Uptheirons5150,

whoo, so many questions... Ok, let me see

How far there is a market for the Granstars I can't tell, since I live in Germany, and I don't know nothing about the U.S. market for used musical instruments at all. But you say people try to sell a single 12" Tom for $200? And do they actually sell them? So, there ís a market... Granstars are wonderful drums, and I think they are underestimated often.

There are several ways in how to clean a complete drum kit. Forum member dmenace described it here recently. Four or five times, I cleaned my Superstars lacquer finish drums with Gibson Guitar Polish, and put a drop of light oil on each and every metal moving part. It would take a mentionable amount of time and work, but it pays; even if you'd like to keep them!

I really do think both the Granstar and the Silverstar drums sound different! Granstars have been manufactured as 8ply/9mm thickness shells as far as I know, whereas the new Silverstars are made in the up-to-date thinner manner, the shells are 6ply/6mm, 7ply/7mm for the BDs. I'm pretty sure this will make a difference in sound! Differences in sound depend on so many reasons - more/heavier or less/lighter hardware, wrap or lacquer finish and so on, but first of all it depends on the drum shell. Yes, the material is an important factor, but shell thickness is very important also. I'm sure about that.

Can't tell you anything about the hoops, but since Granstars were an upgraded drum series, I'm pretty sure they have the 2.3mm hoops, even if they had not that name 'mighty hoop' until then.

I know you will find some guys here who know much more reliable things to say about the Granstar series drums. But, however, I hope this helps.

Cheers, cloth


PS: 5150? Got anything to do with some guys from California, one of them called Alex?

Wasn't expecting a response so soon. Thanks, cloth!

I have to say that the bass drum is the heaviest drum I have had to move. The bass drum is my favorite part of the set. My main intention of selling the kit would be because of my 18" FT is impossible to tune. I just cannot tune it for the life of me. And no, I was watching all the Tama Granstars listed at the very high price and I do not think any of them sold. The guy basically listed them twice and quit, I think. I was trying to work out a deal with him for his 8" Granstar and he would not budge. I thought $225 was too much for one drum seeing as how I bought the whole set for $450. I was thinking about selling my 18" to have money for the 8", but if no other sized toms sold, why would an 18"?

I love the idea of power toms (which are Granstars) but I have a hard time positioning them to my liking. I am thinking the slightly shallower Silverstars would just fit better. And they're beautiful. I have only heard a few sound files off of YouTube and the Tama site, and they sound nice.

As a general question I haven't really found an answer to: if the Granstars were still made, where would they be ranked in the current market? Would they be in the price range of Starclassic Birch?

~Danny



Edit: Ah, you beat me to my main question!

Edit2: if I got the Silverstars, I would be getting a 6-piece custom. $849.99!

If you want to sell the 18" and are willing to send it abroad (United Kingdom) I think I can find you a buyer for it.

Oh and one more thing. Granstars were the top of the line back in the days. There are people who claim Granstars and Artstars were best drums Tama ever made. Silverstar line is not even close, they are mid level drums. Being both made of birch doesn't mean anything cause not all birch is the same. ;)

The largest tom in both of my sets is a 14", and I once had a 16" FT which is long ago, so I don't have very much experience in such diameters as yours. But I think the Evans G2s are not the badest choice, even for an 18" tom. I can't imagine that the impossibility in tuning of that drum depends on the drum head, as long as it is a high quality one - and that's given.

However, I go with Remo heads for all of my drums, but I think this is just a matter of taste...

I don't think trying an Ambassador is a good idea. A 1 ply head is just going to make the drum harder to tune. My advice is to check the edges by taking the heads off, laying the shell on a granite countertop, and shining a flashlight from the inside. If you see any light coming through that's and imperfection in your edge.
Then measure the shells diameter across, lug to lug, and then measure it across the other way. If there's a significant difference in those 2 numbers your drum is out of round. Then take both hoops off and lay them on a granite countertop if the rock back and fourth at all your hoops are warped.
If you do all these things and determine that your drum has nothing wrong with it, get fresh heads(and there's absolutely nothing wring with putting a G2 on there), lock yourself in your bedroom and don't leave until your drum sounds good.

On the topic of how your kit would stack up in today's market, Six-ply is right, the Granstars are just phenominal drums, The silverstars are definitely more than one level below the granstars. I wont even sell mine for fear that they'll become hard to come by and I wont be able to get another one. The best part is the sizes you got. Thats a rare setup. I would KILL for my toms to be 10 and 12 as opposed to 12 and 14. I would also love a 14" floor tom. If your kit had the individual lugs I would be tempted to try to buy it from you and wrap it to match mine, and combine them into a sick double bass setup

It's not like you'd have to rob a bank to buy a set of Sliverstars, a 7/11 should do fine.

Why not keep both.

I'd rather do the 3 to 5 years than give up the Granstar kit.