Tama Club Jam Suitcase - Long Term Review
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ธ.ค. 2024
- The Tama Club Jam Suitcase drum kit is an extremely portable and convenient beast to be sure, but are there any compromises on sound? My deep dive review, after a year and a half of owning one, will reveal all. A detailed look at all of its features, Recording samples, and my personal thoughts. Come with me on a journey with a sparkly blue finish.
Affiliate Links to gear used:
Tama Club Jam Suitcase drum kit shell pack - amzn.to/4hv8RFZ
Tama Club Jam Cymbal arm - geni.us/PT1Qjnv
Cymbals - geni.us/MNKb4
Yamaha Crosstown Hardware - geni.us/M6eB
Aquarian Super 2 drum heads - geni.us/mqKD
Remo power stroke 3 drum head - geni.us/NHy45B
Remo Falam slam pad - geni.us/BbxN7E9
Focusrite recording interface (newer version than mine) - geni.us/ETeR
Overhead mic (AKG C414) - geni.us/fMWSEI
Tom mics (Shure SM58) - geni.us/zhmhe
Snare mic (Shure SM 57) - geni.us/BzBw9Hs
Kick drum mic (AKG D112) - geni.us/ABFcp
Dialogue mic (Shure Beta 58) - geni.us/vuFFAV5
Timestamps:
What comes in the box and pricing [00:27]
Hardware [01:00]
Portability [02:12]
Build quality [03:15]
Looks [04:48]
Sound [05:38]
Recording samples [7:52]
Final thoughts [11:20]
Background music by Aaron Stanton
Follow me on Instagram and Tiktok: @a_drum_s
It's a neat solution to portability. I got a 2nd hand Club Jam as my first acoustic kit and am pretty happy with it. Not quite as portable, but it all fits in the car boot. I am still on the original heads, so need to upgrade those some time.
Inde makes a nice portable kit, a little bit more pricy but you can order whatever sizes you want iirc
Glad it's proving so versatile Glad it's proving so versatile and serving the purpose you got ot for.
Yeah it's been fantastic for me so far 😊
Very nice and informative video! By the way. you're a pretty talented musician, keep it going man!
Thanks a lot 😊. Very much appreciated 👍
Also check out Dixon Little Roomer. Been gigging with for about 4 years. Has a 20x7 kick, 10x7 Tom and a 13x10 floor Tom. Also came with 10 in snare and a mountable tambourine. Sounds great when mixed up, or quieter for small rooms.
Nice, sounds good I'll check it out! 10 inch snare sounds like it could be quite fun 🤔
@@aaron_stanton Little Roomers also use mahogany shells instead of poplar. It's worth the price increase imo.
@AriocKaichi Yeah for sure. Unfortunately I just had a pretty strict budget for this one. Definitely will check them out for a future upgrade though.
Really appreciate this review. Sounds really nice tuned up to my ear, I presume this might relate to the compact shell sizes. Do you find it harder to find a satisfying tone with lower tuned skins, or not at all? Also, did you have anything in the kick to dampen? Very tempted to pick one up in the new year.
Thanks, I'm really glad you found it useful 🙂.
I generally find i can get the lower tone I'm after, although in this case i do agree the higher tuning sounded better. Shell size probably helps yes, but i think it was also largely down to some pretty tired skins that needed replacing on the lower tuning 😅.
It's also quite a dead sounding room, so with no post processing I think that's worth bearing in mind aswell.
For dampening I use a small piece of padding from a cymbal case in the kick, pushed up against the beater skin. All in all Its a great little kit for the price I'd say. Thanks for watching 👍.
@@aaron_stanton thanks for the response!
I`ve owned this. Sold it and got a Yamaha stage custom hip instead. SO much better in every way:)About the tama`s: 1. You`ll find that packing and unpacking the drums in each other takes more time than actually having a couple more bags. 2. The bassdrum is small diameter and doesnt sound all that much..... 3. The bassdrum is in two pieces and its just wood on wood that wears both sides down....so the sawdust he mentions in this video is actually wear from the bassdrum moving and sanding itself down. Im not joking. 4. The bassdrumlegs has to go thru each piece of the bassdrum, making it clunky to install and adjust and is just av very bad design. 5. Having a ride on the bassdrum itself gets wobly and the bassdrum just doesnt provide any sort of sturdiness or confidence. But what it WILL do is sand itself even more down. This is downright the worst piece of kit I`ve ever owned. I even tried to improve it (rubber rims on bassdrum/ improved bassdrum legs/floating tom holder on the small tom, original tomholder totally killed the sustain), but like a said, Yamaha offers a much smarter solution to the easy-to-transport problem regarding drums:) It also sounds ten times better: th-cam.com/video/1NkkyBqd16A/w-d-xo.html
Definitely some good points there 👍. Unfortunate it didnt work out for you, but I have to say its been great for me. To be fair i did have pretty low expectations though so that could have something to do with it 😅. I'd like to give the yamaha hip a go, although it is a fair bit more pricey than the tama so I'd hope for a better quality.
