The older vintage 70-80's Imperialstars are 9 ply mahogany,and have zola coated interiors.They are just about bullet proof,and sound great.Stewart Copeland,and Liberty De Vito used them and I always liked their drum sound.

The newer Imperialstars shells are mostly poplar 7 ply shells,and although they sound pretty decent,they are entry level drum.Vintage Imperialstars were at one time Tamas top of the line,till the Superstar series was introduced in 76.So the imperialstar line was second tier to the superstars.They also used the same exact lugs and hardware as supes,but were wrapped shells only.They can still be had very cheaply.

I had a 1 up 2 down in dark blue metalic,and I still have the 16x18 floor tom.It is just thunderous.Imperialstars were also available with a 14x26 bass drum,and they pop up from time to time.I heard one once and it sounded amazing.I think a forum member here has one.You can't go wrong with these drums.

Steve B

I have a zolacoated 14"Imperialstar concert tom in medium condition which I stripped to finish my Superstar build,and it does NOT have rerings.If I'm looking for Imp's as an all around gigging set,are the rering drums more desirable?And if so what years would those encompass?I've seen pretty complete sets of them for very short money-

I've had my Imperialstars since I bought them new in 1983.

13"x 9", 14"x 10", 16"x 16", 18"x 16", 24"x 14", 14"x 6.5" King Beat snare.

These things sound amazing!

When kids come to my studio with their brand new OCPD, Pacifics, or Pearls, they're always like..."how do those Tamas sound?"...needless to say, I end up micing up the Tamas more often than not.

Soooooo I'm watching Frank Beard play his Imp's live in Germany-1980.The toms have rerings you can see thru the remo black dots.Does anyone know when this construction style stopped?His snare is REDICCLUS huge...

When I bought my Imperialstars in '83, Tama had already stopped using the re-rings. None of my toms or kicks have them.

The rerings went away in around 80.Tama Superstars went from a 4 ply 6 MM,with rerings,to a 6 ply 9MM shell without rerings.They stopped using rerings in the imperialstars around that time also.

Steve B

I have an Octa Plus kit in Midnight Blue Imperialstars. 6-16 Concert toms with an 18 Floor and 2-24's

These sound like thunder..

Well,I suppose now I'm looking for a rering set with at LEAST 13/16/24-double headed.God,like I don't have enough.....