Tama Swingstar

Over the years I have had three Tama kits, the first in the late 1970s was an imperial four-brother tom kit, which i used professionally for a couple of years. I chose Tama on the strength of sound produced by Stewart Copeland of the Police, I wanted a similar, snappy and lound sound from my kit. I wasn't disappointed, Tama delivered.

A number of years later, late 1990s, I bought the budget swingstar kit, which although the cheapest from the range produced by Tama, the plywood shells produced a heavy tom sound. The snare was slightly ringy and thin in sound quality but, when I gigged with the kit mic-ed through the PA and dampened to my own spec preference, I was happy with the kit. It was quite robust and I gigged with it for a couple of years.

I purchased my second Swingstar kit, second-hand two year ago, it is a swingstar hybrid with a 14" floor tom fixed to the ride cymbal stand with a Rockstar snare, in gunmetal grey finish. The quality overall is far superior to the Swingstar kit I had previously. The fittings, pedals and stands are all good, robust quality. The kit is fitted with Evans batterheads and the sound and response of the kit is good.

I would have preferred a 16" floor tom rather than the 14" tom fitted to the cymbal stand, although it is slightly quicker to set the kit up but, the 16" floor tom is both stronger and deeper in sound. However, the kit is loud and sharp and the Rockstar snare is a cleaner and faster sound than the Swingstar snare. Overall, the gunmetal grey kit looks good and sounds far better than the previous Swingstar model.

The Tama Swingstar kit is a good budget kit that would make an ideal, quality beginners kit but, it is also a kit that any comptetent drummer would be pleased with.

I bought the set 6 years ago and I am still using it today. Ive played everything with it from jazz band, to august burns red covers, I recommend not using the heads, snare, or cymbals that came with the set, I currently put a set of k customs around the kit and some nice evans heads, as well as a pork pie snare, and it can stand toe to toe with custom sets, and any electric or triggered set out there, the durability on this set is brutal, i mean i play on it for about an hour a day for the last 6 years, as well as shows in bars, colleges, grad parties, concert halls, and every where I play with it gives a nice tone and fits in with the band, it has few scratches, honestly a very good investment I would recommend it to anyone playing any kind of music.

Cheap but very good sound. Durable.

My Kit:

5 Piece Platinum Grey(22,12,13,14,16)

Ambassador on Snare

Powerstroke III on Toms

Superkick II on Bass Drum

Pros:

Very Good Hardware

Very Nice Finish

Great boomy sound

Value for money

Brilliant bass drum (dont use a reso with porthole)

Very Comfortable Throne

Cons:

Unattractive bassdrum hoop

Smothered Sounding snare (may be the skin)

Came with sh*t camber cymbals (immediately replaced)

Summary:

Sounds Excellent!

Looks Great!

and omg! Great value for money!

Solid Hardware also

I made some mods and it's easy to make this drum set look even better. The heads lasted a long time. I smashed this drum set and put it back together and it still sounds good. The only bad point is the clutch on the snare broke. The Tama Swingstar is a good kit for a starter and even more.

I like the older Tama drums, 70's and 80's, seems they put a lot into the Swingstars and Superstars, the hardware was heavy and the drums were heavy, I have an old set of Swingstars with the badges with the models numbers stamped on the the badge and they seem so much better than what is being put out now. The bass drum head says SWINGSTAR by Tama , I think they were proud of that set when it came out.

Great sound (when tuned), looks good, good quality, cheap to buy (I payed £117 ($234) for it on ebay) in general the Tama Swingstar is a good beginner/small gigging/ heavy practice kit.

A warm ringing noise is produced thanks to the mahogany shell and works well with a double pedal. I would recommend this kit to any beginner or intermediate drummer.

Although an extremely nice drum kit as a whole; Tama can and do make far higher quality drums.

But for its cost it gives an extremely high performance for relatively little money;

A progressive drummer (ie one that is advanced in learning not the style) will find the kit well suited to there needs... but be sure to tune the drums well and you will find a great sound in them:

Partnered with high quality hardware; such as tama iron cobra double pedals and the kit becomes a dream that could pass for the highest quality professional kits.