Old Tama Swingstar Shells?

BrandonXD

Senior Member
At the shop where my drum lessons are, there is an old Tama Swingstar set used for the lessons and I have no idea what the shells are! The ultra deep toms make me think late 80's but I'm not sure on the age, all I know is its a Tama Swingstar.
I normally wouldn't care what the shells are, but they look like (this is the only way I can think to describe this) like the stone work surfaces you find in a kitchen. Grey interior with that kind of pattern

Does anyone here have any idea what the shells are?
 
The quick answer (I had a set of these):
1 - the coating is the zola coating. It reminded me of asbestos! :-O
2 - these were around in mid 80's to early 90's IIRC. Power toms would speak to late 80s - early 90s for sure

Try Mr. Google about the coating! Good luck!

radman
 
The quick answer (I had a set of these):
1 - the coating is the zola coating. It reminded me of asbestos! :-O
2 - these were around in mid 80's to early 90's IIRC. Power toms would speak to late 80s - early 90s for sure

Try Mr. Google about the coating! Good luck!

radman

The Swingstar line is Tama's longest selling model of drums,and have been around since 1972.They are for the most part 9ply mahogany for that era at least(laun) with the afore mentioned Zola coat interiors..They sound very similar to the same period Imperialstar line,with differences in lugs and hardware.:)

Steve B
 
Tamadrm/Steve,

Did the Swingstars continue through the 90s/2000s? I thought they were discontinued for a while and only recently came back.

I have fond memories of my 80s kit. Hardware was great for the price (I still use the mini boom stand) and the flexi-flyer pedal was great. The kit never let me down. I had standard depth toms and I do remember being soooooo disappointed when everyone else had power toms!

good stuff,
radman
 
Yep they're mahogany alright. A good way of finding out any shells of any tama kits you can go On their website and there they have a backdated catalog of all their catalogs. They can give you a lot of insight. Some of the kits shells changed. Plus Wikipedia can sometimes not be trusted. For example old Rockstars are 9ply ply wood, late 90s ones are philliepene mahogany and guitar center ones are birch basswood.

SolGrohl08 😊
 
That's a really useful feature putting all their old catalogs on their website. What does this coating do to the sound? All the catalog said was provides "an excellent moisture barrier for consistency of sound"
 
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