 Welcome to the drum history podcast. I'm your host Bart van der Zee and today I'm joined by director of product development Raymond Massey of Pearl Raymond welcome to the show. Hey, Bart Thanks a lot. Great to be here. Man pearl drums are just you can't think of drums without thinking of Pearl You guys definitely have a a huge role in the in the history of drums and the market and all that stuff So I'm excited to learn about the history Why don't you just take us back to the beginning of Pearl? Okay, I'll tell you what I know. I'm I'm not the definitive expert, but I'm happy to share. Sure, you know Basically Pearl was founded on April 2nd 1946. That's my birthday April 2nd. Is it really? Yeah Our our founder was katsumi yana gasawa It started out You know at the end of World War two, you know Japan was in the throes of being rebuilt and Katsumi song Used to make music stands. So the very first products were music stands out of his small shop and The Chiba Japan just outside of Tokyo. Hmm Boy, that's fascinating. So post World War two I imagine that It's so interesting because we on the show. We talked a lot about European drum bands with with post World War two and you know, the slinger land and the rolling bombers and stuff But you don't really you don't hear much about the Japanese Brands, so that's fascinating Yeah, so he was making music stands and you know during that time. I would say the late 40s early 50s Western jazz was becoming popular and Japan and there just wasn't a lot of drums You know service men USA service men were coming to Japan and they wanted music and people were hungry for music and the school system adopted Western style music classes and and They needed drums. So katsumi-san started making drums After music stands, you know, if you think about it drum set 90% of a drum set is hardware Yeah, so if you've got metal chops, you know making a round cylinder out of wood and of course, there's integrity and pride in that but It's it's Make it the metal part of it and having that under your belt a Good leadway and good head start to making a drum set Let me man. I love this. This is just I didn't know it went back that far So What is if if you were gonna find the like the like crown jewel, you know vintage vintage pearl How old would that be like how old is the earliest drum set that you know of like I know you said 50s Is that are there drum sets from the 50s that are pearl? well They are but the thing is they're not actually called pearl They were a lot of see when pearl started he's Katsumi-san he was he was making these drum sets, but he was making them for a lot of different people retailers all over the world that wanted to supply drums and They were brands like Westbury and Sentinel Scott crest Apollo Baxter And then later on came of course max-win and and CB 700 and yep Lido and stuff like that Okay, but the probably the The one kid if you can find one And you see him from time to time out there is the president series. Yes. Yeah in the president series that was probably you know Pearl's finest introduction into the Drum manufacturing time, you know it featured phenolic shells which are sought after actually people love that sound You know a phenolic is a Plastic style resin paper And you know the kids consisted of you know twenty two fourteen thirteen nine 1616 and snare drum. Well, that's so cool. I Think so pearl Obviously is a part of the the oh, we will call it the OEM the stencil the Mij the made in Japan world Which I have an old Mij kit That is such a neat piece of history in itself and I did an episode on that so people can listen to that But it's it's very cool and obviously though It's pretty clear that they Like Tama they went the way of okay. We're gonna make drums for other people and then they said, okay We've got something here. Let's make our own drums and put our own name on it Do you know where the name pearl? Where did pearl come from? That's an interesting story You know Kasumi-san had a friend That was helping him in the beginning when he was making music stands and making these drum sets and his friend owned a retail store in Japan and he sold musical instruments and stuff and You know At the time we're you know pearls making all these OEM kids and didn't have their own identity And he thought about what can I call the company? Because you know, I want something that resonates with the entire world there's something that's beautiful and something that's held in high regard and You know, he was proud to be a Japanese manufacturer and he wanted to make the best drums and musical instruments that he possibly could so his friends suggested the name pearl and And Katsumi-san liked it and he thought about it. He's like, you know what in Japan, you know It's famous for pearls some of the best pearls in the world come from Japan And it's and it's also something that the entire planet, you know holds in high regard, you know pearls are Beautiful, you know people ladies like them. You know, it's the it's the whole thing It's a wonderful piece of jewelry. So that's where the name came from That's fascinating. It's It's kind of silly, but like I just I almost I don't know if I've ever equated the name pearl in the drum company And it seems so stupid now, but to an actual pearl from like an oyster. I mean, it's it's You think of it as synonymous just with this is the name of the drum company So sometimes your brain doesn't like put it together that like, oh, yeah, duh It's named after the beautiful pearl because it's you know saw it after and everyone likes it That's cool. That's fascinating. So All right, so started in the late 40s Then they're making OEM drums for people basically through the 50s Correct. And then when would you say so in the 60s is that when they started to become pearl? You're exactly right All right. So then what happens then I'm sure Ringo had a big, you know