After 10 years of research and development, Yamaha debuted a new line of marching drums, using maple instead of birch in the new 9300 series of snare drums and 8300 series of tenor and bass drums.
“Yamaha doesn’t just make changes overnight,” says Joel Tetzlaff, Yamaha product manager for percussion. “The 10 years in development has led us to a better Yamaha drum; we’re not chasing anyone else’s design.”
Besides the wood type, the biggest change is that chrome hardware is now standard on all snare drums in addition to the tenors and basses. Otherwise, the drums look similar to past models but have small internal tweaks for durability and sound.
Yamaha has worked with seven top drum corps in testing and improving over the last several years. “All seven have had variations of these drums,” Tetzlaff says. “The elements, the stress and the constant tuning are the equivalent of about five years in the band room. We’ve had a lot of great feedback on the sound.”
The new drums are made in Yamaha’s new state-of-the-art factory in China, built specifically for manufacturing drums with no parts or pieces outsourced.
Visit www.usa.yamaha.com for more information.
