Yamaha 9000 series drums 1975-1981 - pre Recording Custom

[Tama CW]

Thanks for posting Jmeirhofer. Good first post.

If you have clear heads on your toms, some photos of the bearing edges up close would be cool. Model numbers on your badges should be BD-924DA, TT-913DA, TT-914DA, and FT-918DA. Since they are 1978's, the alpha numeric sequence following the model number should be "OK-5000" or something similar. The "O" at the start signifies the year. The 2nd letter from H through Z is the month.

You can check your 3 toms to see if they are all consistent...they should be. Mixed plies of Birch/Camelia with distinctly thicker plies for the darker camelia. If the plies are all the same thickness, that would suggest they are alternating birch plies. In checking the yamaha drum vault, they state the DA shells are made of "camelia/mahogany." They don't even mention birch....though the 1978 Yamaha catalog does.

 

[jmeirhofer]

Here are a few photos. You have the models correct. But the Toms serial# are PY while the FT and BD are PZ. That would indicate 79. However when I gave these numbers to customer service at Yamaha they indicated they were 1978. He came to that conclusion because of the Chrome wrap which he claimed was not available in 1979. All four have a four digit number following the letters as well which are very close to each other in the numbers. With Yamaha records as spotty as they are, I guess it is anyone’s guess what year and months they were made. I will tell you this; these things rock. Without mic’ing them they can be heard even with an over zealous guitar player. LOL.

 

[Tama CW]

Thanks for those photos Jmeirhofer. That last photo is unlike any interior finish I've seen with wide dark/light rings. Maybe it's the angle and lighting to make it look much more 2 toned and striking. That could be camellia as it doesn't look like Birch. Best bearing edge photo is the 2nd one....it "looks like" there are 2 fat plies alternating with thinner ones....so a standard DA/7000/8000 shell type of construction. Though counting plies through plastic and not really close up can fool us at times. I can't be 100% sure. With PY and PZ on the badges that's Nov/Dec 1979. I wouldn't trust what Yamaha customer service told you about the mirror chrome not being available in 1979 (see comment at end of post).

Another PZ Yamaha on Reverb (recording series). Though owner claims 1977.

Interesting that they have a 14" 9000DA mixed in with all their 9000E's.

A 1981 Yamaha 9000DA in chrome wrap

The interior of this shell looks much like all the other DA/8000 shells I've seen. Different from yours above in that 4th photo. And that 9000 DA kit was made in Oct 1981 - pretty late for a DA shell.

Yamaha drum catalogs

Yamaha offers the mirror finish wrap in their 1978 catalog. And it clearly shows up in 1981. Their catalogs for years 1979-1980 don't seem to show up anywhere. Doesn't seem logical to me that Yamaha stopped offering this chrome wrap in 1979, yet offered it both earlier and later. I'd ask Yamaha to send me a digital copy of their 1979 catalog showing the mirrored wrap is not listed as an option.

It's on page 10 of what appears to be a 1981 catalog Yamaha mentions the option of Birch/Mahogany in the 9000 series shells. I don't see it listed before this. This is also the first year the 5000 series drums show up in the catalogs. But the 8000 drums also show up in early 1981....and no mention of them here....so can that cat really be 1981? The only decent Yamaha catalogs I've found not having obvious discrepancies are the 1978 and 1986/87.

A lot of players of the DA's and 8000 series Yamaha's feel they are the best sounding drums Yamaha made in the 1980's. Much more suited to live performance with a lower fundamental tone than the YRC's.

A later discussion about potential inconsistent MIJ date badging on silky finish RC wrap - 1977 badges on 1981-83 drum?

This Yamaha catalog is listed as 1980 - yet it is clearly 1981-82

And note that the 1981 catalog listed in the Yamaha drumarchive is not 1981 but rather from 1978-80.

 

[jmeirhofer]

Here are a few more of the 13” Tom with the head removed.

I have learned over the years to take everything with a grain of salt on anything that is vintage. Remember when they made what we call vintage, it was just new stuff. Lol. Whether 78/79/80 makes no difference to the sound. They have held up incredibly well over the years and still sound amazing.

