Yamaha Tour Custom Drum Kits
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Yamaha Drum Kits
Yamaha Tour Custom: The Working Drummer's Kit
If you have played a festival in the last ten years there is a fair chance the kit on the riser was a Tour Custom. It is the one backline companies buy by the lorry load, and the reason is simple: it is an all maple drum kit with the same 45 degree edges, YESS mounting and Absolute Lugs as the Yamaha kits above it, for a fraction of the money. Yamaha built it for the working drummer and priced it accordingly.
Shell
6 ply
100 percent maple, 5.6 mm
Bearing edge
45 deg
Toms, floor toms and bass drum
Bass drum hoops
Maple
8 mm, at this money
Finishes
5 satins
No gloss, no wraps, nothing shiny
Shell and build
What the Tour Custom does not have is exotic shell engineering: no phenolic core, no wenge inner ply, no hand picked outer veneers. What it does have is everything that actually makes a Yamaha behave like a Yamaha.
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100 percent maple, 6 ply, 5.6 mm. Not maple with something cheaper hidden in the middle. Thin for the price bracket, which is why it opens up rather than needing to be hit hard.
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45 degree bearing edges on the toms, floor toms and bass drum. The same edge as the Live Custom Hybrid Oak and the PHX: focused, articulate, quick to speak.
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YESS mounting. Yamaha's tom mount touches the shell as little as possible, which is the single biggest reason their toms sustain the way they do. It is on the flagships and it is on this.
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Absolute Lugs, the same fitting used on the Absolute Maple Hybrid. One bolt per lug rather than two, so fewer holes through the shell, and an insertion plate that stops the tuning bolts backing off.
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8 mm maple bass drum hoops. Wood hoops are a premium touch almost nobody offers at this price, and they are most of what you see from the front of the kit.
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2.3 mm Inverse DynaHoops on the toms. The tip turns inward, so you can adjust the overtones with the rim while you are playing rather than reaching for tape.
Sizes
Every size Yamaha list, in inches, diameter by depth. Sensible modern depths throughout, with nothing cavernous and nothing shallow for the sake of it.
BASS DRUMS18 x 14, 20 x 15, 22 x 16
TOM TOMS8 x 7, 10 x 7, 12 x 8, 13 x 9
FLOOR TOMS14 x 13, 16 x 15
SNARE DRUMS14 x 5.5, 14 x 6.5
Kits are sold as shell packs with tom arms and floor tom legs included, so the snare, stands and cymbals are separate decisions. The 18 inch is a proper small kit rather than a cut down big one, and it is the one we sell most of to players who gig in rooms with stairs.
Finishes
Five, all satin, all named after something you would eat. There is no gloss option and no wrap, and that is the point: the satin lacquer is deliberately thin, so there is less sitting between your stick and the maple.
The maple grain shows through all five, inside the shell as well as out. Chocolate and Licorice are the two that photograph worst and look best in the room.
Snares and add-on drums
Kits are shell packs, so the snare is a separate buy. Tour Custom snares are the same 6 ply maple shell as the kit, in both depths and every finish, which means you can match or deliberately contrast.
Two Depths
14 x 5.5 and 14 x 6.5
The 5.5 is crisper and quicker and suits a busy player; the 6.5 is fatter with more body behind the backbeat. Same shell, same fittings, genuinely different drums. We carry both in most of the finishes.
Add A Drum
Single toms
Every size is available on its own, so a four piece can become a five later without hunting for a matching shell. The 8 x 7 is the usual first addition and the one people most often wish they had bought at the time.
Worth Knowing
No hardware in the box
Shell packs include the tom arms and floor tom legs but no stands, pedal or cymbals. If this is a first proper kit, budget for hardware alongside it and talk to us about a pack rather than buying stands one at a time.
Where the Tour Custom sits
It is the most affordable kit on this page and the one that gets bought to be used rather than admired. What the kits above it add is shell engineering: a different wood, a hybrid construction, a bearing edge specified by a particular drummer.
Browse wider
See every series side by side in Yamaha Drum Kits, the full Professional Drum Kits range, or read the Ultimate Yamaha Acoustic Drum Kit Buyer's Guide.
Yamaha Tour Custom FAQs
Is a Tour Custom a professional kit?
Yes, and the backline industry settled that argument years ago. All maple shells, 45 degree edges, YESS mounting and Absolute Lugs are the same fundamentals as the kits costing three times as much. What you are not paying for is exotic shell engineering and a longer finish list, not the basics.
Tour Custom or Stage Custom?
The Stage Custom is birch and the Tour Custom is maple, so they sound different before you get to anything else. The Tour Custom also brings the thinner shell, the Absolute Lugs and the maple bass drum hoops. If the Stage Custom is the kit you can afford now, it is a good kit; if you can stretch, the Tour Custom is a step you will not need to take again.
Which size should I get?
The 22 inch if it is your main kit and you play rock, pop or anything loud. The 20 inch if you want one kit that covers everything, which is the size we sell most of. The 18 inch for jazz, theatre, small rooms and anywhere you have to carry it up stairs. All three use the same shells, so this is about the room rather than the quality.
Does it come with a snare and hardware?
No. Tour Custom kits are shell packs: bass drum, toms and floor toms, with the tom arms and floor tom legs included. The snare, stands, pedal and cymbals are all separate. That is normal at this level and it means you are not paying for hardware you would replace, but budget for it.
Play One Next To The Rest
The comparison that saves you money
A Tour Custom next to a Recording Custom and an Absolute Maple Hybrid, same sticks, same room, is the most useful half hour you can spend in our Fareham showroom. Plenty of people come in for the dearer kit and leave with this one, and plenty do the opposite for good reasons. Either way you will know. No appointment needed.
