Yamaha 9000 series drums 1975-1981 - pre Recording Custom

[Joost]

The Heavy oxidation on all The screws would be a no go for me. The drum was not stored prober or used in wet environment a long time. And way to expensive.

 

[Joost]

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

Here is an other early model

 

[Tama CW]

The Heavy oxidation on all The screws would be a no go for me. The drum was not stored properly or used in wet environment a long time. And way to expensive.

The photos always seem to be taken in an old dirty barn without any convenience features.

 

[Old PIT Guy]

I found another picture - saved me from removing the head on the 16". I don't think what the seller is claiming is accurate. But ... I could always be wrong.

 

[Kevinpursuit]

Basically, you've posted "Engineering" verbage or best practices terminology on how things might be "generally" constructed...not true facts or evidence. Yet throughout this thread are facts and photos refuting things you've posted so far. Then you took it up a notch and reposted into a 4 yr old thread which included the same engineering verbage you did here. You are working with "theories" and not necessarily reality. I prefer to work from facts and visual observations of the actual drums. Fwiw, my 30 yr work history is in Nuclear Engineering, Combustion Engineering, and Operations Engineering. I know a little bit about engineering.

Once again, you're incorrect that Yamaha has nothing in their original documents about these DA drums having mixed ply shells. Here are 3 OEM examples stating otherwise. A link to the Yamaha 1978 drum catalog. You can find them on drumarchive.com. I will quote from the 1978 catalog here:

Yamaha 1978 drum catalog

Page 23 of 48: description of their ET900D series concert toms. And they state shells of "birch and Philippine mahogany." These are the same shells and 900 series drums that came with my 1982 Tour Series concert tom 8000 kit....same shells on concert toms and the floor tom/kick drum. Yup, mixed ply shells despite being called a 900 series. Proof positive that 900 series shells are not always all birch.

Link to 1981 Yamaha drum catalog

Go to page 10 of the 1981 catalog. You will find a table on the lower right giving 2 distinct options for a 9000 series shell. Either "Birch OR Birch and Camelia." There it is in print. An option for any wood drum in a kit. Kzac's statements are in error.....Yamaha's written literature disputes Kzac in 3 distinct places over a 3 yr period. The 9000's were not always all birch....at least Yamaha says so....and the drum bearing edges say so too. You will also note that in the 1981 catalog pages for the 8000 Tour Series kits are the option for 900 series concert toms.

================

And now a quote from Yamaha's Drum Vault ID. Start by typing in "FT-916DA". It comes up with a shell made of "Camelia/Philippine mahogany." That's an observable fact for a 16x16 900 series 16 in floor tom with the DA variant. Why would this even appear in Yamaha literature if the mix ply option on a 9000 shell never existed?

Yamaha Drum Vault Identifier


And these 9000D real wood drums MIT ROC that I now own have XH date codes on the 13,16, and 22 inch drums. All made in January 1980. The 12 inch is dated a month earlier with PZ. "X" isn't supposed to be used for year dating per the Yamaha dating guide....only for the month. Here's proof they used both Q and X to denote the 1980 "zero" year. A drum with XX would be Oct 1980. I've seen one of those. My own drum badge photos follow.

View attachment 401285

1978 pg 13 catalog Had only two series kits, either 9000 series or 7000. The 9000 series was full birch, while the 7000 is camellia outerply and phillipine mahogony inner plies.

 

[Tama CW]

1978 pg 13 catalog Had only two series kits, either 9000 series or 7000. The 9000 series was full birch, while the 7000 is camellia outerply and phillipine mahogony inner plies.

Well not quite. I have documented other Yamaha catalogs (such as the 1981 link from above) that also mention that the 9000 series shells do come in something other than all birch. That's the 9000DA series. Even Yamaha's drum vault ID guide verifies that not all 9000's are birch. Even if that catalog is called 1981 by the person who posted it....on details and photos it appears to be 1980 or earlier....if only by the earlier style of tom mount "wish bone" style wing bolts and 'W' Yamaha embossed wing bolts (incuse) with brilliant chrome finish and rounded edges.

http://www.yamaha.com/yamahadrums/drumvault/default.asp

Link below....."supposed" 1981 catalog.....it's not.....the features on the cover kit show that it's 1980 or earlier. Basically another version of the 1978-80 cats. Note too that on page 10 of this catalog they list birch and birch/camellia as options for the 9000 series. They wrote it....not me. Also on the 7000 series they mention agathis and phillipine mahogany. Make sense of all that! Basically Yamaha kept things the same from 1978 to early 1980. The next wave of changes came for the 1981 model year and introduction of the Tour Series shells. And production from Taiwan was pulled back to Japan by some time in 1981.

http://drumarchive.com/Yamaha/

 

[Mcjnic]

Tama CW is correct. I, too have docs that support this. Keep in mind, these drums were sold in more places than the US. There are many anomalies out there when investigating these drums.

