Tama 50th Anniversary Bell Brass

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At the risk of thread hijacking, anyone familiar with the Gretsch Phosphor Bronze? Not the thin shell, but 5 mm cast one. Looks like a killer drum.
 
bpaluzzi said:
I don’t think you need the Tama to get the bell brass sound. My bell brass drum is Gretsch and it does everything I need it to.

So no, you don’t need to spend 4K to get that sound, but you can’t just take any $500 drum and tune it to get that sound.
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After checking out the prices of other bell brass snares, I have decided that I can easily live without it. Not that I’m against it…far from it. If it makes people feel good to play them, I’m all for it. But I’m definitely against me spending my money on them. The cheapest one I saw was a DW, and it was $700 used, and even that ain’t gonna happen. But since I already own the world’s greatest snare and got it free from Santa in 1967, I can afford to be cavalier like that ;)
 
If you’re hearing the siren’s call and are worried about resisting the temptation to raid your kid’s college fund, I recommend hanging out in the Tama Bell Brass group on Facebook. Some of those guys might just cure you of ever wanting to be in a club with them.
 
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stevil said:
At the risk of thread hijacking, anyone familiar with the Gretsch Phosphor Bronze? Not the thin shell, but 5 mm cast one. Looks like a killer drum.
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I had one and couldn’t dial in a tuning or overall sound that I was happy with. No matter what I did it just sounded mushy. I could not get it to be as clean and responsive as my Gretsch Bell Brass, so I sold it.
 
I tend to like Bell Brass drums but I find a lot of what is said of them is WAY off. I’ve never played a Bell Brass that “takes your head off” because how loud it is or a BB that has a “bullet through your brain gunshot crack”. They do indeed posess a lot of headroom but I find them warm and the rimshots pretty integrated, depending on the hoop. A very versatile and mic friendly drum, at least the two I have. Great for brush playing and intricate passages due to their sensitivity and clear ghostnotes. My Tama Bubinga snare has considerably more crack (piercing rimshot).
The Duluth Tama replica is my fav drum to practice rudiments on. Love it for rolls and low volume playing since it’s so articulate. Sure it handles loud gigs per excellance also.

For drummers searching for “that” sound, what is that sound? Smells like teen spirit? Metallica’s Black album? Not the sound I’m looking for.

And by the way I like them more with triple flange hoops than heavy DC’s. They brighten up, are more responsive and rimshots are more pronounced.

882BC51E-3C3D-4183-A516-CDE10BADFECC.jpeg
 
HalldorL said:
I tend to like Bell Brass drums but I find a lot of what is said of them is WAY off. I’ve never played a Bell Brass that “takes your head off” because how loud it is or a BB that has a “bullet through your brain gunshot crack”. They do indeed posess a lot of headroom but I find them warm and the rimshots pretty integrated, depending on the hoop. A very versatile and mic friendly drum, at least the two I have. Great for brush playing and intricate passages due to their sensitivity and clear ghostnotes. My Tama Bubinga snare has considerably more crack (piercing rimshot).
The Duluth Tama replica is my fav drum to practice rudiments on. Love it for rolls and low volume playing since it’s so articulate. Sure it handles loud gigs per excellance also.

For drummers searching for “that” sound, what is that sound? Smells like teen spirit? Metallica’s Black album? Not the sound I’m looking for.

And by the way I like them more with triple flange hoops than heavy DC’s. They brighten up, are more responsive and rimshots are more pronounced.

View attachment 654552
Click to expand...
Imho this is why I have an Original TAMA Terminator! For this sound...https://youtu.be/uRLuIm2Bjgk?si=xP8S2pqhHsffkuJ7
The Knack
My Sharona
Drummer Bruce Gary playing Gretsch drums, Zildjian cymbals & the Original Terminator!
 
KingLudwig said:
Imho this is why I have an Original TAMA Terminator! For this sound...https://youtu.be/uRLuIm2Bjgk?si=xP8S2pqhHsffkuJ7
The Knack
My Sharona
Drummer Bruce Gary playing Gretsch drums, Zildjian cymbals & the Original Terminator!
Click to expand...
Was the drum available at that time? The song was released in 1979.
 
KingLudwig said:
Imho this is why I have an Original TAMA Terminator! For this sound...https://youtu.be/uRLuIm2Bjgk?si=xP8S2pqhHsffkuJ7
The Knack
My Sharona
Drummer Bruce Gary playing Gretsch drums, Zildjian cymbals & the Original Terminator!
Click to expand...
DrBoom said:
Was the drum available at that time? The song was released in 1979.
Click to expand...
Bruce used a set of Ludwig Super Classics with a 20’s L&L brass snare with gut wires.
 