That like everyone that probably helped Make things The world of drummers, you know blew up. So I'm sure that helped their their business a little bit Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean the demand for drums at that time was was very heavy and Pearl, you know, company was growing under the direction of Katsumi son and his son Mitsuo Yanagasawa Was going to college Chiba technical college And studying to be a engineer So he started helping out his dad, you know through school. He's helping us dad then finally came in as a full-time employee and Knew that, you know, we need to do something to meet this kind of demand So he wanted to put a plan together For a big factory in Taiwan, you know, because they had the small factory in Japan They were making drums and that's where our office still is when we go over for corporate meetings the The the old factories right behind the office building So Mitsuo son knew that in order to supply meet the demand of the world, they would need a large factory They would need automation So he was one of the first Manufacturers to go to Taiwan, you know at that time it was it made a lot of sense from You know manufacturing standpoint and they built a 43,000 square foot factory, you know And they started making all kinds of drums out of that factory percussion instruments and and and You know symphonic stuff and and even timpani So so Mitsuo And he was working for the company when I started still when we would go over to corporate meetings he was still the chairman and You know, he had vision he knew that to meet that demand We need to automate because at the time the drums that were being made Japan were almost handmade They were made out of some equipment that could to me some purchased and Some he had made but this was the big, you know, I would say in 1961 That's when it really started taking off Yeah, interesting and then a couple years later. I'm sure it took off even more with like we said Just the world of drums blowing up Okay, gosh, you know Taiwan has such a I'm sure it's manufacturing of all kinds but with with drum making it's such a It's such an integral part and I didn't know it went back that far I thought it was more of a modern thing where it's like, you know chipping or where manufacturing goes back there Is there a simple answer to why Taiwan? It's so good for manufacturing effectively and affordably Well, you know, it's always been Affordable, yeah, and in the very beginning, you know The workers they had they had to be taught, you know, the products coming out of Taiwan in my opinion today rival anybody's some of the best some of the best drum sets in the world Come out of Taiwan ours do our most high-end and we we think they're the best drum sets in the world we believe that they are and It in the beginning, you know, of course, it's like any manufacturer there's they weren't really making musical instruments in Taiwan It was cost-effective a good place to set up factories So he did have vision in that regard because prior to that think about it things were being made in Japan You know in in America But you know standard living was was going up in Japan and it was you know regulations So it was it was a bit tougher to manufacture in Japan and be cost-effective, you know on the in within the world market Yeah, okay. No, that's that's interesting. All right, so We're in the 60s Any other things in the 60s or do we just kind of roll into this Into the 70s. I mean, I guess pearl is building itself a name as a as a name. I know that a lot of Towards the end of the 60s and into the 70s I know a lot of American drum companies were we're really starting to Worry and take notice and say, oh geez these these you know Companies from the Far East are giving us a run for our money and people are liking them because they're they're great drums You're exactly right and pearl always took pride And creating a tremendous value and quality And their drum sets and that's what made export so successful. I mean we've sold Well over a million export drum sets And if you think about it when export was introduced in in 1982 uh, it it changed what a Uh entry level drum set should be Yeah, I want to let's do the 70s But I think the export we can stop there for a little bit and talk a lot about that because that's just I mean, I feel like you could in a crowd of people not even crowd of drummers You could like just say hey who here has owned a pearl export set and at least like one person In any room will raise their hand and be like, yeah, I had one growing up. Um But all right, so the 70s, um, I love the catalogs and stuff too. There's some really neat catalogs and and beautiful drums Yeah, in the 70s, they just started breaking in the united states and probably I think what really I mean drummers knew about it Guys like art blakie and and jc heard and stuff like that those guys American artists that were going to japan especially jazz guys that were playing because jazz is always was popular In japan, you know every everybody in japan knew pearl So these guys were getting to know pearl pearl was asking these artists for their opinions about products And that's one thing we've always done. We've always asked artists, you know, what do you think of this? How can we make a drum set better? and Then we listen Then our engineers take notes and they change the products, but in the 70s The break in the u.s. You know kiss was a big big part of that early 70s with peter chris You know and even on the back of their records. They always had you know Uh kiss, you know Plays pearl drums exclusively because they want the best Yeah, that was on the on the back and a lot of kids read that and at the time You know, we were having trouble finding uh distribution in the u.s. There was a a company called chicago musical instrument company cmi that uh Was a probably the largest distributor