The sawdust was actually there out of the box before I'd even played the kit and I haven't seen any since that so it wasn't there for the reason you suggest. But I do agree there is clearly compromise in design to have the 2 part kick drum. I don't imagine it will last forever, but for now its doing the job.
@@aaron_stanton I think the kick drum could be improved with some well-placed flight case latches like some other nesting drums.
Very very nice playing. Thanks for the review - looking for a kit to live in the back of the car because I dont want to have to lift my kit up and down the 20 steps to my rehearsal space multiple times a week.
Thanks a lot 🙂. Yeah fair enough I definitely understand that!
Be aware that property insurance (homeowner's or renter's) typically does not cover theft of items left in the car overnight or long term.
Good review, thx.
Thanks for watching!
Evan’s makes a 16 inch emad bass drum head
Is it a bass drum head though? They are different from tom heads, even in similar sizes.
You're right they do. I should maybe have been more clear about this, 16 inch bass drum heads are available, but I've found most stores (at least near me) don't tend to stock them. You can order them, but they're tough to get hold of if you need one quickly, that's all really.
@ this is true. Unless you have like a guitar center nearby you’d more than likely have to order them.
@@aaron_stanton
I am the proud owner of two 16" kicks (both from the Yamaha Hipgig family) and I'm not a fan of the EMAD; I use Evans heads everywhere else, but the Aquarian Super Kick II has been amazing for my little kicks. People are always surprised how good they sound. My main problem with the EMAD is that the plastic ring tends to eventually come unglued and starts to buzz.
@@DriftSpaceZero I've been using an EMAD once, and it eventually started to buzz. I've spent quite some time trying to figure out where the buzz was coming from, and it turned out that the plastic ring that holds the foam cracked :/
How you liking that Yamaha cymbal stand? I was a bit disappointed by the aluminum hi hat stand.
I've found it pretty decent to be honest. I'm clamping my tom mount to it aswell. Its not quite as resilient as a regular stand would be, in that I can see some marks made on it, but doesn't seem to have any impact structurally as of yet..
How has your hihat stand been? I've been considering one myself so would be good to know. Thanks for watching 👍.
@@aaron_stanton I found it to be kinda stiff for my tastes. Also doesn't have adjustable tension. I did buy it used so maybe it has some kinda issue, but it wasn't as smooth as I'd like. Recently replaced it with the Yamaha HS740 and its been much better for me.
Ah I see, good to know. Might have to see if I can try one somewhere first then.
I don't hate the action of my Yamaha HHS3, but not being able to swivel the legs is a deal-breaker. I'm in the process of trying to mod it.
I’ve have a tamer club jam flyer. I swapped out the snare, I couldn’t get the stock one to sound as I wanted. I’ve tried a few tops and settled on remo pin stripes.
I’ve got to say I love it, I use it for everything now, (I didn’t think I would) I can get it to sound just how I like it. My preferred tone is something like a pile of cardboard boxes, obviously not for everyone but Hey we’re all different.🫶
doesn't seem to be available in the US. :( at least it's not on the website.
Ah that's unfortunate, it will most likely be available from guitar centre or similar I'd imagine.
Sounds so much better with the single ply heads. You might want to try a coated emperor for the bass drum head. Great job on the video!
Thanks very much 😊. Yeah it probably didn't help that those super 2 heads were beyond dead too 😅.
Thanks for the suggestion, yeah I've used coated emperors quite a bit on bass drum in the past, but never on this kit. I like them for some things although haven't found them to be the most durable. I might well give it a go though.
yeh the mounted cymbal arm on the kick is a no no for me...i bought a sonor mini kit..its v similar to the tama...but when recording..the rumble of that cymbal arm is too much..
Yeah i know what you mean for sure. The problem is, the older I get the more I love how little gear I need to bring to gigs 😅. I think I'll probably just get another light weight stand and stick a splash on it eventually.
@@aaron_stanton The mounted cymbal arm would probably also be adequate for "toys" like a cowbell or jam blocks.
@@mal2ksc Very true. I was thinking of a small cymbal stack or something could be good too.
Get a new snare head!
Haha yeah. What can I say, my budget is fairly limited currently and it still works! But it is on the list.
This kit sounds like butt. 😂
@lc4754 in what way?