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Pearl Drums

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The Pearl Musical Instrument Company (パール楽器製造株式会社, Pāru Gakki Seizō Kabushiki-gaisha^?) is a world leader in the manufacturing of percussion equipment, including drum kits, hand drums, drum hardware, bass drum pedals, mallet percussion, and other auxiliary percussion instruments. It also makes flutes, taiko drums and cymbals. Pearl's motto is "The best reason to play drums".

1 History
2 Construction
3 Pearl's drum kit line
4 Chad Smith's prototype kit
5 References
6 External links

History

Pearl was founded by Katsumi Yanagisawa, who began manufacturing music stands in Sumida, Tokyo on April 2, 1946. In 1950 Katsumi shifted his focus to the manufacturing of drums and named his company "Pearl Industry, Ltd." By 1953, the company’s name had changed to "Pearl Musical Instrument Company," and manufacturing had expanded to include drum kits, marching drums, timpani, Latin percussion instruments, cymbals, stands, and accessories. Katsumi’s eldest son, Mitsuo, joined Pearl in 1957 and formed a division to export Pearl products worldwide. To meet increasing worldwide demand for drum kits following the advent of Rock and Roll music, in 1961 Pearl built a 15,000 sq. foot factory in Chiba, Japan to produce inexpensive drum kits which bore the brand names of over thirty distributors like Maxwin, CB-700, Crest, Revelle, Revere, Lyra, Majestic, Whitehall, Apollo, Toreador, Roxy, and Coronet.^[1] In 1965, Mitsuo formulated a long-range plan to bring Pearl to the forefront of the percussion industry. Under this plan, Pearl would 1) develop new products with quality equal to or better than products offered by established brand name companies; 2) install the latest automated machinery in the Chiba factory to increase production; 3) establish a sister factory in Taiwan; and 4) establish a world-wide sales and service network. As part of this plan, Pearl introduced their first professional drum kit, the "President Series," in 1966, and in 1973, the Pearl Musical Instrument Company of Taiwan became operational. Today, Pearl’s Taiwanese operation encompasses five factories whose output supplies nearly the entire worldwide market for Pearl products. The original Chiba factory now caters to the domestic Japanese market producing drum kits, marching drums, timpani, and symphonic chimes. Adams Musical Instruments are sold in the U.S. through Pearl dealers, Hughes and Kettner guitar and bass amplifiers are distributed through Pearl's main warehouse in Nashville, Tennessee and Sabian cymbals are distributed in Japan through Pearl dealers. Pearl pioneered various bold and inventive drum products. Shells in the 70's were made of a composite called "wood fibreglass." Additionally, Pearl combined roto-toms and these wood-fiber shells to create the vari-pitch line of drums. Other early innovations included shells that were slightly undersized, so that the drumhead would extend over the edges much like a gong drum. Pearl manufactured seamless, extruded acrylic shells that were superior to the tabbed-and-seamed vistalite shells used by Ludwig. Gene Okamoto cemented his reputation as a very supportive and amiable person to deal with from both artists and Pearl customers (sometimes through Pearl's online forum) alike.

Construction

Pearl has always been known as a company that made drum shells first and foremost. They made shells for more than 30 companies. In the 1960s, they ceased making shells for other companies, and began manufacturing drums under their own name and used the Pearl logo for the first time.^[2] Pearl makes all of their drums in their own factories, there is no outsourcing. ^[3] Their construction technique is known as "Heat Compression Shell Molding." All Pearl drums feature this construction. Each ply is placed into a cylinder, and pressure is applied from both sides. While in the press, the shell is heated to bring the glue to a boil, thus forcing it through the wood grain and fusing the shells very tightly. The individual plies are scarf jointed, and all the seams are offset, resulting in a “seamless” drum (Pearl demonstrates the strength by parking a Humvee with its tire on a tom shell).^[4] This creates a drum shell of incredible strength, albeit a simplistic resonance characteristic.