of musical instruments in the u.s At the time and there was a division of that company called ld heater music and heater music took on pearl and started making headway in the west coast and the guys at pro drum and hollywood were very instrumental and getting You know guys in the 70s to switch and play pearl, you know that guys would come in pro drum and and Looking at gear and they would say hey, you know, this is a new company. You should check out their drums and uh slowly People started switching and playing pearl and throughout the 70s ld heater music company was eventually absorbed by norland music and norland at the time was owned by gibson guitars Uh, you know, they I mean they owned larry organs gibson is hard distribution Uh, and they really started putting pearl out there In the u.s. Heck, I remember seeing the first uh acrylic pearl drum set when I was a kid in 1973 At a music store in and nuper news virginia Wonder i'd never seen it before and it was a red acrylic kid. I was like who what is this company? You know, then I I saw a kiss album and put two and two together, you know wow The power of being like an impressionable young kid and seeing that logo and just like It's like mesmerizing like there's it's just so funny. It has nothing to do with the sound. It has nothing to do I mean it does but like you just see it and you connect with it and that's That's a powerful thing. Can we pause? I just want to ask all right, so Two questions the shell construction. I know earlier on it was like a lot of those kind of mij the the oem stuff were like kind of a luan right like a Um, like a thinner wood what type of wood would they typically be made? Well in the very beginning they were I mean We used luan like everybody which is a uh, basically asian mahogany. It's a it's a porous wood. It's soft, you know, it's in Believe it or not. It sounds really good It does with the right heads And as long as the shell's constructed well with that it's it's round and flat and has a good edge on it uh They sound wonderful. In fact, uh The late tommy wells and nashville drummer here that uh did lots of recordings uh He would swear by in the 80s when I started when I started at pearl and stuff He would come into the office all the time and he would go man these exports. They're the bomb I use them on sessions all the time You know But yeah luan, but we also had our phenolic Uh, we had fiberglass drums. Yeah, so at that time, you know, if you think about it Especially when you look at some of the american drum companies maple really hadn't come into play yet Sure, you know a lot of guys were using poplar mahogany, you know different shell blends uh But the maple thing didn't really happen until I think people really wanted beautiful finishes on the outside of drums lacquer finishes and that era of um You know the 70s and the 60s. I guess had such cool finishes, I mean there are just That was my favorite looking back through catalogs. That was just my favorite. Um I guess you could say period of these just far out finishes and I I posted something on the drum history instagram of of uh, it was a pearl uh drum catalog from 1968 and there was um tiger's eye and sparkling gold pearl and sunset and light blue pearl and and I said what people like Like the most and it was kind of a uh, it's just funny because I said, hey, what do you guys like? And I got a ton of answers of people saying, um I they people said I love the blue pearls. Everyone really likes the tiger's eye. Um It's just very very neat. Um, so that's just That's a that's a part of history too. Is the drum finishes Now another question and then another one popped up too, but I also want to ask you Is there any story behind the logo? It's a pretty simple script pearl. It's sort of changed from the earlier Era where it was kind of more. Um, it was less uh Um stylized, but is there anything about the logo where that came from? Well I'm not really sure where the one that you know in the 60s a lot of people affectionately Referred to it as the pig logo Because it because the way the the pearl was written and it's it's got these arches Above and below the the word pearl and the l looks like a little tail It looks like and it looks like a little animal. So That's that's funny. Yeah, it is kind of funny, but the the newer version um In our tagline, you know, the best reason to play drums came from terry west Who is uh, actually our current CEO in the united states, but he started out here as the uh ad director and uh You know it was responsible for all the ads and the marketing and and the Basically shaping the modern pearl You know him he and uh together with uh, mr. Takasomi uh and You know, but suo And uh our current chairman, uh, masakatsu yanagasawa So is it has it always been in the same family? Yes, as far as wow, that's that's the funny thing, you know a lot of people You know, we talk to over the years don't realize that pearl is a family business It's not some public company with investors. It's it's a private family owned business adiyanagasawa and right now, uh Our current chairman who? You know is mature son and the grandson of our founder Katsumi son Is masakatsu and he's still very active and and still you know the driving force behind You know our company, you know, we take pride. We want to make the best drums in the world best sounding drums best quality You know for a fair price Hmm gosh, that's That has happened. Uh, I think most recently I I did an interview with um someone from vic furth And I was like you guys are mega. You're huge. You're massive. You're a big company He was like, well, actually there's like six of us who work here I mean, obviously there's a bunch of people at pearl, but there's you You're right. You think it's like this big public company, but It's a family company. That's so cool to um to know that I I think that marketing Has a lot to