In the early 80’s Tama created a fancier Royal Star version using the “Tamco” lugs, and a big “T” badge proclaiming “Made in Japan”. Additionally, the outer cherry stain was used on the inside of the drums instead of Zola coat. The drum’ s interior screws and washers have a gold-ish plating, not standardized galvanized style.. Depending on what you can dig up about the wood construction of these drums -some opinions claim 5 ply Mahogany and 2 of Shina wood. The attached black and white photo is from an early (’82) NAMM show in Modern Drummer Magazine (my guess). This blurb says 8 ply Mahogany and 1 outer birch and clearly this version with the Tamco lugs. All the “Big T” badges on this set begin with “82”. Tama Camco production stopped in Japan in’83. This style of Royal Stars were never in a catalog I’ve been able to locate. Regular Royal star drums yes, but not the Tamcos. So, our set has an Omni-sphere tom mount, a 14″ x 22″, 8″ x 12″, 9″ x 13″, and 2, yes 2 16′ x 16”s. I picked up the 2nd 16 later on. Lack dots on 4 out of 5 drums. Aquarian Super Kick 1 and vintage on the bass. Some drums have some minor dings- see the photos. If you know what they are and. Truly want this quality vintage of drum set, the price is the price. Oh, yeah, they sound killer…
Tags: drumset, edition, lugs, royal, special, star, tama, tamco