I'm crazy for nostalgia. When I pulled these old Tama Rockstar shells out of my parents attic, I couldn't put them back. This video follows the transformation of my first kit, from the Christmas of 2002 to present day. Hope you enjoy!
I was literally going to mention after the video that this had an @rdavidr Vibe 😂😂 and look who showed up 😀. A few years back I got my brother's Japanese 1995 Tama Rockstar in an Ocean Mist wrap. It was the drum set he used when we played in a punk band together in 1995. I'm going to leave it original but I got a free Gretsch Catalina Maple that's burgundy and all scratched up, this yellow wrap came out very nice and you taping only the ends of the wrap made this look even more possible for someone like myself 👍. They sound really nice and I liked that you cut down the 12in which looks a lot better 👊.
Nice kit! I fully refurbished a rockstar pro kit for a friend. I cut the toms down, cut new edges, made a matching snare out of the 14" tom, re-wrapped, etc etc. That kit sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing!
Had the same kit, but fusion sizes with 20 inch kick. They were black, but I rewrapped them in Red Marble wrap from Jammin' Sam's. Sold them when I bought a Sonor kit.
I hate wrap!! You should have sandedll clear sealer and paint with some clear coat!! Uhh, they sounded good before but now great but you have some serious fusion chops!! Aww, I watched this before I went to bed and was a little grumpy! The drums sound great and the wrap makes them look great! I,m a drummer ,started at nine years old, four months before the Beatles went on Ed Sullivan! At school I instantly went from geek to cool!!! Uhh the key to them sound great is cutting down the Bass drum!!! The deep modern BD,s are one trick ponies!! Deep thump and punch but acousticly they don,t really mix with rest of the set! I made my living gigging with a set of Slingerland,s ,22"- 13" and 16"! I custom ordered them to be solid maple with reinforcement rings. they went with that in the seventies!! Those drums could cover all styles including all out rock n roll!!
I actually had my same Tama's that I got when I was 12 all the way until I was 22 and then someone stole my drums I miss them I still can't afford to get another set but I know how special your 1st drumset is
Thanks Justin. I got it from Precision Drum Co. I didn’t follow their installation instructions, which involved contact cement and blending the wrap to the existing bearing edge by hand with a flat file. Too risky for me.
Looking for a budget mic setup to run througha PA maybe a kick ,overhead and two directionals ? What would be the best combo & brand names that will hold up
Love it brother. My first "real" drumset was a Tama Rockstar custom (the last year before Tama started including the StarCast mounting gear with the RS's). I loved those drums. Nice project!!
You did good. The yellow really pops and the wood hoops are a classy touch. Tama makes great stuff. I had a set of Rockstars from that era and always wondered why the grain on the outside of the shell was so rough & gnarly? Weird. Best wishes and keep drumming!
Man I've just seen this and immediately started trying to find an old superstar like I owned when i was a kid, looks like so much fun to do and sounds amazing - love the layout of the toms too, very unique
So cool Chris! I just bought a Tama Rockstar at an estate sale here in Houston with two bass drums (one made in China, one made in Taiwan, lol) with dual pedals, 3 toms (two Taiwan, one China, snare (Taiwan) 2 floor toms (China, Taiwan), all with Tama Heads, hi-hat, 5 Zildjian Cymbals and a throne for $600. Unbelievable! It came with some Metallica and Metal books so I guess thats why the configuration. Anyway, it sounds good but needs a little work. Your video gave me something to do if I get bored, lol! Thanks!
Turned out fantastic. Great drumming too. If you ever want to save money on QUALITY drum mics, here's my favorite budget setup. In fact, they record so well that I have ZERO plans to "upgrade" anytime soon. (I am "considering" adding an Audix i6 to the floor tom.) Overheads: Heil PR31BW Kick: Shure Beta 52 Snare: Audix i5 Under Snare: Peavey PVM325 Hats: Shure SM57 Toms: Peavey PVM328 Floor tom: Peavey PVM321 Room mic: MXL R80 Ribbon. All together (New price) was about $1200... Sadly, the PVM mic packs are no longer made, but you can find them used on reverb cheap!