do with people just kind of thinking that that a company is is massive and mega which you guys obviously are a very big company, but um It's still got that that family tie, which is so cool um My last interjecting question that we can carry on is you said the the the fiberglass. Um, so I Have uh, where I work gwin sound. There's a wood fiberglass kit there that um Someone I've mentioned this on the show before someone before my time bought a bunch of like studio essential drums like a dynastonic a supraphonic um Sabian studio hats Regular hats perfect just very essential items and he bought a uh wood A pearl wood fiberglass kit bunch of toms 16 and an 18 inch floor which the 18 inch floor is just a beast. Um When did those come into play because those those are pretty pretty popular too and and uh How does that construction work with mixing the wood and the fiberglass? Well, if they came into play around the same time as mid mid to late sixties Uh and the fiberglass, you know It really adds a lot of high end and pop. I mean even I think new pert used to talk about that there was a guy up in fort wane that they called it vibraphy And some of those earlier kids he did but you know fiberglass adds A certain amount of brightness and and shell rigidity You know to the uh, so it's they're louder drums Um, but we even had all fiberglass Back in the day and a lot of people don't even know that this that uh, Even steve gad some of who when he started out his career a lot of the toms you heard were pearl People like those fiber single-headed fiberglass toms That's funny kind of a style. Um, especially the single-headed stuff. That's uh Those are coming back though. You see a lot of the concert toms now with people. Um Making a resurgence, but uh, yeah All right, so back into the history here I think we were in the 70s any other things of note there before we hop into the 80s, which I'm assuming I kind of think of pearl as just Something must have switched in the 80s where I guess kiss had a lot to do with it, but It just there's a lot of you know heavy metal drummers who played pearl Yeah, I mean when we basically in the in 1979 We separated uh from norlin and gipson and uh at the time musuah son decided That it's it's time we control our destiny so He said he bought property here in nashville And uh, we also had different distribution centers. We have one in texas one in california One in new york. We were kind of spread out with smaller all Owned by pearl japan wholly owned All across united states and then eventually we consolidated all of those into the nashville office here on metro plex drive And In the early 80s around I think around 1983 Uh, he opened up another Pearl japan owned distribution center in milton keens in the uk You know and and you got to remember too even during that time we had about 70 Different distributors all over the world So In the 80s what pearl looked like. I mean you had pearl japan you had pearl taiwan You had uh a small factory, uh in china You had pearl You know europe come into play in the 2000s Just a good breach all over the world so to get back to your question. Yeah The 80s things really started to take off and pearl started making More and more high-end drums I mean we you had the export of course in in 82, but in the mid 80s you had the glx, you know featured the Super gripper lugs. There's a lot of innovation. They had electronic drums a fightman pearl symbols but mlx that was key in the 80s because That was probably and still to this day my one of my favorite pearl shells It's the six ply 100 maple shell that's 7.5 millimeters thick And the old mlx drums had the long lugs and you're right. I mean kiss was happening. You had parkoro You know all these guys just People really putting pearl on the map yeah Yeah, it's it's interesting. I'm looking on vintage drum guide to kind of while we're talking at some catalogs There's looking at one from 1978 It looks a lot different from the catalog from 1980 where just the first one you see it's just it's bigger toms The hardware looks thicker. It looks more heavy duty. There's you know There's four floor toms and they're huge and There's one here that I think is worth mentioning of Um The roto rock which appears to have like kind of a roto tom looking Thing above a drum shell. I've never seen really anything else like this. That's Do you have any knowledge of that of that? Yeah, I remember seeing those Especially when I was a kid, you know because of roto tom was relatively a new thing from from Remo. Yeah, and uh, there was a gentleman by the name of uh, randy may who came up with that system And that was his system and basically we just distributed it But it was a way to you know people like to sound the roto tom's and of course if you turn them You could tune them pretty easy as well, but just to get a little more projection I remember those. Yeah Yeah, for people to visualize it. It's basically A drum shell like a regular five piece kit, but there's no top head and there's a roto tom kind of Connected above so it projects down into the drum. Um, that's such a You don't see stuff like that as much anymore. I guess you do there There are a lot of different things popping up, but um, yeah the electronics There's just all kinds of stuff in the 80s now the export It seems like it changed the landscape of like a beginner drum set like you said like it defined what you're right because at that time when when export there was the If unless you wanted to buy a real professional drum set, there wasn't much else to choose from You either had to go big or you had to get some stuff that was You know, okay, but it would you know break and and just not be so so great And when export came out it it really defined what a Kit could could be I mean the hardware was super heavy duty. The drums sounded great. They tuned well It was a tremendous value For how did