This is the famous air seal system with staggered diagonal seams. Right from these earliest efforts Yamaha devised its distinctive shell-making procedure which is universally regarded.
Just as today we may be sceptical about the ‘Made in China’ tag, back in the 1960s ‘Made in Japan’ was not greatly assuring. Hard to imagine now, but in any case this perception was to change quickly and dramatically.
The first kits were manufactured in Hamamatsu, Japan. Yamaha was a well-known and respected brand well before setting to work on drums in 1967. This expanded into Europe with Yamaha Europe GMBH in West Germany. In the mid-1960s, with the youth and music revolution that was energising the world, Yamaha honed in on recreation and lifestyle markets, starting with wind instruments in 1965 and establishing the Yamaha Music Foundation the following year. Keyboard instruments have remained a lynchpin of the company ever since, and today Yamaha pianos grace concert halls, jazz clubs, studios and homes all around the world. By the turn of the century Yamaha had its first upright piano and a couple of years later in 1902 its first grand piano, which already looked very much like the pianos of today. Two years later he set up the Yamaha organ manufacturing company in Hamamatsu, which became the Nippon Gakki Co Ltd in 1897. Gradually he saw the potential for producing Western musical instruments in Japan. This was in 1887, the date of his company’s birth.
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He was one day asked to repair a portable reed organ, and with his fascination aroused, he set about building his own instrument. Yamaha was originally founded as a musical instrument company by a Japanese watchmaker called Torakusa Yamaha, who lived from 1851 to 1916. That the factory is in China is simply a sign of the times we live in. Visiting the factory was eye-opening, seeing up close the exacting manufacturing tolerances and testing, the unstinting quality control, the laboratory-style cleanliness of the workplace. On the contrary, Yamaha has invested an unheard-of US $10 million in the operation, with the Chinese workforce trained to the highest skill levels by the ultra-experienced Japanese craftsmen. Yamaha’s Xiaoshan facility is not some tawdry operation to make drums on the cheap using casual labour.
The new Recording Custom has badges which clearly state ‘Made in China’. Recording Custom is Yamaha’s most acclaimed kit, quite possibly the most recorded kit ever, the kit which put Yamaha out front throughout the 1980s. Now we have the revamped Recording Custom series, launched at Winter Namm, 2016. Xiaoshan first delivered the Live Custom series, followed by 2014’s truly progressive Absolute Hybrid Maple. The aim as always is to stay on top, be competitive and to build the best drumsets conceivable. Then in 2010 Yamaha achieved a long-held ambition to add a dedicated drum building, employing the latest in hi-tech, environmentally strict and rigorously quality controlled production methods. This extensive plant was first opened in 1997, producing Yamaha’s woodwind and brass instruments and marching percussion.
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And although Yamaha continues to build its flagship Phoenix PHX series in Japan, the latest professional series are now coming out of the new facility in Xiaoshan, China. Up till 2011, all of Yamaha’s high-end drums were made in Japan. From the off the drums were of high quality, hand-crafted in a relatively small workshop in Hamamatsu. Although Yamaha was founded way back in 1887, it has only been making drums since 1967.
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