PHX

Nippon Gakki, the predecessor to Yamaha Corporation, was founded in 1897, and the Phoenix logo was registered as the company' s official trademark. While the triple tuning fork design that adorns modern Yamaha instruments is well known throughout the world, it is the Phoenix motif that was first emblazoned on our first premier organs. The design embodies the spirit of our founder, whose goal was to produce instruments of world-class quality and unrivaled beauty.

In 2007, YAMAHA celebrated its 40th anniversary of drums manufacturing. At that same time, we felt the need to recapture the spirit of our company' s founder. It was decided that YAMAHA Drums' next 40 years would begin with commitment to a rebirth and revitalization in striving for musical instrument excellence. From this rekindled spirit of innovation and musical resolve, came the birth of the PHX Series.

The Phoenix is considered the symbol of immortality, a rebirth into a fresh being, full of new life. Similarly, the PHX Series marks a rebirth of drum advancements, another milestone to add to YAMAHA' s legendary history. The PHX is the next step in innovation and excellence for those serious about their music.

Abe. we started with the goal of creating an instrument that could produce such a fat tone, wide dynamic range and big volume drummers would immediately feel that they had complete control of the sound they wanted relative to their playing style.

Abe. With great respect for the history of drums in solid all-maple, birch, beech or oak material, I set out to try thousands of combinations of various exotic and conventional woods to study the pure physics of harmonic complexity, sustain, tone-fundamentals and projection. Then, we finally reached to the best combination that we had looked for. As a result, now I can say with much confidence that we've created the best wooden shell.

Abe. Jatoba, an extremely dense wood material, was chosen as the core laminate. Kapur was “sandwiched” on either side of the core having slightly less density. Lastly, North American maple, with less density than Kapur, was “sandwiched” around the Jatoba-Kapur core. This graduating density from the core of the shell created a vibration that was far superior to any other laminate combination I tested.

Abe. Yes, it is. The purpose of creating the ash version was purely to add a cosmetic dimension suitable for this elite model. This attempt actually brought out an unexpected but favorable effect. It turned out to have a different tone color and unique, individual character.

Abe. The shell itself was so powerful however, to optimize it's power for making music we conducted thousands of experiments on bearing edge combinations, ventilation and diameter-depth dimensions with digital signal processors and of course listening. All the time we were recording the data to maximize the musicality. Conducting experiments by recording data each time allowed us to express, in numerical values, the changes to the sound caused by edge shapes. We also improved the vent-hole application which makes a significant effect on the sound and feel of a drum.
This led to some even more cool ideas.
We have always been putting the lugs and mount posts on the same nodal point plain to create maximum resonance however; by moving the lug points closer to the equator of the drum we created more musical decay and a noticeably lower fundamental. The computer-generated waveforms were self-evident.
Once we took this prototype to some of our most famous artists for evaluation, in a professional Los Angeles studio, they unanimously agreed that it was completely different, in a positive way, to the best drums we had crafted for them over the last 15 to 25 years. They were surprised at its well-balanced tone. They emphasized that no equalization would be necessary to record these drums. These artists statements confirmed that we had crafted the drums that could be the benchmark by which all others are judged.

Ziggy. Small drums tend to loose a degree of resonance into the hardware on which it is mounted sometimes causing an undesirable decay. Contrary to this, the vibrations produced by a large drum are extended sometimes causing an undesirable sustain. As a result, vibrations may not be appropriately balanced. Mounting systems vary with all of our competitors choosing to add “floating” mounting systems which “hang” on lugs, tension-rods or hoops. All of these systems in our opinion either inhibit the sound or make changing drum heads extremely inconvenient and laborious. Y.E.S.S.(Yamaha ENHANCED SUSTAIN SYSTEM) was introduced in the early 90's with the mission of using “nodal point®” (the non vibrating part of the drum) suspension that provided all of benefit to drummers with its improved sound and conveniences. However, after some experiments we found there was something more we could do to improve it.

Ziggy. I developed a rubber “floater” so that there is no actual direct vibration of the shell touching the mounting hardware that is, wood on metal. Secondly the rubber “floaters” are attached to a wooden plate which further reduces metallic overtone and emphasizes genuine shell sound. Lastly, we added another stabilizing “floater” on the nodal point of the resonant plain (For 16"tom, one more stabilizer is added to control too long sustain) which created a desirable decay and improved stability.

Hook Lugs, the components used to secure the head to the shell, greatly affect the tone color and "rumble" of the completed drums.

The new hook lug was designed by Mr. Taketoshi Yamamoto of the Drums & Percussion Design Section Product Development Department Wind, String & Percussion Instruments Division.

Yamamoto. The hook lugs used for the absolute series are of the detachable/attachable type, so head replacement is very easy. In this new development, I worked in great detail to improve the lug post and the shape of the lug case over that of the conventional hook lug. The new hook lugs allow the loss. This improves the sound, and at the same time it maintains the superiority if the conventional detachable/attachable mechanism.