My Yamaha Recording Customs

[altered_beast]

OK, this is a bit of a long story but I've not posted it for a while so while some of you may already know it, there's a fair few newbies now...

In about 1997/8 I received an old Yamaha 9000 series (these were re-named the Recording Custom sometime between about 1990 and now, I'm not sure when exactly) as a Christmas present - this was actually my first kit, pretty lucky huh?

Anyway, I was happy with it for a long time. About 2 years ago I decided I wanted an extra tom so I rang the place I order all my drum gear from and asked them to order me a 12 x 8" tom. I told them my kit was in a "bright cherry red" and the guy on the end of the phone said "No problem, Yamaha only do that kit in one red so it'll match". The order was placed and I was told a 6 month wait. I started browsing around the Yamaha site and found that the only red that Yamaha now do the kit in is called "Cherry Wood" and is considerably darker than my kit. I was a bit nervous but nonetheless anticipated the arrival of my new tom. When it finally arrived it was indeed the Cherry Wood colour and didn't match my kit. I was a little peeved but it was still a new toy. Various additions and changes have occurred to my kit in the last couple of years but the tom in a different colour has always bugged me. So this year I made some enquiries and placed an order for a 22 x16" kick, a 10 x 7.5" tom, a 14 x 14" floor tom and a 16 x 16" floor tom. It was ordered in early August and I was told to expect it in February. I got a call yesterday saying my floor toms had arrived and the rest would be there in early January. So looks like I will have my new kit very soon. I've also made enquiries about a custom snare, but I'll update on that when I know more.

I've attached some pics of my kit in chronological order, but I don't have any mega recent pics yet. I'll update this thread when my new kit arrives and list all specs for cymbals, skins etc.

The attached pics are from October 2004 and December 2005. You can see the darker tom (the smallest of the 4) in the second picture. Since then the setup has changed, I've added a few cymbals, changed a few cymbals, added a rack and, most importantly, dusted my kit weekly!! Haha!

Cheers for reading, check back in a month or so when I have new pics and specs up.

Oh, btw, cymbals in the last pic are:

(All Sabian)

14" Pro Sonix Hi Hats
16" AAX Studio Crash
16" HHX Stage Crash
19" AAX Metal Crash
18" AA Fast China
20" Pro Sonix Ride
8" Pro Sonix Splash

(can't remember if I'd added the other 2 splashes so I'll list them anyway on the off chance, I can't check the pic really cos I am at work...)

10" AAX Splash
12" HHX Evolution splash

Iron Cobra double pedal

EDIT: liking the extreme tom angles there! can't believe I ever played with them so steep, they're a lot closer to being flat now. That 14 x 12" tom looks huge! *sighs* happy days!

The other night I came across a load of old cymbals that I'd used when I first started and cracked, some I can't even remember using. There was a 19" Pro Sonix crash, I didn't even think I'd had a 19" before my AAX Metal. I also had an old Meinl Reference Class - are these like low grade cymbals? It was cracked to pieces when I got it and the damage I did to it also was immeasurable haha.

[groove meister]

awesome =) hope all the new drums arrive safely soon! I love yamaha, currently awaiting my custom stage custom nouveau spec to arrive for xmas.... cant bloody wait!!!

[moe.ron]

thats almost an orange! wow i never noticed that. great choice with the RCs they are simply amazing. good luck with the new kit

[altered_beast]

I think the flash has distorted the colour slightly, it really is like "lipstick red" in the flesh. The kit is awesome, I've struggled to find a kit that I like the sound of as much as I like mine. I've played a fair few kits when I've played gigs in places that are a long distance from home and just taken snare, cymbals and pedals and none of them are comparable. There really is no beating Yamaha.

I'll try to take some pics tonight of the current setup and get them up on here.

EDIT: Just noticed - there's my 14" AAX Mini China in the last pic as well.

[harryconway]

The late great Tony Thompson played a Yamaha R.C in that color. Yeah, R.C.'s are some of the best sounding drums out there.

