Yamaha's website is terrible!

i'm sorry, this is just a rant because of the bug up my ass, but wow - i could'nt imagine a more cumbersome, difficult, obscure, uninformative and outdated website for drums - in a word, terrible. really, truly, terrible.

i play and love my Yammies and so when looking at a new snare wanted to learn more about what Yamaha has to offer, in particular the 13x6.5" brass snare, so...

first problem, what exactly does SD4365 do for the image of a drum? what the hell does it even mean at first glance? i dont want to have to scroll through a list of meaningless product numbers to find out what a snares depth is, click - nope, click - nope, click - nope, click - oh! there it is...

second problem, only one picture and nothing but a thumbnail with no detail, no zoom, no other angles, nothing, i cant even get a good look at the snares finish, hardware, etc...

third, "we applied our new metal shell manufacturing process to an all new brass shell to create a drum that cuts thru with a well balanced tone" - this is the only description of the drum, all the different sizes get the same description and is 'thru' a misspelling or what? a more imaginative and detailed description of that particular drum would be the least they could do, a sound file or two wouldnt hurt either, a video, anything...

all of these problems only worsen for info about an entire kit, the website is horribly frustrating and with a premium product like Yamaha's drums, unacceptable and insulting to its customers, i dont want to spend money on a product blindly and in this day and age shouldnt have to, most drumshops cannot afford to stock every drum, cymbal and hardware a company has to offer, hence - a quality website...

i love my yammies, but their website is a joke, plain and simple

rant over...

On this page;

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musi...um-metal/brass_shell_snare_drums/?mode=series

click on the snare number in red, SD4365, and after that page loads, click on enlarge.
Worked for me. Steel 2365 is 13 x 6.5, Aluminum 3365 13 x 6.5, Brass, 4365, 13 x 6.5, Copper 6365, 13 x 6.5
Steel 2
Alum. 3
Brass 4
Copper 6 then the size with out the 1 in inches

Then click on these:

I don't think many people go to the manufacturer's website when looking at drums, since they can only see one brand, they won't get objective reviews, and they usually can't see the retail price. Perhaps you were looking for something like this: http://drums-percussion.musiciansfriend.com/product/Yamaha-Brass-Nouveau-Snare?sku=445346. They have a description and 5 reviews. Also try Google and YouTube.

That said, there's no doubt that a better website would be good for Yamaha, if it's as terrible as you say. I've found a lot of useful info on Paiste's website as well as Zildjian's, including audio clips. Of course, there are more factors that go into a drum's sound (like heads and tuning); perhaps that has something to do with it. Maybe you should send them an e-mail with some suggestions.

GRUNTERSDAD said:

On this page;

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musi...um-metal/brass_shell_snare_drums/?mode=series

click on the snare number in red, SD4365, and after that page loads, click on enlarge.
Worked for me. Steel 2365 is 13 x 6.5, Aluminum 3365 13 x 6.5, Brass, 4365, 13 x 6.5, Copper 6365, 13 x 6.5
Steel 2
Alum. 3
Brass 4
Copper 6 then the size with out the 1 in inches

Then click on these:

Click to expand...

the problem i have is that this needs to be explained at all, their website reads like a retailers spec sheet, i would just like something a little more user friendly i guess...

Drummist222 said:

I don't think many people go to the manufacturer's website when looking at drums, since they can only see one brand, they won't get objective reviews, and they usually can't see the retail price. Perhaps you were looking for something like this: http://drums-percussion.musiciansfriend.com/product/Yamaha-Brass-Nouveau-Snare?sku=445346. They have a description and 5 reviews. Also try Google and YouTube.

That said, there's no doubt that a better website would be good for Yamaha, if it's as terrible as you say. I've found a lot of useful info on Paiste's website as well as Zildjian's, including audio clips. Of course, there are more factors that go into a drum's sound (like heads and tuning); perhaps that has something to do with it. Maybe you should send them an e-mail with some suggestions.

Click to expand...

thanks for the link 222, a good one, some outstanding reviews about the snare, and yes, i suppose if my undies are bunched up that badly i should act like a big boy and contact them, i may yet...

I agree completely with Ainulindale. Their site is almost useless. Details are scant, the compare feature doesn't work correctly, and there's no indication of what separates one product line from another sonically or hardware-wise. As an example, I was looking at the stage custom plus; for colors all they offer is "More colors available".

I don’t' go to a manufacturer's web site to get reviews. I want stats and "straight from the horse's mouth" information. I supplement that with information from other websites.

As someone who works in IT, this is particularly annoying.

glad to hear i'm not the only one playItLikeThis, that said........

once you figure out the nuance's of Yamaha's site, you realize all the details are there, you just have to know the system ( back to the user friendly argument... )

if you click on, lets say "Oak Custom", then you can see all of the colors and the pics are very high quality, even when you use the zoom feature and get right in there

i got mad and really spent some time on the site, everything is there and i can now find and use all the features, but it took a real effort to figure everything out, i still say the site could be more user friendly, but they build such wonderful instruments...

I think you have to understand something about Japanese culture. In spite of Yamaha's use of western marketing and product development support, it is at heart a Japanese company. And the Japanese are very highly educated. They do not shy away from complex things. "User friendly" to them is laziness. I use lots of Japanese made industrial machinery in my day job. They practically own the electronic component mounting industry. They machines are not easy to figure out at all compared to the few US and EU made ones. But they are dog reliable, work forever and are much more efficient. But in Japan, they have folks with engineering degrees doing the basic programming and maintenance functions. While in the US that gets handed down to people who barely made it though high school.

So to corporate Yamaha, they probably don't see anything "wrong" with a complex web site. Anyone who is on a computer and doing searches ought to (in their minds) be able to understand it.