Dude! This is so awesome! I’ve been wanting to do this for about ten years or so. I have a 1998 Tama Rockstar Custom I got new in high school. Much like you I acquired a couple more drums to make it 8/10/12/16/22. I have the original 14” snare but mainly use an Orange County 13”. My drums were in my parents garage attic for many years after I moved out and lived in apartments, then we moved them to a storage unit and the last 4 years they’ve been setup as a 4 piece in my friend’s garage (I lost a lot of hardware over the years loaning to friends and whatnot). I think this video is the inspiration I need to get going on redoing these. I’ve had the same/only kit for almost 25 years now and it needs some love. It’s got the star cast mounts on 2 of the newer toms and RIMS on the older 12”. Plastic hoops on the kick and the snare is wood and wrapped/finished the same as the toms. Thanks for the video and the kick in the pants!
Mine were Majestic purple… I played those on tour as Tama artist for years. I have now converted it to an ekit. My set was 2 kicks 10,12,13,14,16,18 the were rock solid
I still have my made in Japan DX and will never part with it. I have two 22 bass drums and the 10 12 14 rack toms with an added 8 and 16 Pearl toms. I played many different drums and these are still my favorite!
I think you did an excellent job on and I like to set up that you can figure and I like it because you can set it up like a Neil Peart setup did a job job
I did not join them back together. It’s only noticeable at a close distance and since there were only 3 lugs I needed to do this for, I was able to position them on the side of the drums(1 on the 10” and 2 on the 12”) so they’d be facing toward me and not be visible from the front.
I did not weld them together. I cut them to a length that when put back on the drum, there is a small visible seam where the two pieces meet. I strategically placed the 3 cut lugs on the side of the drum that faces inward toward me. This way it can't be seen from the front. It's functional and good enough for me.
That 10x 8 inch tom with the hight tension lugs must be worth gold if it's original, there's 10x10's out there but I've never seen that size! I wonder if that really was original or a cut down 10x10 shell using a 8x8's lugs? I love these old Tama's from the 80's and 90's! The yellow is not really my thing but the kit does look awesome now it's all refurbished and turned out sounding really nice with the new bearing edges, especially for a "budget" kit that's pushing 30+ years by now .... Current day entry level Tama's can't match this good a sound by far. Very impressive work but I do have a question. Why in the world would you put die casts on the bottom too? It looks fantastic ... don't get me wrong, but that must have been as expensive as Duck (excuse the fowl language) to do for all those toms, those things aren't cheap by any means and the effect on the resonant head is relatively minimal to the point that the same amount of overtone dampening the rim provides souls also be achieved with a small piece of moon gel on the bottom head. So why spend all that money? I'm not knocking your decision to put them on both sides because I'd probably do it too if I had that kind of money to burn .... but to me Mighty Hoops on the bottom would have looked just as cool and saved a couple of 100 dollars to spend on other things like cymbals or something. Again. Very cool kit! Mine's a 91 Made in Japan Rockstar Pro 22-16-14-12 with lacquered shells in See trough Blue with the original 10 lug 14x5,5" snaredrum that I picked up for free and restored last year. It spent 30 years living about a 10 minute walk from the ocean so it pretty grimy and took a total of about 200+ hours to clean, polish and de-rust the entire kit including the triple flanged rims with aluminium foil and soapy water but in the end it turned out awesome aside from some dings in the lacquer I couldn't fix.... yet. Currently it's a "1 up 2 down" set up so I've been trying to find a matching 10x10 for it to complete the set but no luck yet due to the color matching thing. Sorry for the ranting, I like old Tama's.... Have a good one brother, peace.
I can appreciate the work that went into this and it's cool that you restored your old kit,but honestly it kills me to see people cutting down power toms They are getting tough to find for those of us that like them.
gotta respect your drive and drumming skills but I think you lost on this one man. Why the wacky set up hi tuned big tons, it's just not good. skills are on pointi would like to hear them live!