[altered_beast]

That fast china cracked on the lathe lines. I gave it to a friend of mine and we had a bit of a jam last night and the china was there. I miss that china, I might get another some day. The only problem is I need to stop spending money, I meant to be buying a house next year!!

[altered_beast]

I forgot to take photos last night but I have a load of new gear arriving today anyway. I will take photos over the weekend once it's all setup. My kit will be lush : )

[h3r3tic]

Cool cymbals dude!
Sabian rulez

[altered_beast]

Originally Posted by h3r3tic

Cool cymbals dude!
Sabian rulez

For sure, I love Sabian stuff. The only cymbals in my current setup that aren't Sabian are ice bells, for the simple reason that I've heard they're hard to get hold of and are expensive. I have a 6" Zil Bell and a 6" Stagg bell. Otherwise, everything I own is Sabian. At one point I had a Wuhan china on my left and my 20" Paragon china on the right but the Wuhan was too bright and trashy in comparison to the Paragon. I now have a 19" AAXtreme on my left. I will list my full cymbals specs as they are currently when I post my next lot of pics. Thanks for the comments.

[SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ]

Those lugs and the red wrap make that kit look soooo much like my Premier kit it's uncanny. Perhaps it's my kit's long lost brother?

Yamaha owned Premier from 1989 to 1995. You see a lot of Yamaha designs in the hardware (lugs, cymbal stands, tom mounts) if your set is of this era.

Originally Posted by SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ

Those lugs and the red wrap make that kit look soooo much like my Premier kit it's uncanny. Perhaps it's my kit's long lost brother?

[Exportdrummer]

That is nice! I love it, i haven't played many yamahas

[outtastix723]

I really want to get behind that kit. Looks like a ball to play on!

[joeybeats]

Hey, Beast, make sure you get a snapshot up of that new click, too! You did finally figure it out, aye? Joey

[altered_beast]

Originally Posted by SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ

Those lugs and the red wrap make that kit look soooo much like my Premier kit it's uncanny. Perhaps it's my kit's long lost brother?

Sorry to disappoint, it's a lacquered finish. It's got some annoying chips and scrapes in it though (mostly from the previous owner, but a few by me) which is one of the reasons I decided to upgrade and when the new drums arrive I am buying HardCases. I deliberated between HardCases and Protection Racket and decided that HC was the way to go since I plan on touring with the band next year and see it as though these are expensive and want them protecting. Took some shots last night but the light in my room is poor so I will take more in a minute and upload the lot : )

[altered_beast]

Right, new photos...

Joey, sorry man, I don't have the mounting gear yet, it's ordered though and should be here this week. Re-arranging the splashes to squeeze it in, not much room left now y'see... haha


Er, cymbal specs...

14" HHX Stage Hats
14" HH Regular Hats
18" HHX Power Crash
18" HHXPlosion Crash
19" Signature Saturation Crash
20" HHX Stage Crash (on order, arriving early next year)
14" AAX Mini China
19" AAXtreme China
20" Paragon China
22" HH Power Bell Ride
8" AAX Splash
8" Pro Sonix Splash stacked inverted on...
12" HHX Evolution Splash
10" AAX Splash
6" Zil Bell
6" Stagg bell
14" HH Thin Crash stacked on 16" HH Thin China (not shown - waiting for a Sonor boom arm with clamp from Germany!)

Yamah Flying Dragon Direct Drive double pedal
Tama Iron Cobra HH905 hi hat stand
Pearl RH2000 Remote hi hat stand
Pearl DR503 ICON rack
Peal rack clamps
Yamaha cymbal holders and multi clamps
Yamaha Click Station (not shown - will be mounted this week when gear arrives!)
Vater Multi Stick Holder (this is a great piece of kit, the clamp is operated by a knob which screws in to prevent the jaws of the clamp opening and allowing the stick holder to fall off!)
Vater 5B Wood tip sticks (I want to try some others when I have the money)

Premier 14 x 6.5" Steel Snare
PDP 14 x 5" (I think) Maple Snare

Mapex Black Panther 14 x 6.5" Bronze Snare (arriving for Christmas. Yay!)
(waiting on price for but probably...) Custom 13 x 8" Aluminium snare in camouflage finish : )

I love my sea of bronze!!