they do that? How did they how did they? I guess the answer is just well, they know what they're doing and they create good stuff, but like Why would they why would pearl be the first one to realize and say hey, we can make a drum set that's really nice That's not like how did they cut cut the costs and save that money to make to make that kind of thing It seems like someone would have done it before I guess or maybe maybe just no one did it Nobody did it pearl did it first and that was Matsuo realizing that You know cost of wages and materials are higher in japan and then you had the u.s. companies Uh in cost of manufacturing u.s. Is not cheap And he had the vision that if he went to a place like taiwan He could make really good drums and make them affordable We we pearl was the first one to start that train to get everybody to move, you know factories in different places Well, it's it's neat too because um, I'm sure most people stuck with pearl But I think we all agree is drummers that the best thing about Any piece of gear is something that gets people playing the drums and starting into drums because it cross industry cross cross Company it just helps because then people are buying cymbals They're taking lessons. They're they're doing all this so um It's good. It's healthy. We want people to play and there's nothing You know, if you if you're learning on an instrument Not i've personally taught lessons before I try to tell students I think it's a good idea that if you're going to learn on something learn on something Good that's playable because if it's not and it doesn't sound good. It's not playable. It's a negative It's going to be a turnoff You know, so yeah And and and our vision has always been to make great products And during the 80s in that time, you know, a lot of people don't know that uh we also They were going we were making microphones guitar amps guitar effects It was you know electronic drums But eventually We focused just on acoustic drums with a lot of innovation. I mean the gripper lug was very innovative for the time kind of a quick release lug the oversized lug which was I don't know if you remember there was Some drums that we made that had Like if it was a 12 inch tom you put a 13 inch hoop and head on it You know, yeah, and and they sounded I played one of those kits a gentleman here in nashville named Tommy Winkler had one of those drum sets and he had a drum shop in the in the early 90s here in nashville that He had one of those kits. It really sounded phenomenal So it's kind of like a uh almost like when you see like a gong bass drum where it's like The head is bigger. What like what is it? What is the sound? Is it is it a little bit more like um Because is air escaping a little bit out from the having the wider head and rim and then like what does it sound like? Yeah, it's just more of an open sound if you could think of the difference between diecast and triple flange It's just a lot more open than a triple flange hoop But it was kind of you know Depending on how you're playing style You had to be careful doing rim shots and stuff on on a kit like that because you know You could run the risk of the stick hitting the shell Yeah, and with with kits like that it's obviously super cool and it's great for innovation and People buying them, but if you are like a normal joe schmo and you're gonna buy one Let's say $1,000 drum set every 10 years you might not splurge and spend it on the kind of unique Not gimmicky that's not the word i'm looking for but that that like innovative one where they're releasing it for a few years You know what? I mean you might buy the like Uh master series or whatever it would be called. Um, so Drummers are conservative and they and especially when it comes to you know, spinning your heart on cash You want something that you can take to a lot of different gigs? Uh play a lot of different styles uh You know Also, I'd like to mention another thing in the 80s Uh pearl introduced the championship series. We got into the marching business Cool, you know because the drum core international dci groups and and high schools are starting to Get more serious about their halftime shows and band and And uh, we got involved in that activity and we make some of the best marching products out there We make the best if you ask me Yeah, god, I mean That's one of those things that that is a massive i'm sure a massive part of your guys business because there's There's so many schools and you see pearl at a lot of them. I mean and you see that big logo That's that's great because then those people. Hey, maybe they have a drum set at home I play pearl at school. I'm gonna go home and buy a pearl drum set. That's whoever did that's got to be a gotten to that has has to be a You know feeling pretty good about spreading the business even more, but the 80s was I mean pearl was really starting to come in To to their own because you had marching You had wlx you had innovations like cable hat you even had our czx series which these big thick 10 ply 12.5 millimeter Shells, you know with square sized humps because you know 80s was metal was popular Yeah, you know, yeah And the hardware so maybe we I know everyone loves hearing about like the hardware hardware and snares are something that I I think we we can you know pause on too because Uh, later on, you know, the pearl like eliminator is one of those pedals. That's sort of a uh, a staple Petal I think the eliminator the 5000 and the iron cobra are like, you know, there's there's a 90% chance you're gonna see one of those on on someone's drum set. Um The eliminator was I mean that pedal is still a great great seller it's a it's It's a great pedal because you can interchange the camps And it's got a another unique feature that it's it was based on its predecessor the power shifter And the power shifter had a three position heel plate That you