HalldorL said:
I tend to like Bell Brass drums but I find a lot of what is said of them is WAY off. I’ve never played a Bell Brass that “takes your head off” because how loud it is or a BB that has a “bullet through your brain gunshot crack”. They do indeed posess a lot of headroom but I find them warm and the rimshots pretty integrated, depending on the hoop. A very versatile and mic friendly drum, at least the two I have. Great for brush playing and intricate passages due to their sensitivity and clear ghostnotes. My Tama Bubinga snare has considerably more crack (piercing rimshot).
The Duluth Tama replica is my fav drum to practice rudiments on. Love it for rolls and low volume playing since it’s so articulate. Sure it handles loud gigs per excellance also.

For drummers searching for “that” sound, what is that sound? Smells like teen spirit? Metallica’s Black album? Not the sound I’m looking for.

And by the way I like them more with triple flange hoops than heavy DC’s. They brighten up, are more responsive and rimshots are more pronounced.
Click to expand...
For me, there are two things that my 80s Bell Brass does better than most snares: maintaining low-ends at higher tuning and blending well but punching through at the same time on recordings.

As for the “bullet through your brain gunshot crack," my 90s Bell Brass with Bell Brass hoops is much closer to that than my 80s Mastercraft.

 
DrBoom said:
Was the drum available at that time? The song was released in 1979.
Click to expand...
Bruce mentions it on utube. He had the first couple built. Before being available to the public. He kept 1 and gave the other away to a good friend. (Who's also a well known drummer)
 
JimmyM said:
Bruce used a set of Ludwig Super Classics with a 20’s L&L brass snare with gut wires.
Click to expand...
Jim Keltner
The legendary Los Angeles-based drummer Jim Keltner truly knew Bruce Gary for close to thirty-five years. Gary once played a live date in New Orleans with Bob Dylan, double-drumming with Keltner on a show number, “Heart of Mine,” from Dylan’s Shot of Love album. “Bruce was a little brother figure to me. Back when The Knack’s “My Sharona” was being played on the radio every ten minutes, he came over to my house one night, bounding up the stairs in a black turtleneck sweater, black jeans and Beatle boots, cigarette in one hand and a snare drum tucked under the other arm. Hands me the drum. ‘Happy Birthday, Jimmy!’ A Tama bell brass snare, the most expensive drum at that time. I had told him earlier that his snare sounded great on the record. So he brought me a new version of the one he used. I told him, ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’ ‘Hey man, I can afford it now.’ So, he was off and running and I was very happy for him
 
KingLudwig said:
Jim Keltner
The legendary Los Angeles-based drummer Jim Keltner truly knew Bruce Gary for close to thirty-five years. Gary once played a live date in New Orleans with Bob Dylan, double-drumming with Keltner on a show number, “Heart of Mine,” from Dylan’s Shot of Love album. “Bruce was a little brother figure to me. Back when The Knack’s “My Sharona” was being played on the radio every ten minutes, he came over to my house one night, bounding up the stairs in a black turtleneck sweater, black jeans and Beatle boots, cigarette in one hand and a snare drum tucked under the other arm. Hands me the drum. ‘Happy Birthday, Jimmy!’ A Tama bell brass snare, the most expensive drum at that time. I had told him earlier that his snare sounded great on the record. So he brought me a new version of the one he used. I told him, ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’ ‘Hey man, I can afford it now.’ So, he was off and running and I was very happy for him
Click to expand...
Take it up with Classic Drummer magazine:

Bruce Gary's set up on get the Knack

I absolutely love the sound of Bruce Gary's kit on get the Knack and was wondering if anybody knows what he was using in the studio for that album. I've seen the pics of him from that era with a Ludwig kit but I don't know if that's what he recorded with or not. Moreover was it a three ply?, six...
www.drumforum.org www.drumforum.org

Post 4. And a Tama Bell Brass would likely be a new version of the snare he used since the L&L was also brass.
 
KingLudwig said:
Imho this is why I have an Original TAMA Terminator! For this sound...https://youtu.be/uRLuIm2Bjgk?si=xP8S2pqhHsffkuJ7
The Knack
My Sharona
Drummer Bruce Gary playing Gretsch drums, Zildjian cymbals & the Original Terminator!
Click to expand...
I agree, but wasn't Gary a Paiste guy? :)
 
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aparker2005 said:
Glad I ended up with my Pork Pie Bell Brass after seeing these prices lately
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Back in 1981 I called Manny’s about a Tama Bell Brass. I really wanted one, it was my dream snare. They had it but is was almost $1000 so waaaayyyy out of a teenagers reach. At todays rate that would be north of $3000. They have always been expensive.
 
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