New pics up when new kit arrives early in the New Year! Lots of New!!

EDIT: Extra points to the person who can name the Smashing Pumpkins rarity in the background... look close now!

[outtastix723]

Looking great, quite the cymbal collection you've got.

[altered_beast]

Thanks. I think it'll look much better once the whole kit is the same colour as that smallest tom, I can't wait for the rest of the kit to arrive, it still bugs me having just that one tom in the darker red!

I actually hadn't realised I had so many cymbals until I listed them above and set them all up last night, it's the first time I've had them all set up in ages.

[altered_beast]

Originally Posted by outtastix723

I really want to get behind that kit. Looks like a ball to play on!

Haha, only just noticed this comment, yeah my kit is great fun to play, I absolutely love it. I prefer the way it's laid out now, my drum teacher gave me some ideas for setting out the kit and I had a look at a few pro players that I like and whose music is of a similar style to that of my band and I sort of used that as an idea for setting up.

Think I'm going to move the remote hi hats to somewhere in front of me though, not really sure yet.

Thanks for the comments so far! : )

[SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ]

Originally Posted by mlehnertz

Yamaha owned Premier from 1989 to 1995. You see a lot of Yamaha designs in the hardware (lugs, cymbal stands, tom mounts) if your set is of this era.

That would explain it then. I knew my Permier kit was from either the late 80s or early 90s. I bought it second hand from a friend who bought it second hand, so we're not completely sure. I'd really love to know exactly the series and year though.

---

beast- that's cool. Same color still! hheheh

[YAMAHA DRUMMER]

Yamaha = way to go ...

Post some pictures. I really notice the similarities (if not identical) in the cymbal stands more than anything. I say that because I think Premier was already using the single lug design before Yamaha took over.

Originally Posted by SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ

That would explain it then. I knew my Permier kit was from either the late 80s or early 90s. I bought it second hand from a friend who bought it second hand, so we're not completely sure. I'd really love to know exactly the series and year though.

---

beast- that's cool. Same color still! hheheh

[outtastix723]

Originally Posted by altered_beast

Haha, only just noticed this comment, yeah my kit is great fun to play, I absolutely love it. I prefer the way it's laid out now, my drum teacher gave me some ideas for setting out the kit and I had a look at a few pro players that I like and whose music is of a similar style to that of my band and I sort of used that as an idea for setting up.

Think I'm going to move the remote hi hats to somewhere in front of me though, not really sure yet.

Thanks for the comments so far! : )

I tried laying out my 5 piece like that, with a rack as a floor sort of. It worked okay, but the stand wasn't really sturdy enough. But, to each his own.

Is it a birch?

[altered_beast]

Yep, it's birch. This and the Birch Custom Absolutes are Yamaha's top line birch kit I think. I think it's a great kit, the sound is fantastic. Like I said I've never played a kit I like as much as my own. But that 14" tom is a bitch to tune.

[finnhiggins]

Premier used to be, in effect, the British-based Yamaha manufacturing facility. In the 90s when Yamaha decided to move their production out of the UK the factory management essentially bought the facilities back and went their own way.

So if your Yamaha gear says "Made in England" on it (like mine) then it's basically made in the same facilities as Premier's stuff. Might explain why one of my floor tom brackets is on upside-down ;)

Bloody lazy English quality control...

[SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ]

Originally Posted by mlehnertz

Post some pictures. I really notice the similarities (if not identical) in the cymbal stands more than anything. I say that because I think Premier was already using the single lug design before Yamaha took over.

