History

• Origin of the Drum Set-

  Drums are among the oldest instruments known to man, but drum sets did not start taking shape until the beginning of the 20^th century. Throughout history, the percussion portion of music making was a collective endeavor, in which many instruments were played by many individuals.

• Tama Drums - Innovation in Drumsets from Japan-

  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.

• Yamaha Drums - Drum Equipment from the World's Largest Musical Instrument Manufacturer-

  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.

• Snare Drum Rudiments-

  The snare drum rudiments are a standard set of exercises used to build drum technique and stick control. Drum rudiments were not specifically invented for the drum set, but are important to playing the individual drums from which the set is made and learning how to control the sticks. Also, some rudiments can be practiced and applied on more than one drum.

• DW Drums - Drum Workshop-

  Drum Workshop, or DW for short, is a leading American drum company. In 1972, 26 year old DW founder, Don Lombardi, started his business giving drum lessons at his teaching studio, which he appropriately named Drum Workshop, in Santa Monica, CA. He soon began offering drum sticks, books, and drums for sale from the Drum Workshop location, and partnered with one of his students, 17 year old John Good, to help out with the sales.

• The Hi-Hat-

  The hi-hat is one of the central pieces of the modern drum kit. Much of its use is in keeping time and carrying the rhythm. The hi-hat is essential a pair of cymbals, mounted on a vertical rod, that can be made to come together or apart using a foot pedal. The two cymbals are mounted so that they come together at a slight angle, so that when they first touch, they only do so at a single point. This is to allow air to easily escape as the hi-hat closes.

• Gretsch Drums-

  Gretsch drums are manufactured by the Gretsch company, which was started by Friedrich Gretsch who, in 1872, immigrated to the United States from Germany. Friedrich Gretsch started a musical instrument company in Brooklyn, New York, in 1883, but died only a few years later. His teenage son then took over the company in the 1890s. Gretsch's headquarters was located in Brooklyn until it were moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1972.

• Leedy Drums-

  U.G. Leedy, the founder of the Leedy Drums company, is credited with inventing the snare drum stand.

  The Leedy Drums Company was started by Ulysses Grant Leedy in 1898. In the 1890's U.G. Leedy started his career as a percussionist in Indianapolis, but his personal desire for better instruments led him to start making his own. With encouragement from friends and colleagues, Leedy launched a small business from hit apartment, manufacturing snare drum stands, and later also snare drums. Leedy is credited with inventing the adjustable snare drum stand. Before Leedy introduced the stand, snare drums were routinely put on chairs or hung on slings.

• Mapex Drums-

  The Mapex brand was launched by the KHS Company in 1989.

  Mapex drums are manufactured by the KHS Musical Instrument Company, headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. KHS is a major musical instruments manufacturer and has operations throughout the world. KHS was founded in Taiwan in 1930, but did not begin its Mapex operations until 1989. The KHS Company started as an educational product supplier, and its line of supplies included products for music teaching. KHS is an acronym for Kung Hsue She, which translates to "A Company Helping Schools and Culture".

• Pearl Drums - The World's Most Popular Drum Kits-

  Pearl drums have the first Japanese drum related brand to penetrate the US and UK.

  Pearl drums, manufactured by the Pearl Instrument Company, are the most widely used drum kits today. Katsumi Yanagisawa, the founder of Pearl, started his company in 1946 in Tokyo Japan. He did not start out by making Pearl drums and drum kits, but music stands. (Once Yanagisawa got into the percussion business, the music stands were redesigned into cymbal stands.)

• Peavey Drums-

  Peavey Drums are made by the Massachusetts based Peavey Company, which is better known for its amplifiers and electronic instruments. Peavey introduced its first line of conventional drums at the NAMM music products trade show in 1984. These drums never made it into production and Peavey finally started selling drums a decade later.

• Premier Drums-

  Premier drums are made by the by the British Premier Drums Company. The Premier company was started in 1922 by Albret Della-Porta, who was 20 years old at the time. Della-Porta was a London drummer who had played on Boyle drums. And after Charlie Boyle, the owner of the Bolye drum company, was killed in a bar brawl, an event which also finished the Boyle company, Albert Della-Porta teamed up with the Bolye drums production manager, George Smith. Della-Porta had ideas on improving the Boyle drums he had played on, and with Smith's help started manufacturing drums from a rented basement in central London. In 1924, upon moving out of the basement to a more spacious location, Albert's younger brother, Fred, joined the company to become a sales director.

• Remo Drums-

  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.

• Roland Drums-

  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.

• Rogers Drums-

  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.

• Slingerland Drums-

  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.

• Snare Drums-

  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.

• Sonor Drums - One of Europe's Leading Drum Companies-

  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.

• Vintage Drums-

  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.

• Zildjian Cymbals-

  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.