A Soft Reboot of the RC
When it comes to drums, few names are as iconic as the Yamaha Recording Custom line. In the mid 1980’s, Yamaha transitioned their 9000 line to the “Recording Custom” line, which marketed their birch shells as the ultimate recording sound. For the next 30 years, The RC’s remained relatively unchanged until 2013 when the line was redesigned with the assistance of Steve Gadd.
The reboot of the Recording Custom included some pretty significant changes. Most notably, the shell material changed from Hokkaido birch sourced from Japan to North American Birch. Hardware changes saw the addition of weighted lugs designed to enhance low fundamental tone. Notably absent from the lineup were the wood snare drums...where did they go?
Due to a lack of popularity, or demand, Yamaha only offered RC snare drums in Aluminum, Steel or Brass after the redesign. It was only recently (2018) that Yamaha announced the re-release of the Recording Custom Birch Snare Drum.
What’s Different?
Like the newly revamped RC kits, the new wood snare drums have benefitted from North American Birch shells and weighted lugs. The 6-ply, 6mm shells feature 30-degree bearing edges that deliver sharper response and better sensitivity than their previous iteration. The shells seem to have a broader tuning range, and are slightly easier to tune.
The only negative we can seem to come up with regarding the new Recording Custom Wood Snare Drums is that they are only available in 2 sizes: 14x5.5 and 14x8. We would love to get our hands on a 6.5” deep version of this drum, but we’re happy enough just to have the RC wood snare drum return so triumphantly.