Yamaha New Recording Custom Drum Set

98
| MARCH 2016 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
GEAR REVIEW
F
ew drum kits achieve legendary
status. Gretsch’s round-badge
Broadkaster, Ludwig’s Super Classic.
Add to those Yamaha’s Recording
Custom, commonly called the Yamaha 9000.
Starting life in the mid-1970s, it had set new
standards by the early 1980s with its piano
lacquered all-birch shells and full-length
fl ush-braced lugs. Yamaha called birch the
‘recording’ wood, focused and punchy,
‘pre-eq’d’, even! Securing Steve Gadd as its
main champion was the fi nal masterstroke,
Gadd being the most infl uential drummer of
his era. Gadd changed the way drummers
play and the 9000 changed the look and
sound of drum kits for a decade.
But time moves on and the RC was fi nally
discontinued in 2012, coinciding with Yamaha
moving production of its professional drums
to its new super-factory, Xiaoshan Yamaha, in
Hangzhou, China (see cover feature, p28). The
output so far has yielded three contrasting
professional kits – the warm and deep Live
Custom Oak, the super-resonant Maple
Custom Hybrid, and now the updated, focused
Recording Custom.
Build
Once more designed with input from Steve
Gadd, the new RC retains its original qualities,
but is updated with a fatter, weightier lug,
thinner bass drum shells, sharper bearing
edges and even greater manufacturing
precision. Back in the 1980s the RC was a
sensation with the never-before-seen lavish
quality of its paint lacquered shells, the same
lacquering that Yamaha applies to its pianos.
So it’s fi tting we have for review a selection of
From £3,603 Yamaha updates its most successful series,
the highly-regarded all-birch Recording Custom
YAMAHA
NEW RECORDING
CUSTOM DRUM SET
WORDS: GEOFF NICHOLLS
the new Solid Black lacquered drums. There
are just three other fi nishes: Classic Walnut,
Real Wood and Surf Green. Inside, the shells
have a mid-brown matt stain, again similar to
the pianos. There’s a new badge, understated
as ever, but proudly stating ‘Made In China’.
Shells are all six-ply, 6mm birch. The
original RC used broad-leaf Hokkaido birch,
but from now on the shells will feature North
American birch as a steady supply of high
quality timber has been secured.
One big plus of the new Chinese facility is
a continual tightening of manufacturing and
quality control tolerances, which were
already industry leaders. Yamaha’s Air Seal
shell technology with angled seams (Yamaha
features from the beginning) ensure
near-perfect shell construction. Wielding
a ruler over the shells confi rms they are
exactly round. And for once I do mean
exactly . Inevitably the bearing edges are
equally fi nely cut and fi nished. They rise
30° from the inner surface, steeper than the
previous 45°, with a single-ply outer bevel.
The obvious change is in the lug, which is
a bloated version of the original high-tension,
full-length design. All the chromed fi ttings
and castings are lustrous. Yamaha’s chrome
is quite rightly legendary. The 20"x16" review
bass drum has a new pedal lift bracket bolted
to the batter hoop. This is a request from
Steve Gadd and is available on the 18" bass
drum too. The idea is to enable the pedal
beater to strike at the centre of the head so
that it feels similar to playing a 22" drum.
Bass drums also have comfy ‘T’ handle
tensioners, rather than now-standard
drum key bolts. They are quite small,
THE INTERVAL ENCOMPASSED BY A
FULL TURN ON THE RODS TAKES YOU
FROM DEEP ROARING BLAST TO HIGH
PINGING BEBOP, CLEAN AND FOCUSED
NEW LUG
The famous fl ush-braced high-tension
full-length lug has been fattened up to
“ensure optimum sustain for the core
sound, producing a crisp, articulate tone”
RHY252.gear_yamaha.indd 98 22/01/2016 15:24