The Yamaha Tour Custom Rock Set in Brown Sunburst

It was a lovely sunny day when the kit arrived, and at first I was frankly a little reluctant to bury myself away in my rather dark studio, but this I duly did, and as soon as I got into the boxes the sunshine was forgotten.

I didn’t know what colour the Tour Custom kit was going to be, so I was really pleased to find it was the Brown Sunburst – easily the nicest of the four colours available (Sakura White, Ocean Blue and Black Onyx being the other three) in my humble opinion. All of a sudden my own kit sat over in the far corner looked rather tired.

What we have here is the 4 piece rock configuration - 22x17” bass drum, 12x9” tom mounted on the bass with the usual YESS mounting system, 16x16” floor tom, matching 14 x 6” wooden snare and the satisfyingly sturdy 800 series double braced hardware (snare, hi hat, two booms and chain drive ‘Flying Dragon’ bass drum pedal) all built in the same Indonesian factory as the drums.

The very useful Yamaha Europe web site states “Tour Custom drum shells are 100% maple. The bass drums are 7-ply 7mm and have a warm, deep tone; the toms are 6-ply 6mm, with lots of warmth and resonance and have a wide tuning range. The matching wood snare drum has body, yet plenty of high end and is very articulate at all dynamic levels.” While not wanting to disagree with the aforementioned site, I would say that the Tour Custom drum shells are 100% maple, and that the bass drums are 7-ply 7mm and have a warm, deep tone, and the toms are 6-ply 6mm, with lots of warmth and resonance and … damn! Sound familiar? Who am I to disagree anyway?

Now at this point I feel I should bear my soul… drums haven’t been my first instrument now for a number of years, so any technical stuff my unreliable memory used to store about woods or ‘warmth and resonance’ has gone the way of the millennium bug. That said, I’m still an enthusiastic player and there’s nothing wrong with my ears or eyes, so when I was asked about doing a review of a brand new kit, how could I refuse? On we go…

Yamaha Tour Custom Colours

As I assembled the kit, my beady eye could find not a flaw. The shells were all beautiful inside and out, the hoops (triple flange chrome) & lugs (small separate, smooth chrome) equally flawless, and I generally got the feeling that this was a very expensive kit. I guess in the scheme of things it isn’t an expensive kit, but I’m told the RRP isn’t going to be much off a grand, so frankly I wouldn’t expect any obvious problems.

I did however find one less obvious gripe after a while which I might as well get out of the way as after this it’s all good…The floor tom leg brackets  looked good, and held the legs firmly in place using the provided drum key. On closer inspection though, the legs were not straight. Puzzled, I loosened & re-tightened the clamp, but then found the brackets themselves to be slightly loose against the floor tom shell. Not a disaster for anyone who owns a screwdriver, but a surprising little oversight from the factory nonetheless.

Apart from the floor tom leg gripe, I’m happy to say it’s all good.

The bass drum was immediately huge and deep yet punchy enough for quicker work. I’ve had the pleasure of using a 24” Yamaha Recording Custom bass drum in my studio in recent times, but I’m convinced this Tour Custom 22” matches this for BIG-ness! The floor tom took seconds to tune and joined the bass drum’s party. Two out of two. The mounted tom took a while to match its bigger pals for volume and tone, but with a bit of tuning experimentation soon fell in to line. The (Taiwanese) Remo heads provided were fine except perhaps in this one instance where some strategic application of Moon Gel was necessary to cut out excessive ring.

The highlight for me though had to be the snare. Over the years I’ve never really made my mind up what size I prefer. I know my heart is in rock drumming, but sometimes I just fancy something smaller & higher pitched than your average dustbin sized ROCK snare. This one however is a dream. My own kit includes a 14x6” (albeit chrome) snare so the size was always going to feel comfortable, but I just wasn’t prepared for the amazing sound! Either I’m a convert to maple snares, or I just got lucky with this drum. Lighter touches responded well. Tuning (as with the whole kit really) was easy, and the sound didn’t suffer from a variety of different pitches. I’m sure this snare would suit a variety of jobs, but for me in my semi-pro rock/pop world; it’s easily the best thing I’ve played in my 18ish years of drumming.

So, wobbly floor tom legs aside, I think this is a really good kit for the price. My very fussy drumming friend wants to buy the snare, I personally want to take this out & gig it for a month (but the drummer in my band hasn’t got the hang of the guitar chords necessary to allow us to swap yet!), and my own much loved kit is looking at me jealously. Nuff said. Do I have to give it back?

Dave Booth
June 2007