Tama’s newly upgraded Superstar line offers 100 percent birch shells, die-cast hoops, solid sound, and lots of finishes and add-on drums to choose from, all at a reasonable price. Two-ply heads and birch shells are a proven combination and are perfectly suited to the rock drummers who’d buy this kit. They often prefer the sound, too, since they sound closer to the toms they hear on recordings. The single-ply heads supplied with the kit sounded fine, but younger drummers with less tuning skills often find two-ply heads easier to tune and a bit more forgiving of uneven tensioning. I’d suggest Tama consider equipping the drums with two-ply heads to add some additional low-end fullness to their sound. I found the mounted toms preferred middle-to-lower tunings because they started to choke if tuned up high with the factory heads. The floor tom had lots of clarity in the low end without any discernible muddiness. Each tom had clearly defined pitches and an open tone. The toms were bright with lots of attack. This drum represented each of those advantages beautifully.Įven with die-cast hoops the toms tuned up pretty quickly, though I did have to go back and forth between lugs fine-tuning each one a little more than I like. I think birch snares are often better for aggressive styles of music than maple because they can cut through loud amps yet still have a round tone. It seems that maple is ideal for old-school vintage tones but birch lies midway between wood and metal snares in tone.
I usually like the sound of birch snares since they tend to be brighter and crisper than maple drums. This was handy for adjustments between songs since I sometimes loosen the wires a bit on slow tunes and tighten them for busier ones. I was easily able to fine-tune the snare tension with the wires engaged since the nut turned smoothly and was rubber-coated for better grip. This drum had great rim-click and rimshots, no doubt in large part due to the die-cast hoops. It’d be nice if the head came with an impact patch, though, for additional durability for the heavy hitters among us. These premuffled heads worked as they’re designed, and you won’t need to port the head to dry up excess overtones. The factory heads sounded great on this drum. It had everything I want from a rock bass drum. The bass drum sounded great: deep, fat, and punchy. I got in the habit of handling them by the Star-Cast mounts and hoops to avoid touching the shells, and I still left evidence behind. Cases are a must and you should consider keeping some cotton gloves handy when setting them up and tearing them down.
Just imagine them with Remo’s chrome Starfire heads! As gorgeous as it is, it’s also unfortunately a magnet for fingerprints. I’d expect it to be very impressive under stage lights as well.
Visually, this finish is a knockout, with the chrome Duracover wrap framed by chrome hardware.
My review kit came in the perfectly applied, extremely striking, and aptly named Mirror Chrome. These range from subdued finishes like the classy Gray Pewter, to more flamboyant finishes like Turquoise Haze or Mirror Chrome. The kits come in 15 different finishes that include gloss and satin lacquers and two different types of wraps: Duracover and Unicover. The bass drum heads each feature an internal muffling ring around the circumference of each head. The drums have single-ply hazy Tama PowerCraft 250 batter heads on the toms and bass drum with a coated version on the snare.
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