Tama Drums is a brand name of drums and drum equipment marketed and also produced by a Japanese musical instrument company called Hoshino Gakki. It is probably one of the largest, if not the largest and most popular brand of drums in today’s music market. However, even if Tama Drums has been manufacturing drums for as long as they have manufactured drum equipment, the brand used to be well known for their sturdy and high quality drum equipment only. It was only later on when the market actually started to highly regard the Tama drum sets. Today, Tama Drums always mean quality musical instruments.
This well known quality is due to Tama’s research and endless product development. All the products are carefully tested prior to manufacture. The development of the concepts and the testing are all done in the company’s hometown in Seto, Japan. However, the actual production line and factory of the more budget friendly drums are in Guangzhou, China. Hoshino Gakki also has several outlets and marketing offices around the world. These offices take care of distribution and wholesale marketing. As for the drums that are sold all over the United States, those are assembled and stored at the Hoshino Gakki facility located in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. This is also one of the facilities that contribute to the market research and product development of the Tama drums.
However, before all the recognition and praise the brand has received, it all began when Hoshino Gakki started producing drums in the 1965. At that time, it was called Star Drums. He picked this name because “Hoshino”, the family name of the founder, means “star field” in Japanese, thus “Star Drums”. The drums and drum accessories were later on produced by one of the first subsidiaries of the product, Tama Seisakusho, which was first established in 1962 to manufacture Ibanez guitars and amplifiers. The manufacture of the Ibanez products was later pulled out in 1966, but the production of the Tama drum sets continued, and even grew stronger.
The first two drums ever marketed in America were the Imperial Star and the Royal Star. These two drums were far cheaper than the more popular drums at that time, which contributed largely to Tama’s success. The first American customers of Tama drums and accessories were also impressed by the workmanship of the products, which was comparable to the quality of the more established brands in the US.
Hoshino, in 1974, decided to take the company to a higher level, producing more high-end drum sets and equipment. He also began to market the drum sets and other drum equipment under the Tama brand. Tama appealed to him because it means “jewel” when translated to Japanese. So it was more or less synonymous: jewels sparkle just like stars, just as Tama continually strives to shine above the rest of the brands. However, in keeping with the heritage of the “star” name, all of Tama’s drums still use the word “star” in its model names up to this very day.
As for expansion, Tama and another company, Drum Workshop went into a joint agreement to buy the then already bankrupt Camco Drum Company. This did not mean a merge for the two companies, though. The deal was that the Camco tools and equipment would go to Drum Workshop, while Tama will get the rights to use the Camco name and other non-tangibles like rights, patents, design and engineering.