When I bought my Premier kit, there were no cymbal stands that came with it. Only the kick, toms, and a CB snare. Check out this thread and look at the toms and kick.

http://drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14410

Scroll down a little through the thread and you'll see a bunch of pics. Look at the lugs.

Looking at those pics make me realize how different my setup is now. As soon as I get my new crashes I'll take new pics.

Based on old Premier catalogs and a list of used badges, I dated my kit around late 80s early 90s. The inside of my shells are black as well. I think it's the XPK. This pic is what mine looks like, aside from the color. Notice the tom mount.

http://www.bogersdrums.nl/premierxpkocc.JPG

What year are yours? Mine are from 1992 and say "Made in Japan".

Originally Posted by finnhiggins

So if your Yamaha gear says "Made in England" on it (like mine) then it's basically made in the same facilities as Premier's stuff. Might explain why one of my floor tom brackets is on upside-down ;)

Bloody lazy English quality control...

Premier lugs are slightly different than Yamaha RC lugs. The Premier lugs at the tension rods angle down (from the top) towards the shell. My Yamahas are fairly perpendicular to the shell.

Put some bottom heads on those drums. ;)

Originally Posted by SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ

Scroll down a little through the thread and you'll see a bunch of pics. Look at the lugs.

[SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ]

When I bought that Premier kit many moons ago it came with no hardware for the reso side aside from the kick. I wanted to change that this year, but the bearing edges on that side of those toms are really messed up (previous owner). They are messed up to the point to where they need to be re-cut, but some depth from the shell would have to be trimmed to make them right. That would compromise the factory wrap and I really don't want to do that much to them. I'm going to just leave them as my 'poor man's' concert tom set.

I have two other toms (13 and 16) that I'm using with my kit right now. I have bottom heads on them. They are no brand drums that were given to me a long time ago which I refinished this year. I do love the sound of them though. Once I finish fixing up my Slingerland kick and snare I'll have a matching set again. I'm having fun learning to tune with two heads on the toms, and experimenting with different types of heads. Right now I'm using Coated Emporer batter with Clear Studio-X as reso... crazy as it sounds, it is a very warm and nice tone.

Sorry, I don't mean to derail this thread... :)

[altered_beast]

OK, slight revival here - had confirmation today that the three remaining drums will be in the country on the 9th, 16th and 17th of January so I should have my kit in about 3 weeks hopefully! I will post back pictures when it arrives. Only thing I'm now waiting for is my special order 20" HHX Stage Crash and 16" HH Thin China. I've recently stacked the 14" AAX Mini China beneath a 14" HH Thin Crash on a Yamaha X-Hat and it sounds quite cool so I'm eagerly awaiting the HH china so I can use my Mini China again and still have a cool china/ crash stack in my setup : )

[altered_beast]

OK, today I am actually livid. My kit was supposed to be delivered today, I took a day off work especially so I could be sure that someone would be here to receive it. I had a phone call a few minutes ago to tell me my new kit has been delivered to someone with the same surname in Bristol. That's at least 200 miles away. What an absolute piss take. The shop I bought my gear from is not getting any of my business again. Like I said... livid.

[altered_beast]

And so the saga continues...

Today the drums finally arrived. They've been all over the country and I got £160.00 compensation for that. Everything came, the drums, the skins, the cymbals I ordered... but they forgot mounting hardware. So now I have a gorgeous drum kit and I can't play it cos I don't have anything with which to mount any of it. The boss of the drum centre I got it from made the mistake of ringing me from his mobile (cell) phone yesterday evening so now I have his number, I rang him this evening at about 6.15pm and told him I was unimpressed and I couldn't do anything with the drums, he said he couldn't do anything about it right then but had the stuff in stock and would ring me in the morning to arrange delivery. By the time I can play the drums it'll have been 8 days since they left the drum centre. Absolutely disgusting.