Come winter I will likely sell this whole kit. I am way older now and mostly play along to stuff. No group play anymore. I got an electronic mid-grade Alesis kit not long ago and really enjoy all the options I can have without retuning. Makes me really want to have the Strike Pro kit.

 

[Tama CW]

Thanks for the xtra photos. 4th photo shows the fatter "DA-style" plies pretty clearly. I guess that is probably birch on the innermost ply. Some of these photos show it a big less dark. Attached is a photo of a bearing edge on one of my 1982 Tour Series wrapped concert toms with birch/mahog mixed plies.....birch is light....mahog is dark. All birch drums (9000D's and YRC's) would have equal thickness birch plies straight across.

 

[Joost]

Hey Guys,

really interesing post. I learned a lot about 9000s here. Thx
I just bought a 9000GA warped in Sunrise yellow for my Studio.
22/10/12/13/16
Seems like 6-ply Birch on Toms and 8-ply on BD, exacly like the Yamaha catalog and the Model nr Tool is saying.
I am just wondering about the darker Center ply, but i thing it is 2-ply of Birch Turned around. Bearing edges are round. Clear interior.

Here Some photos of the 10“:

have a Great year

 

[Tama CW]

That's certainly a nice kit you just got. 9000 series in a wrap, with the recording custom lugs. That makes it a recording series kit - or GA for "gigging artist." Same 6 ply birch toms. And I agree those plies can be difficult to count at times. The post immediately before this one shows the mixed birch/mahogany plies that are used on the 8000 shells....very thick mahogany plies. And with your kit being dated Sept 1982, I don't even think the 9000 DA (mixed ply) shells were still being made. By then, I think every 9000 labeled shell was all birch (9000RA, 9000GA). Can't be too many yellow wrapped 9000's out there. And being from the early years of 1982/83 it makes sense your edges are rounded (30 deg) just like the RC's of that period.

Update March 2020: As far as outliers of drums I've run across of the various styles of 9000's.

A Made in Taiwan, silver badged 9000 drum from Feb 1981 (TT-912DA HI 5007). I had thought that late 1980 was the end of MIT but here's one later.
Latest 9000D drum so far...a TT-912D IM MIJ "silver" badge from June 1982 as the latest. Provided to me by researcher/collector Max.
The earliest made in Japan 9000 series drum I've seen was dated Dec 1976 (MZ). No 5000 serial. Pointy silver badge. The only pre-1977 MIJ or MIT I've seen.
An SD-065D snare drum Made in Japan, silver pointy badge - (JJ 5002) March 1978 - with the usual style of 5XXX serial number used in the 1976-1980 period.

I've also noted that the 2 drums from the 1976-1981 era can have the same serial number (XH-5010). It seems the numbers were re-used for different sized drums. I ran across a drum (TT913D from Jan 1980) with the same serial number (but not model number) as my FT-916D floor tom. So if one were looking to estimate the number of early 9000 series drums made by just counting serial numbers, you might have to multiply that by 4-5 to account for the different drum sizes normally seen. And the 9000 serials appear to reset to 5000 each month (and for each size).

 

[900Z1A]

Here are a few photos. You have the models correct. But the Toms serial# are PY while the FT and BD are PZ. That would indicate 79. However when I gave these numbers to customer service at Yamaha they indicated they were 1978. He came to that conclusion because of the Chrome wrap which he claimed was not available in 1979. All four have a four digit number following the letters as well which are very close to each other in the numbers. With Yamaha records as spotty as they are, I guess it is anyone’s guess what year and months they were made. I will tell you this; these things rock. Without mic’ing them they can be heard even with an over zealous guitar player. LOL.

I also have one of those Chrome kits I purchased new back in 1980, 9000 concerts toms and 7000 base & floor toms. Willl be posting for sale on here soon.

 

[Joost]

Here my Newst baby !

77/78 MIJ All „A“ or „AE“

 

[Old PIT Guy]

There's definitely a misconception that buying a badge with RA buys you the thinner, stained and rounded bearing edge version of Recording Custom. I've seen the typical RC shells with RA badges. Anyway, I always wanted a set of the rarer variety after playing one back in the 80s. Patience paid off but it was many years later. I'll include a close up of the edge on the 8x12.

ps: Colaiuta played a set at Zildjian days 1984.