could it could move the heel, you know closer to the bass drum Farther back and then farther back again And the way I like to think about that is it's it's as if you're holding a drumstick And it it does the same thing to that pedal That you would think of if you're holding the drumstick if you choke up more toward the middle you're gonna get A kind of lighter more articulate feel and as you back and go toward the butt of the drumstick You get what power? Yeah, and and then with the eliminator. Oh my gosh four different cams You know Everything from just you know regular round cam to you know a very aggressive Our red cam that kind of just drops off, you know It's it you can get any kind of feel you want out of that pedal and that's what we wanted we wanted You know as players styles change and the music or whatever style they're playing We wanted to make a pedal that everybody could get what they needed out of Yeah, that's extremely innovative. I've never I've owned one, but I've never actually experimented with Switching out the cams and it seems really easy and And and just kind of fun where you can mess around with it And it's neat because you don't need to buy another pedal You know you don't need to say okay. This one's a little looser. This one's a little uh, you know, that's That's really cool and and the um Even the the like tom mounts like the pearl, you know the I've heard countless people say and it's almost funny that like they'll be like um Like the pearl mounts are very like sturdy and reliable and these vintage guys will say Yeah, someone um like a like a Ludwig top hat and cane kit someone drilled it out and put a pearl mount on it It's like yeah Which you know, that's like sacrilegious, but um, it's it's funny because a lot of guys they'll these these old Drumsets will be modified to have pearl hardware because it's just reliable and it works Yeah, a lot of people during that time in the in the 80s and 90s and even to this day Yeah, they our hardware, you know is the best in the industry and we're one of the only companies Uh that offer a lifetime warranty On our hardware and we meet it when we say it's like craftsman tools. You buy it once you play it for life You know, we're gonna we're gonna stand behind it and You're right. It's it's the tom arms, you know, especially with the unilock tilter We were the first ones to to come out with a Uh, it's not a ball joint. It's it's a brake system, you know, even though ball joints are basically gearless Uh, but this was a very very good innovation that we came out with Introduced that for our symbol tilters in our uh tom arms Yeah So wait if I didn't know that so if you how does that warranty work? I'm sure, you know, some people don't know about that So if you have any piece of pearl hardware and it breaks then do you just like How does that work? Well, it starts after a certain period of time That lifetime warranty uh Start started june 15 2009 Okay, so prior to that is just a regular three to five year warranty on most most products, but Uh in 2009 we introduced the lifetime warranty So how does it work if you buy a pedal and uh something breaks on it? Or the tilter doesn't work and you stand or something happens like that And as long as it's not abused and and uh just used under normal circumstance, we replace it Hmm And that's cool You only do that if you trust your gear enough to the point of it's, you know Like you can stand behind it and say this isn't going to be Every 10th stand you sell is going to break obviously it's Reliable stuff and you you you believe in it. So that's really cool. I'll let you in on a secret the amount of warranty Uh replacement parts that we put out Is unbelievably low It's it's a fraction of a percent That's awesome I mean and that's why we do it because we stand behind it We you know, we've always followed uh, you know our current uh Chairmen's mozakatsu still believes and mandates that we make the best possible product we can Wow, it's awesome. That's that's it's it's it's good to know that um Just if anyone does have a problem now they hear this they can say oh wow I didn't know and and that That just makes it makes the company look good as well just to know you have that piece of mind It's like you buy a car and you have the warranty you just kind of feel you feel better as you're driving down the road All right, so let's move into I believe we're in the 80s. Let's move into the 90s If there's nothing else uh really to discuss in the 80s. So then into the 90s. What what happened there in the 90s uh probably The most notable Uh, of course, you know our marching products were getting better, but we introduced the master series You know this was a Prior to that mlx and stuff everybody was doing the the the long lugs on drums So the the master series when it came out it had split lugs Uh super hoop two which is our 2.3 millimeter triple flange hoops That was huge for us and we offered masters and maple and birch and uh eventually got into Different versions of maple mahogany and all mahogany african mahogany and also in the 90s We came out with masterworks in 1999 And masterworks is our flagship series. It's our top of the line series Uh, and it is probably I would hands down the most customizable drum set There is basically if you can dream it will build it You have your choice of woods choice of hardware All you know several different lugs three different styles of hoops Custom paint job. I mean we've had guys sending Pieces of their car articles of clothing You know copy a drum set, you know, uh, I want my drum set to match this You know, but you can change your baron edge shape uh You can absolutely touch and customize every point of the drum size Uh baron edge hardware and finish And we have a specialist on staff because You know, we call it uh decision paralysis because sometimes when you when you really do the sky is