Most unimpressed. First they put the wrong address on the cartons and they went to the wrong place then they failed to arrange re-delivery twice and then finally compensated me and managed to have them delivered before 9am. Why couldn't they just have done that in the first place? In fairness, Roy has been bloody good sorting it out, but it shouldn't have to come to that.

[rjsteinbach]

Welcome to your doom....


By the way recording customs don't come with tom mounts you need to buy them seperately

[altered_beast]

No I know, I did order them separately, these are chimps these people.

[Deathmetalconga]

Originally Posted by altered_beast

And so the saga continues...

Today the drums finally arrived. They've been all over the country and I got £160.00 compensation for that. Everything came, the drums, the skins, the cymbals I ordered... but they forgot mounting hardware. So now I have a gorgeous drum kit and I can't play it cos I don't have anything with which to mount any of it. The boss of the drum centre I got it from made the mistake of ringing me from his mobile (cell) phone yesterday evening so now I have his number, I rang him this evening at about 6.15pm and told him I was unimpressed and I couldn't do anything with the drums, he said he couldn't do anything about it right then but had the stuff in stock and would ring me in the morning to arrange delivery. By the time I can play the drums it'll have been 8 days since they left the drum centre. Absolutely disgusting.

For all interested this is a drum delivery cocked up by Newcastle Drum Centre. Most unimpressed. First the put the wrong address on the cartons and they went to the wrong place then they failed to arrange re-delivery twice and then finally compensated me and managed to have them delivered before 9am. Why couldn't they just have done that in the first place? In fairness, Roy has been bloody good sorting it out, but it shouldn't have to come to that.

What a nightmare, having to go through all of that and those dunderheads forgetting the mounts.

Still, it looks like it will be a very nice set. I like your cymbal collection as well!

www.terrasonus.com

[jiltednut]

Originally Posted by altered_beast

No I know, I did order them separately, these are chimps these people.

Well I buy most of my drum stuff that I can't get locally off Newcastle Drum Centre and they've always been bang on.

[altered_beast]

The drum centre used to be really, really good. I never had any problems, then I had orders with bits missing (I think it was a cymbal holder or something I'd ordered) and now they don't have a 16" EC2 for my kit and they sent my drums to the wrong address. They're all quite helpful apart from one or two but I'm so pissed that my drums have done the rounds before getting to me, especially since a.) I organised a day off work so I could be here when the kit arrived and b.) they rang me up the day it was despatched to confirm my address and still got it wrong. How did they do it?! Delivery was promised 3 times and then it finally arrived today when their boss got onto it, their director is an absolute legend, but why did it take so long and so many attempts to get it before he snaps his fingers and it's here?! It's plain wrong, I shouldn't have to be on the phone every day chasing up where my drums are. I wouldn't have minded as much had it been a cymbal but a £2000 drum kit?!

The day my kit came in, I was phoned to be told it was there and at the time asked for some extra skins and had to pay for some cymbals I'd emailed them about a week or two before that they'd put to one side for me from their January sale. I gave him the sizes of skins I wanted and the type and brand obviously, and he was on the phone a while working it out then eventually he said he'd ring me back. It took him an hour to ring me. I just get the feeling that I get put on a back burner every time. They used to get stuff out to me next day without fail - that's gone down the pan too. I won't be buying from there again I don't think, I don't trust them not to mess up.

[altered_beast]

This keeps getting better - I just checked the reference number on the drum against the Yamaha U.S. website cos that's the only one that shows the model numbers etc - the kick I have is 22 x 14" not 22 x 16" like I ordered. Endless fun. I'm buggered if I'm ordering another, I had to wait nearly 6 months for this one!

[Safetyhelmetkid]

that sucks. but honestly, recording customs are gonna sound MINT, no matter what the depth. but still, that's piss wrong. by the way, what are you doing with your old recording customs/9000 series? the really red ones?

hehe

[d.c.drummer]

lol, you are un-endorsable, you have every type of foot pedal (save DW) there is. NIce cymbals.