has old Yamaha hardware. On the walnut one, which I probably played at the Tamburo factory when it was first built (there are very few Tamburo walnut kits), the store which sold it later to me agreed to replace the original tom holders (Tambuto holders, Yamaha style) with new Yamaha tom holders.

In fact, I would like to try suspension mounts (RIMS or similar), but several people told me that the sound would not change that much. Additionally, since the drilling is not exactly between two lugs, the drilling would be seeable: in a stave drum, the main drill must be in the center of a stave, so a mounting system would not cover the holes (of course, I could turn the shell by 180°, but the holes would still be seeable). I even thought about trying to install the current Yamaha YESS system, wich I do not like very much but that could probably fit at least the two upper holes.

Opinions about replacing intrusive hardware with suspension mounts are more than welcome! Would the sound really change (both of my sets are already extremely powerful)? Maybe it would be a good idea to start a specific thread on this issue.
 
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