 

[Old PIT Guy]

After going back and forth with Yamaha drum reps, in the 80s and then again decades later, concerning specifics on early model drums, the upshot was the company didn't document details very well back then (early 80s).

I was looking through an early 80s MD recently with a Yamaha factory feature, and it wasn't a terribly large scale operation back then by the looks of it, especially with the RC line, which they obviously took pride in since more than a few paragraphs ended with some reference to what they did in that line versus the others, such as how long a worker had to apprentice. Interestingly, it was over 3 years to finish BD hoops for the RC.

 

[Johnnydova]

Great research. I have an opportunity to acquire the drums in the attached pictures. Confirmation of what I have here is appreciated.

 

[Tama CW]

Johnnydova, those 12,14,16 toms all date to late '79 into '80....all made in Taiwan, ROC. 9000 series (DA version) with mixed birch/camellia-mahogany plies. The 9000 D version are all birch plies. The DA version with mixed plies provides a deeper fundamental tone....possibly better suited for live playing vs. the D versions. DA or D are pro quality drums as good as any Yamaha made in the late 70's to 80's. What is odd is that the 20" bass drum is dated HX - Nov 1981. On the surface, it doesn't seem to fit with the other 3. Sometime in late 1980/into 1981 all production for Yamaha was brought back into Japan. I would imagine all the shells for the drum factories in Taiwan or Japan were made by Sakae. Same top notch build quality.

Now for the good. Those are jazz/bop/small kit sizes. Yamaha 14" Floor Tom is rare for that era. So is the Yamaha 20" bass drum. So right there you have something quite scarce. And the double 14/16 Floor Tom set up is quite cool for that era. One has to wonder if this group originally came with a Made In Taiwan kick drum to match the other drums? Could the 3 toms have sat around at the factory or in a music store until late 1981/early 1982 when they were mated up to that bass drum? I guess anything is possible, especially for drums like the DA's in those small sizes.....it was the Rock era after all. And the DA's were phased out by end of 1981 (essentially replaced by the very similar 8000 Tour Series shells beginning in 1981). There aren't many 9000 DA or D kits out there sized like like yours. If the price is reasonable I'd go for it. I'd figure those 4 drums sold individually to be worth around $1000-$1200. Though they almost always bring less as a "kit" or as a group. If I didn't already have a 9000D kit myself, I'd consider those at the $800 level to be reasonable. Does the kit come with a snare drum? Single or double tom post? Photo?

I also noted in the last few months that Yamaha no longer carries the link to their Drum Vault ID. I don't know if they moved it somewhere else or just got rid of it. So all those old Yamaha Drum Vault ID links in this thread no longer work.

 

[Joost]

Perhaps post a picture of the bearing edge if you got one. Not all DAs are mixed plys. And it is not camellia, is is a translation error. Take look at camellia plants , No way someone can make a ply out of it.It is tend to be agathis.
It is definitely a great sounding set. 14“ FT is ultra rare and I know people you would spent 700 dollars for it. The 20“ kick is rare also and I never saw a DA from Japan before. Yamaha’s SNR and badges for this are are not super accurate. Especially in the change overs from Japan to Taiwan and back to Japan.
If it is around 1000,- it is a bargain.

 

[Tama CW]

I only refer to what Yamaha put in their own catalogs in 1978-1981. If they can't translate their own language, that's a problem. The 700 series shells were listed with Agathis. The DA's were Birch + Camellia. I just refer to them as such + mahogany tossed in to account for the fact it's another hardwood other than birch. What we know for sure is that the 700's, 800's, and 9000DA shells were something other than all birch. That's the meat of the matter.

I have a 9000 DA labeled drum in my kit from Jan 1980 that matches the other all birch D shells in my 1980 9000D kit. I suspect that was a badge stamping error, not a DA shell intentionally made with straight birch plies. I've looked at DA badges/bearing edges at every chance I can get on Reverb, Ebay, etc. I've yet to run across a verifiable DA kit with all birch shells. If it's just one rogue drum out of the mix, I'd suspect a badge stamping error. In the same way I could see a rogue 9000D shell tossed into a DA kit because they didn't have a DA tom readily available.

I'm also certain, I will run into more "new facts" about these drums the longer I dig into them. And some of my current thoughts may have to be changed. This thread was my best effort to find everything I could on them and get it all posted in one place.....so the next guy who has a question won't be starting from scratch.

 

[Johnnydova]

I bought in large part due to the info. In this thread, thanks Tama CW. I paid $800.00 total and included Anvil fiber cases and hardware bag. I’ll repost after I clean them up.

