History

The development of the drum set is largely rooted in American tradition and music, and therefore most of what are considered vintage and classic drum sets were made by American companies. Some of the famous early drum set makers include Slingerland, Leedy, Ludwig, Rogers, and Gretsch. Naturally, the Zildjian cymbals we recognize today carry the names of those pioneers.  read more »

Yamaha drums include YESS hardware for minimizing mount to shell contact and maximizing drum resonance.

Yamaha drums, are made by the famous Japanese Yamaha Corporation. Aside from drum equipment and other musical instruments, Yamaha also manufactures a wide variety of products, including motorcycles, computer hardware, and home entertainment electronics. The founder of the Yamaha Corporation began as an organ maker in 1887, and in 1889 he formed the Yamaha Organ Manufacturing Co. in Hamamatsu.  read more »

The development of the drum set is largely rooted in American tradition and music, and therefore most of what are considered vintage and classic drum sets were made by American companies. Some of the famous early drum set makers include Slingerland, Leedy, Ludwig, Rogers, and Gretsch. Naturally, the vintage drums we recognize today carry the names of those pioneers.  read more »

Tama was the first to introduce boom cymbal stands and multi-clamps.

Tama drums are made by the Hoshino Gakki Group. The Hoshino family owned a bookstore in Nagoya, Japan, and in 1908 started selling musical instruments out of the same store, including US made Slingerland and Ludwig drumsets and percussion.  read more »

The Sonor drums factory was expropriated by the communist East German government in 1950.

The Sonor company was founded by Johannes Link, who in 1875 built a factory for manufacturing percussion instruments and drum-heads in Weissenfels, Bavaria (in Germany). Link, born in 1847, spent his early career in wood and leather works. The first Sonor drums made were military drums. By 1900 Sonor was making cymbals and various concert drums, and started manufacturing drum sets in the early 20s.  read more »

The snare drum is the center piece of the modern drum kit. Snare drums are made of a wooden or metal shell and are double headed. The snare drum's batter head is stretched across the drum's top and is the part struck with the stick when the drum is played. The snare drum's snare head is stretched across the bottom and is usually thinner than the batter head. The distinctive snare drum sound is produced by wires, called snares, that are tightly stretched over the snare head.  read more »

Slingerland's legendary Radio King drum sets introduced the first double-headed tunable tom tom.

The Slingerland company was started by Henry H. Slingerland in Chicago in 1916. As a fast emerging company, Slingerland took up drummer Gene Krupa's request for a cutting edge drum set with tunable resonant heads on the tom toms' bottoms. The result was the Radio King drum set. Gene Krupa went on to become a big star with the Benny Goodman orchestra in the 1930s, and consequently, Slingerland drums and the Radio King became very popular.

The Roland company does not make traditional drums, but rather all of the Roland drums are electronic. Roland is a pioneer and world leader in electronic musical instruments and products. Its array of products includes synthesizers, drum machines, mixing boards, effect processors, and of course electronic drum sets.  read more »

Rogers drums were the first to feature memory lock clamps for easy setup duplication.

The Rogers company was started in 1849 by an Irish immigrant from Dublin named Joseph Rogers. Rogers came to the United States and started crafting drum-heads. Rogers began making drums in the mid 1930s from a Farmingdale, New Jersey location. The first Rogers drums were assembled from shells and hardware of other manufacturers, but mounted with Rogers heads.  read more »

Remo was the first to commercially manufacture synthetic drumheads.

Remo is probably best known for its Remo drumheads, but in the mid 1980s it also became a successful manufacturer of drums as well. In 1957, Remo Belli, in collaboration with a chemist named Sam Muchnick, introduced the first commercial synthetic drumhead, hence starting Remo's domination over drum head making.  read more »