Tama Swingstar

Obviously, I didn't expect to see reviews on my drum set because I knew that it was an older drum set. I bought it in like, I want to say 2007, maybe ...

So, we see here the new Tama Swingstar drum kit. It's an entry-level drum kit, new with Tama. I mean, the name Swingstar is well known with Tama, but ...

80’s Swingstar for $0

i don’t know much about Tama drums but in 2009 i had to sell my Ludwig to pay rent after being fired from my job. the Swingstar kept me playing and i was able to make it sound good

My dad got me a Tama swingstar kit when I was 13 and I loved it. Good sounding drums. Solid hardware. The Tama cymbals are crap, but worked fine for me as a beginner and I was able to upgrade to better cymbals later.

So it took a lot of serendipitous stuff to occur for this nice kit to happen, and it’s after a no name kit stripped of badges, a first generation used Tama Swingstar, used Tempro (Pearl Japan) bop kit from the 60s, used Pearl Export, used Premier XPK, Gretsch Catalina, and Ludwig Epic (scratch and dent). It’s like that old Johnny Cash song where the guy at the auto plant takes home a car part every day to build his own Cadillac. “One Piece at a Time”. I envy the people who can just drop five grand on a new kit in cash when they feel like it, but if you’re patient, open minded, and try to do right by people, you can find good drum stuff in most budgets.

I would go for the Tama Swingstar but I would definitely ask for more pictures and better quality ones if possible before making that drive. If you can't get more pictures of it I'd wait and go look at another one like the Gretsch that was suggested above first and try to haggle a little with them on the price. Here's a Red Badge Swingstar that sold on Reverb that should be what you would go look at though.

Old Bright Red Tama Swingstar from early 80's with Zola interior. For the most high profile sessions I've done, I've opted for that one with my 70's Supraphonic snare, instead of my nice, clean 60's three ply Ludwig kit. The Swingstar just flat out sounds better for most music. Remarkably beautiful sounding kit.

Maybe buy some better snare wires (if you can find tama starclassic, you hit the jackpot) but any kind of sound you want, go after it. It's a pretty cheap and crappy kind of a snare drum so the heads and the snare wire will make all the difference. 200/300 mil reso head will work good (Evans hazy 200/300 or Remo Ambassador/Emperor) and for the batter, again what ever you find interesting.

I have an old Tama Swingstar set that I have been adding to for over 15 years and swear by it!

Keep on playing!

Tama Swingstar (12-16-20) (early-mid 2000s?) with coated G2s and no resos

Sounds fucking killer for a cheap kit (assuming resonance isn’t your thing)