 

[Tama CW]

A nice article on the Yamaha 9000 drums printed in a German magazine. Unless you're fluent in German, you have to use an on-line translator which will double your reading time. No problem. I found it a fun read. But I'm a Yammy geek for their early 1975-1984 period. And Max has a nice collection of 9000 drums. He plays those drums nicely too. Thanks Max.

https://www.bonedo.de/artikel/einzelansicht/history-of-drums-die-ersten-yamaha-9000-recording-schlagzeuge.html#Welche Modelle sind besonders selten und gesucht?

.

 

[Mcjnic]

I love your dedication to this line.
It is a nice addition to the ol' innerwebby community thang.
Kudos.

 

[Tama CW]

It helps to own the drums. I have an 8000 tour series and a 9000D set. So knowing what I had and the whys of it were important to me. The collector geek in me. And the more you know, the more you can run across some gems and add them from time to time.

Give thanks to Max. He contacted me a month or so back on his article. Helped in any way I could. And this is his finished product. Wish I knew German. Rather than have the next guy a couple years from now try to piece-meal 100 different threads on these drums from previous years, I thought it was a worthy task to try and centralize it. And while we're at it, accumulate some facts, and dispel some myths. A work in progress. It doesn't hurt that they are cool drums too that show up FAR less often than most other mfg's.

 

[Ionic]

FWIW the '77 catalog lists the toms as"AE". The kick is an "A". My kit fits this. . And that sweet kit posted by Joost probably does as well.

However, the silver silk kit in the above link has all the toms designated as "A" with identical '77 specs.
Is there another kit out there with the "A" only badge?

 

[Old PIT Guy]

I was looking at an RC tom with an RA designation (rounded/stained edges) on ebay, and something doesn't look quite right. As was mentioned, not all RA tagged drums have these features. This is the auction:

Vintage Yamaha 15.5" dia x 16" Recording Custom floor tom Drum FT-916RA | eBay

<p dir="ltr">Vintage Yamaha 15.5" dia x 16" Recording Custom floor tom Drum FT-916RA. Condition is Used. ROUNDED BEARING stained EDGE, also appears can be hanging FT</p>

www.ebay.com

The bearing edge doesn't look like a round-over; the stain doesn't look quite right, and the shell looks like standard RC thickness (see post 31 in this thread) and not the thinner shells. I'll pull my 16" out and compare it when I have time. Could be wrong, but this looks off.

 

[Joost]

The RAs came in two different versions.
The later ones already have the thicker shells and 45 degree bearing edge.

 

[Tama CW]

I was looking at an RC tom with an RA designation (rounded/stained edges) on ebay, and something doesn't look quite right. As was mentioned, not all RA tagged drums have these features. This is the auction:

Vintage Yamaha 15.5" dia x 16" Recording Custom floor tom Drum FT-916RA | eBay

<p dir="ltr">Vintage Yamaha 15.5" dia x 16" Recording Custom floor tom Drum FT-916RA. Condition is Used. ROUNDED BEARING stained EDGE, also appears can be hanging FT</p>

www.ebay.com

The bearing edge doesn't look like a round-over; the stain doesn't look quite right, and the shell looks like standard RC thickness (see post 31 in this thread) and not the thinner shells. I'll pull my 16" out and compare it when I have time. Could be wrong, but this looks off.

That particular seller on Ebay routinely has unclear descriptions and charges more than anyone I'm aware when it comes to vintage drums and gear......often 2X-3X their full market values. I wouldn't put too much faith into anything they might post. Just go by the drum itself and the badge as it's the only data that counts.

 

[Old PIT Guy]

The RAs came in two different versions.
The later ones already have the thicker shells and 45 degree bearing edge.

Thanks - I figured that out when shopping for mine. I only mentioned it because the seller is claiming the drum is the earlier model.

 

[Joost]

Thanks - I figured that out when shopping for mine. I only mentioned it because the seller is claiming the drum is the earlier model.

I thing it is the earlier model. Interior and bearing edge looks different on the later ones.

 

[drumtimejohn]

Ironically, I’m detailing this 9000 snare. Here’s an example of one of the earlier shells.