the limit And you get ready to drop a bunch of money You want to make sure you're making the right choice So we have a full-time masterworks concierge Mr. Tom storage here that is available He talks with consumers talks with dealers to help guide through the process and it really starts with the drummer like number one What how do what are you looking for? How do you what's your in in game? What kind of gigs do you play? You know, what kind of sound do you want and we help point them in the right direction, you know To to all that stuff to the wood choice, you know exotic veneers, you know different paint Baron edge to make sure they're happy and Even to the point to where if they want a special color We'll send them a swatch You know and sometimes it takes more than one swatch before the customer goes. That's it make it match that And then at the factory we keep we make an extra drum of every masterworks kit we make And we keep that file and formula and keep that drum You know in case somebody wants to add on or you know, sometimes these kits are used in catalog and somebody wants to order one man You're exactly right where it's just like everything in life. There's if there's too many options It's it hurts you almost like if you're picking a Paint color for your house or something like that like if you narrow it down to three and say pick one of these three you're You're bound to choose a little bit better. So it's great. You guys have someone there to help you I mean, man, what a cool job he has helping people Yeah, go through that and it's a truly a custom drum set, you know a lot of companies They'll just go where you can change this and this And then here's your color palette to choose from You know, but but we we let the customer choose the wood and shelf thickness And you can you can decide on the ply layout if you want maple and mahogany And you want mahogany on the inside But then you want maple and you want X number of plies of of this wood and that wood And you want it to be this thick, you know, you can Every single drum can be made different within a drum set The funny thing is, you know our reference series And in 2000 was born out of our masterwork series And I'll talk more about that when we when we get into, you know Sure time period, but I think the most notable things in the in the 90s were the You know, of course masters You know our marching drums were really hitting the mark We celebrated our 50th anniversary and we introduced the world's truly Most customizable drum set Do you have any like, um Like anything that comes to mind of like this one, you know, um Crazy millionaire guy He made his drum set match his Ferrari and he did this these wild combinations Or any are there any like, you know, kind of crazy custom shop ones that that come to mind There was, um Ricky the late Ricky Lawson had a friend of his that was a Big wheel uh at Microsoft that he wanted a drum set to match his Ferrari So we got we we even got to paint from, you know, Ferrari paint You know and and painted the drum set but uh the Probably the most ambitious drum set as of late Uh is for uh the cigar manufacturer mr. Nick Perdomo He's a good friend of all of ours here He had him he wanted He's you know, he makes the world's best cigars and his some of his clientele are are are Very wealthy But he wanted he introduced this new cigar that had this label made out of gold foil And different different metals of tin And he was like I I wanted I want to put this on the drums I want to put this on every one of my drums and we were like, you know, first we got to make sure we can There's not going to be any reaction between the paint and and you know Can we get it onto the shell and will it last so it took about a year and a half to go through different tests But we were able to do it that was one of the most crazy ones, uh As of late that we built of course some of the kits we built for Tommy Lee and uh Joey Jordison at the time and uh Dennis Chambers I mean Dennis has had some wonderful masterworks kids Yeah These have to be rightfully so These have to be expensive. I mean if you're getting Painted like your Ferrari or if you're getting it wrapped in you know cigar kind of foil That takes a year. These have got to be some pricey drum set Yeah, Nick Perdomo's drum set was yeah, there it's it's like buying a uh high-end car Oh my god, okay, um But it doesn't always have to be like that. I mean Yeah, I mean you can get you can spend you know on the street five or six thousand dollars or or You know or as much as you want it really just depends on how far you go Which is the price of like a nice custom drum set like we all We all kind of know that. Um, yeah Now I remember playing I think it was I did the guitar center drum off when I was younger I think the first one I did was in 2003 and um, that was my first experience playing Pearl drums was they would have I believe a pearl masters I guess maple set silver sparkle And that was like the set that you would play in the guitar center drum off and I was just like Blown away at how good they sounded I was 13 So I was used to just having a I think I had a big old Ludwig 80s rocker 2 set at that point that did not sound as good because I didn't know how to tune it or anything So that was my first pearl experience that was just kind of mind-blowing how good they sounded Yeah, yeah the toms You know, we're known for our toms sound they speak. Well, they're just not all thuddy You know, you can really get some resonance out of them That's a great highlight in the 90s. So let's chug on into the into the 2000s there. What happened then? Oh Well on the marching side we we introduced carbon ply Uh snare drums, but also on the drum set carbon ply maple So we started putting, you know, like the old fiberglass drums were made We we introduced where you could put a carbon ply in her ply And it really