Tama has a huge artist roster, packed full of equally huge legends who’ve opted to play the Japanese company’s drums, but one of the earliest A-list names to adopt the Tama brand was Stewart Copeland, who remains a Tama endorsee to this day. 40 years on from The Police’s drummer joining the family, Tama has announced the Stewart Copeland Signature Snare Drum 40th Anniversary Model.
Now, this isn’t the first time Tama has produced a signature snare with Stewart Copeland. The SC145 was introduced in 2001 to mark Copeland’s 20th anniversary with the brand, and has become a hugely popular model ever since, you can hear a demo of the original drum below.
The latest 40th Anniversary model is based on the same build and spec as the standard model, offering all the ingredients to produce the loud, cutting snare sound we’ve come to associate with Copeland: 14x5”, 1.5mm brass shell, die-cast batter hoop/triple-flanged resonant hoop, Tama’s Linear-Drive, silent-switching strainer and 20-strand Starclassic carbon steel snare wires.
Visually, the drum has been tweaked with an Antiqued Brass finish, and hosts two commemorative badges - one engraved with an Egyptian chariot to honour “his empathy with pharaohs smiting”, the other etched with Stewart Copeland’s signature and “1981-2021 40th Anniversary”
Copeland shared clips of one of the final versions of the design on YouTube back in February, quickly demonstrating the drum at a few different tunings, while also seemingly making reference to ‘The Master’, which appears to be the Pearl chrome-over-brass snare “of mysterious provenance” he used throughout his Police career.
The Stewart Copeland Signature Snare Drum 40th Anniversary Model will be limited to just 200 pieces worldwide, with pre-orders already available from some retailers starting at £599.
