Yamaha is a very familiar name in high quality drums that goes back to 1967. However, I didn’t really get turned-on to Yamaha Drums until the very early 1980’s. That was when I started noticing them being played by many outstanding drummers, saw them in the studios, began reading reviews on them, and started seeing them at trade shows and music stores. I always thought they sounded great! In my humble opinion, Yamaha is one of the companies that helped define the “modern sound” in drum kits. Yamaha asked Modern Drummer to compare and contrast two of their new high-end kits and sent over a Hybrid Maple and a Hybrid Oak shell kit so we could report on what we thought. Of course, we gladly accepted the assignment, and Yamaha sent us two, almost identical five-piece kits: a Live Custom Hybrid Oak, and an Absolute Hybrid Maple. Both kits were […]

November 2024 Issue