If any of the Japanese drums of the 60’s and 70’s stand out it’s the early Yamaha drums. They projected a professional quality in all of their drums, staying away from the appearance of beginner or entry-level and also avoiding the copycat mentality. This particular snare drum is from the late 60’s to early 70’s and has that flash to it that really stands out.
The shell was made in the Sakae factory and is the same as the Sakae Rhythm King and the other Sakae’s stencils. The dark Luan shell is in three plies with reinforcement rings. The configuration from outside-in is Horizontal / Vertical / Vertical. The two vertical grains together look like one thick layer, giving it a 2-ply appearance.
Most of the hardware on the drum is solid and unique to Yamaha. The strainer is roughly a Microsensitive style, only a little more compact, the lugs are heavy with nice hard lines, the hoops are standard triple-flange and the tone control is the common round variety.
The wraps on these early Yamaha’s really helped put them over the top. The Red Ripple in particular has so many little things going on inside of it. The paired 1/8” horizontal lines with angled hairlines and a somewhat transparent look that shows a little of the wood grain and gives the Red Ripple that magical hard candy look.
I have yet to see a catalog page of this exact version of the snare, but this one comes close, its only difference is the older version strainer. This page is from the “C-Series” catalog. This, like most of these early Yamaha catalogs is undated.
Here is one of the early outfits that shared this wrap. Notice the price tag of $359, the same size outfit from Slingerland at that time would run you $611.
To cap it off is the classic Yamaha badge, a name worthy of respect.
In reality this drum sounds just like a Sakae with triple flange hoops, or really any other 3-ply Luan shell drum, but some drums are a little more than just their sound, and this is one of those drums, a true classic Japanese drum.