Pearl's drum kit line

Pearl’s current line of drum kits includes eight series, ranging from entry level to professional grade, all of them use Pearl's heat compression system on the plies. In ascending order, they are:

Rhythm Traveler – Traveler's kit. All drums in the kit feature shrunken depths. Package includes cymbals, throne, hardware, mesh heads and cymbal mutes. Rhythm Traveler drums are made with 6 plies (7.5 mm) of "Selected Hardwoods".
Forum – Most music stores will sell this kit with cymbals, throne, hardware and drumsticks at no extra charge. Forum drums are made with 6 plies (7.5 mm) of Poplar.
Export - Pearl’s most popular series of drum kits, also the most popular set sold today. Export drums are made with 6 plies (7.5 mm) of Poplar, and come standard with Pearl's ISS suspension mounting system.
Vision - These drums are the replacement for the birch Session drums. Vision drums come in 2 varieties: the VLX Lacquer finish drums, and the VSX Covered finish drums. The shell material is birch and basswood. 6 ply toms: 1 inner ply birch, 4 interior plies basswood, 1 outer ply birch. 8 ply floor toms and kick drums: 2 inner plies birch, 4 interior plies basswood, 2 outer plies birch. These drums are made in China, and also feature new lugs and new 900 series hardware. These replace the Export Select and Export Radical drums.
Export ECX - In January 2007 Pearl released the all-maple Export Custom ECX series drums. The ECX series feature 4 hand rubbed lacquer finishes and 100% maple shells.
Session - (now discontinued) Session drums were made from 100% Maple or Birch shells depending on which the customer chose; both were 6-ply (7.5 mm). Session drums came standard with the Optimount suspension system and 2.3 mm hoops.
Masters Custom - Were introduced for 2007 and offer shells of 6-ply maple. These drums are the replacement for the entire Session line, and have a few differences from the Session kits: They feature Die Cast hoops, Masters-series lugs, and Remo drumheads. They are the same configuration as the Masters Premium MRP kits--but only come with 5 finishes and the only available hardware color is bright chrome. As a result the drums are not made up as "custom" stock, so they are warehoused in large quantities, and the time between order and delivery is much shorter.
Masters Premium – Released in January 2007, Masters Premium are 4 lines within this series consisting of, MMP, MRP, BRP, and BMP; they replace the Masters Series. MMP drums feature 4 plies(5.0 mm) of maple with maple reinforcement rings. MRP drums feature 6 plies(7.5 mm) of maple. BMP drums feature 4 plies(5.0 mm) of birch with reinforcement rings. BRP drums feature 6 plies (7.5 mm) of birch. All series offer choice in hardware color (black, gold, chrome--satin hardware has been discontinued for 2007). [1]
Reference - Released in January 2006. Pearl has blended wood types together for the toms, snare drums, and bass drums in order to create a unique and fully expressional sound for each individual drum. There is no single wooden drum kit that can compare with this line. They are on high demand and are the highest quality that Pearl offers, that are not totally custom. They are considered some of the best drums available today. New products for 2006 include Reference steel, wood, and brass snares.
Masterworks – Pearl's flagship model, completely hand made drums. Everything down to the plies of wood (mahogany, maple and birch - there is even a carbon fiber/maple model), types of hardware material (chrome, satin chrome, 24k gold, black), and finish are solely based on the customer's order. [2]While expensive, they are highly sought after and delivery times can run six months.

Chad Smith's prototype kit

Pearl and CeeLite have created a drum kit for Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, incorporating CeeLite's lighting technology to illuminate his Pearl Masters kit on stage. Chad's new Pearl kit is wrapped with Cee-Lite's flat, flexible Light Emitting Capacitor (LEC) panels which can be programmed to dim, fade and flash. The kit features 6 ply 7.5 mm 100% aged maple shells with chrome hardware. This drum kit will use a Flatline Inverter which will shine at 25% brightness throughout the duration of the set. When the drum is struck, the brightness will increase to 100% and decrease back down to 25%. Flash durations will also range from 0.2 to 0.4 seconds in order for the illumination to be in sync with 1/16 and 1/32 drum rolls. Chad first played this kit on NBC's Saturday Night Live on the 5-6-06, and has/is using this kit on the Red Hot Chili Peppers 2006 & 2007 tours.