- Super Rare 1987 Yamaha Carbon Custom Snare Drum 3.5 x 14 Limited Edition #5 of 5 in Harrisonburg, Virginia For Sale

For sale is an exclusive xxxx Yamaha Limited Edition Carbon Custom Snare Drum 3.5 x 14 made to commemorate Yamaha 100th Anniversary.
This Snare Drum is #5 of 5.
Includes: the original vintage airport snare drum case made specifically for this marvel, protection velcro pad also made for the drum, and the three dampening rings that came in the package.
This limited carbon custom snare drum has gold plated hardware, aluminum diecast hoops, and parallel snare strainer for maximum adjustability.
This drum #5 of 5 in which I purchased years ago from a long time friend and professional drummer in Japan, making me the second person in North American to own this drum - next after Tommy Aldridge.
#1 is property of Tommy Aldridge who was the top Yamaha endorsed artist in xxxx.
#2 is property of Yamaha and is on display at the Yamaha museum in Japan.
#3 and # 4 are owned by professional drummers in Japan.
In xxxx, Yamaha wanted to commemorate their 100th anniversary of the company, so they put a crazy amount of money into a research and development project of super limited run carbon fiber snare drums. These carbon fiber drums made by Yamaha were not the same as modern mass produced carbon fiber snare drums you see with companies such as DW, Dunnett, Tempus, Rocketshell, etc. Back in the 80s, carbon fiber was hand laid and hand woven, and was extremely costly and very labor intensive. Yamaha made 2 drum sets from carbon fiber and it cost nearly $45,000 USD back in xxxx just for the shells. This would easily be twice that much money in today's market more then 20 years later. These drums were not made to create profit, but were made in light of muscial advancement and bragging rights between drum makers. As you know, Yamaha drums are the best in the industry. When talking to the drum expert at Yamaha, he told me they actually lost astronomical amounts of money producing these drums and again were only made to mark the top of the line in the drum market. They were simply much too expensive and far too labor intensive to make them remotely profitable. Tama and Sonor had many high end snare drums in the xxxxs, but Yamaha never made its high end debut. This carbon fiber snare drum set the bar as their most exclusive drum ever built. Described by Yamaha as, "our best interpretation of building a drum and sparing no expense" which is also similar to their PHX concept.
When it comes to it's sound, the lows and highs are extended so greatly over the drum shell that it sounds absolutely incredible. It has wonderful projection with tons of body and response. The goal of the Yamaha Carbon Custom was to connect the acoustic world with the digital sound system, mic'd, live, and recording. It is the most balanced and most flexible snare drum I have ever play in my 20 years. Especially in terms of tuning and how easy it is to record the drum the way you want it to sound. It is essentially like a pre EQ'd snare drum so regardless of what tuning range, it will sound balanced. It is definitely one of the most rare, high end snare drums you can possibly purchase today.
Tommy Aldridge was one of the most well known, and only American, Yamaha endorsed drummer that received one of these snare drums. Later one of the full drum sets he was given was returned to the Yamaha museum for display. These drums that yamaha made were so great in tuning range that it extended the lows and highs of the drum like the wood ply drums have never been able to do. The build quality of this carbon fiber snare drum is very similar to modern day hand woven carbon fiber that goes on very exotic vehicles like the Lexus LFA ($500,000) car. This is definitely the most rare, most elusive Yamaha Snare Drum that one can possibly have in their collection, and it is one of a kind. Sounds nothing like any metal, wood, mass produced carbon fiber snare drum you have heard. It is in a league of its own. It is so great with its tuning range that it makes this 3.5 x 14 sound almost like a 14x5.5, 14x6.5 snare drum. Yamaha was experimenting with the sizes of this snare drum and their optimal frequencies and this was their release of the most versatile and best sounding snare drum that was to challenge the vintage Tama bell brass, and Sonor bell bronze snare drums. Even today, there are no other snare drums that come even close to what Yamaha did in the late xxxxs with this, producing their most labor intensive, costly, project that they had ever embarked on. Due to the extremely high cost and unprofitable financial margins, they immedietely stopped producing this snare drum after the five were made.