Yamaha Drums announced big news at NAMM 2013: the music trade show saw the debut of Yamaha's new high-end Live Custom series. It's the first acoustic drumkit that's produced at Yamaha's factory in China, where they've built pianos and wood wind instruments for years.
Of course, the Live Custom range features Yamaha's exclusive staggered diagonal seam, air seal system just as they have since 1967. But with lower production costs the new series is about ten percent lower priced than Yamaha's Oak Custom series.
Videos from NAMM 2013 Jim Haler, product manager and manager of sales for acoustic drums at Yamaha, guides you through Yamaha's NAMM booth and explains all that's new for 2013 in three videos. In the next video, legendary artist Tommy Aldridge, who has played with Ozzy Osbourne, Gary Moore, Ted Nugent and Thin Lizzy among others and recently rejoined Whitesnake, talks about his '70s Yamaha Carbon Fiber kit that was displayed at the Yamaha booth at NAMM.
The veteran drummer calls the old-school carbon kit "still cutting-edge" and "the most amazing drum kit I've ever played". He also comments on his new Live Custom drumset. Although he has never been a fan of Oak shells, this time the prototypes convinced Tommy to make the switch. The drums are made of very warm sounding oak. "Really sweet sounding drums", according to Tommy. Just watch the video featuring Tommy playing his new kit to hear what he means.
Or see how Periphery drummer Matt Halpern demos Yamaha's new Live Custom range at NAMM 2013.
Yamaha Live Custom features The new Yamaha Live Custom sets are a new generation of the renowned Oak Custom kits with a couple of updates and new features, including newly designed die-cast claws and tension rods, dark chrome (black nickel-plated) hardware, all black shell interiors and 2.3 mm steel Dyna hoops. The floor tom leg bracket features a stronger vertical bolt and the bridged bracket design with art deco style wing bolts has no adverse effect on the tone.
Yamaha's YESS mounts are designed to minimize contact between the shell and the mount. The company also downsized the bass drum mount. By lightening the weight of the pipe-clamp mount, the sound and sustain are improved and it's more environmetally friendly. The bass drum spurs were also redesigned: a right side spur now also fits on the left side of the kick drum and vice versa.
Yamaha's Live Custom is the only drum set that features shells of 100 percent Siberian oak. Oak's sound is clear and well defined with a powerful low-end. Each ply is 1.2 mm thick instead of Yamaha's usual use of 1 mm thick plies. Tom toms, snare and floor tom are made of six-ply shells, the bass drum is beefed up to an eigh ply-shell.
The toms, all equipped with clear Remo Emperor heads on top and Clear Ambassadors on the bottom, are sized 10x7, 12x8, 13x9 inch, resulting in more tone at a lower dynamic levels so the drum set will fit both jazz drummers and hard-hitters. All drums have a 45 degree bearing edge.
Live Custom configurations and finishes Yamaha's Live Custom Series is available in different configurations with an 18, 20 and 22 inch diameter bass drum, and four different colours: Emerald Shadow Sunburst, Amber Shadow Sunburst, Black Shadow Sunburst and Black Wood.
The new Yamaha Live Custom drum sets have and estimated recommended retail price from 2,510 USD (1,930 euros or £1,670) including vat and are scheduled to ship May 2013.