made the drums extremely loud Uh But even more important than that we introduced our award-winning reference series Which won numerous awards all over the world And the premise of the reference series was born out of our masterworks program We we kept seeing a trend of what guys wanted, you know, certain guys You know If you think of the drum set Of all the different tones and sounds you want you don't want the same sound Out of an eight and ten inch tom as you do your floor tom. They're tuned different You want what you expect to hear is completely different so Looking at trends and masterworks and thinking about even the most original drum sets back when they used Chinese toms with tacked heads and the guys had these, you know wood blocks and everything It's like why are we under the mindset of where if a drum set all has to be made out of the same woods When with the sounds you want very differently from each size Obviously, you're not going to tune the ten the same way you tune a 16 So we thought we thought well, how can you accent what you want to hear? And that's where reference series came into play where You know, basically the only drum that's made out of 100 of one kind of wood is a 12 inch tom And everything smaller than a 12 uses birch enterprise You know, uh, and then anything bigger than a 12 the drum shells get thicker The baron edges get rounder and african mahogany is added to the enterprise So you to capitalize on that low end so, you know birch has more attack It makes sense to have it on your smaller drums And african mahogany makes sense to have it on your larger drums to accentuate those desired tones Yeah, wow You're totally right. Why I think with a lot of things with drums We do things because of tradition Where we've done it before, you know We simple stands are like this for however long will you know, I why not change it? And we listen to artists and we've always have listened to our artists and drummers To figure out what they want and how we can make it better Another landmark product is our demon drive pedal, which is our p 3000 series direct drive in I mean that pedal has all you can change the it's got two cam positions It's got a it's a convertible footboard from longboard to traditional style You know once again and in pearl fashion, we want to give the drummer options So that they can dial in the product to meet their individual needs so it becomes their voice Gosh, that's so cool. And I mean the quality continues obviously and pearl is Very consistently been one of the top players in the game. Obviously, that's still true today. Um Not jumping ahead, but uh, it's Casey Cooper on youtube Has got to be one of the most Almost like kiss, you know, where you look at the back of the album and you see it So many people I'm sure so many kids watch kasey cooper and his youtube channel and see his pearl drums And that has to be a great and he has to be one of the you know, biggest ambassadors to the brand right now He's a great ambassador. What a wonderful guy's first class top notch gentlemen Uh, really believes in the product, you know He he he really plays it because he believes in it and he loves it. He is a pearl fanatic at heart Cool, so um, I just jumped ahead there. I mean, he's been doing it for a long time, but Yeah, it sounds like you guys uh The 2000s has been good to you. Is there anything in the works right now that uh, you know pearl fans can be excited for Well, you know I can't there we of course we've always got things cooking. I mean we we planned out years ahead sometimes it takes Uh, you know several years for a product to come to fruition um But yeah, the only thing I could say is uh next year We're gonna have some cool new products Nice as we wrap up here. I think uh, I usually say oh, I just tell people where they can find you everyone can find pearl Pretty quickly. So Obviously there's uh, is there anywhere that they should go directly? I'm assuming pearl drums dot com Yeah, actually it's pearl drum dot com Okay, if you if you go to our website, you can see links to uh, there's a page on there It's got a complete list of pearl dealers authorized dealers for the usa So you can search by state and by dealer's name and uh, Yeah, I mean we're accessible. You can find us anywhere Gotcha. Yeah pearl drum dot com people can visit that and check it out. Um They uh, they're awesome drums and let me give a quick shot out here. So this is just kind of funny. So, um Ted Richardson who sent me a message requesting. He's like you got to do a pearl episode On march 5th 2019 and it is now august 26th 2020 So I I always kind of say this on the show But sometimes these episodes really do take a very long time to um to get going because I mean You and I have been kind of Going back and forth on email for for a long time now and things would happen and you were on jury duty for a bit It's but it's it's finally here and uh, I'm just really excited if you're listening to this It's already out in the world, but pearl has a huge following and I I'm very glad I can finally get an episode out to Because I don't I do this I interview people all the time about drums and I'm looking at drum history stuff constantly And I didn't know 90 of what you said about the history of the company starting with music stands post world war two I didn't know any of that. So I I think people are going to love it good Bart thanks for connecting and uh happy to do it and uh Yeah, I mean we uh, we love drums. We love music and We want to make the best products musical instruments. We possibly can Perfect. Well, you're doing it. Awesome. Thank you ram and I appreciate you being here If you like this podcast find me on social media at drum history and please share rate and leave a review And let me know topics that you would like to learn about the future Until next time keep on learning This is a Gwyn sound podcast