As noted in previous posts, there’s not a lot of information online about Yamaha’s short-lived Custom Drums line from the mid-1990s.  Most of what I’ve found has been from other Custom Drums owners who stumbled on my site looking for information about their drums.

I had heard about the Custom Drums catalog that came out at the time – it included transparent pages so you could see what the different lug options looked like on the various finishes.  But until this week, I’d only seen the cover.

Thankfully, a helpful group member over on Facebook just posted photos of each page.  As you can see below, there were two shell-type options (maple and birch), three types of lugs (Maple Custom gold, Maple Custom silver, and the high-tension lugs from the Recording Custom line), and twelve finish colours, including solids and fades.

I’ve only seen three of the twelve colours “in the wild” – my blue lacquer set, a red lacquer set, and a white set.  Some of the other combinations now look pretty dated to my eye, although I’m sure they looked better in real life.

If I had to choose, I might go for the maple shell in red with the gold Maple Custom lugs – I think those really pop.  I’m pretty happy with my blue kit, though – the wood grain shows through nicely when you get close, and the gold lugs are a classic look that ties in really well with the gold badge.

I’d love to get a physical copy of the catalog someday, but in the meantime, I’ll have to be content with a digital version.