 

[Tama CW]

Thanks for posting those photos. From that view the shells look very clean. Many of those have lots of "scars" in the finish from heavy handling/gigging. Can't really see the plies well on that 2nd photo. Head will need to come off. Did the drums come with floor tom legs and a bass drum tom mount? If you wanted to add a couple period correct stands for the kit, yours would have come with the gold label decals.....double braced (900 series) or single braced (700 series). Back then the hi hat stands and snare stands both tend to be single braced regardless of the model line. Both of those lines came with the small (and cool looking) mushroom shaped rubber feet. They are pretty available in the $30-$50 range for single braced. Great stands that will hold up. Gold labels ran until around 1980/81. Then the silver labels were in play from 1981-1985. Either would be fine since your bass drum and toms overlap both eras. The current purple line stands (1990's to date) are good too. Prices are similar for all of them when used.

 

[vintagedrummersweden]

Sorry if someone wrote this earlier, but didn't the early Yamaha 9000 have larger wing nuts on some of their hardware?

 

[Johnnydova]

Thanks for posting those photos. From that view the shells look very clean. Many of those have lots of "scars" in the finish from heavy handling/gigging. Can't really see the plies well on that 2nd photo. Head will need to come off. Did the drums come with floor tom legs and a bass drum tom mount? If you wanted to add a couple period correct stands for the kit, yours would have come with the gold label decals.....double braced (900 series) or single braced (700 series). Back then the hi hat stands and snare stands both tend to be single braced regardless of the model line. Both of those lines came with the small (and cool looking) mushroom shaped rubber feet. They are pretty available in the $30-$50 range for single braced. Great stands that will hold up. Gold labels ran until around 1980/81. Then the silver labels were in play from 1981-1985. Either would be fine since your bass drum and toms overlap both eras. The current purple line stands (1990's to date) are good too. Prices are similar for all of them when used.

 

[Johnnydova]

They sound warm and deep. They came with pinstripes and Evans Reso heads but I’m going with G2 Coated batters.

 

[Tama CW]

Sorry if someone wrote this earlier, but didn't the early Yamaha 9000 have larger wing nuts on some of their hardware?

Wing nuts and wing bolts were basically the same size in the run of 9000's. The only change I'm aware of is around 1980 when they went from a smooth finished wing bolt with rounded edges and incuse "yamaha"....to a more square shaped wing with sharper corners and a raised "yamaha." If you count the large "wishbone" wing bolts on the tom mount swivels (see Johnnydova's kit above) those were bigger and in production until 1980. Then Yamaha made everything more uniform utilizing the same sized wing bolts all around on tom mounts and stands.

Great looking kit Johnnydova. The only thing I'd have expected were wood hoops on the bass drum. The metal hoops were used on the 7000 series drums. Yours appear to have a chrome insert on them....maybe from a chrome wrapped 7000 series bass drum? I guess it's also possible it could have been a special order or something done on day 2 at the selling music shop. Your bass drum came from the factory without T-style tension rods in the bottom 2 positions on each side.....100% correct. 1978 Yamaha catalog linked below which gives some nice close ups of hardware and drum details. Interesting too that Yamaha ignored the usual "made in USA" 8 lug convention on 20" bass drums and went with 10 lugs per side.

1978-1980 Yamaha catalog

 

[Johnnydova]

Wing nuts and wing bolts were basically the same size in the run of 9000's. The only changed I'm aware of is around 1980 when they went from a smooth finished wing bolt with rounded edges and incuse "yamaha"....to a more square shaped wing with sharper corners and a raised "yamaha." If you count the large "wishbone" wing bolts on the tom mount swivels (see Johnnydova's kit above) those were bigger and in production until 1980. Then Yamaha made everything more uniform utilizing the same sized wing bolts all around mounts and stands.

Great looking kit Johnnydova. The only thing I'd have expected were wood hoops on the bass drum. The metal hoops were used on the 7000 series drums. Yours appear to have a chrome insert on them....maybe from a chrome wrapped 7000 series bass drum? I guess it's also possible it could have been a special order or something done on day 2 at the selling music shop. Your bass drum came from the factory without T-style tension rods in the bottom 2 positions on each side. 1978 Yamaha catalog linked below which gives some nice close ups of hardware and drum details. Interesting too that Yamaha ignored the usual "made in USA" 8 lug convention on 20" bass drums and went with 10 lugs per side.

1978-1980 Yamaha catalog

Thank You! the bass drum is unique to the kit, 10 lugs seems like overkill but makes tuning a breeze.. At 1st, I didn't care for the chrome bass drum hoops but now i kinda like it. The 3 toms appear to be born together.

 

[Tama CW]

If and when you get a chance, and a head is off, take some close ups of the bearings edges for us. Will be more data bank information on DA shell make up....which is the entire purpose of this thread. Don't get to see too many intact 9000DA drum kits. The D shells use equal width plies of birch. The DA's should be unequal ply widths. Thin birch plies spaced between the fatter "other-wood" plies. One of your toms is dated PY, the otherd look to be XJ. That would put all your toms between Nov '79 to March '80....a pretty normal span. My 9000D kit has drums dated from Dec '79 through Jan '80.