Our NEW Exclusive Tama Starclassic Walnut Birch Drum Set!

There are some drum kits that sound great, and then there are drum kits that make you stop and look twice before you even hear them.

Our newest Drum Center of Portsmouth exclusive Tama Starclassic Walnut/Birch drum set is definitely one of those kits.

Finished in striking Piano White lacquer with Black Nickel hardware, this Starclassic Walnut/Birch combines a bold, unmistakable look with the punch, projection, warmth, and versatility that have made the Starclassic series a favorite among professional drummers. And because this particular configuration was developed exclusively for DCP, it gives drummers something a little different from the standard Starclassic lineup.

The core kit features a 22" bass drum, 10", 12", and 16" toms, with additional drums available separately so you can build anything from a traditional four-piece setup to a massive multi-tom configuration.

In our latest YouTube video, Shane puts the kit through its paces and shows exactly why this combination of Walnut/Birch shells, Piano White lacquer, and Black Nickel hardware is such an exciting addition to the DCP lineup.

At Drum Center of Portsmouth, we love working with manufacturers to create drum configurations that offer something you won't find everywhere else.

This isn't our first DCP-exclusive Tama Starclassic Walnut/Birch kit. Our previous Lacquered Charcoal Oyster configuration has been incredibly successful, so when the opportunity came to create another exclusive, we wanted to take the concept in a completely different visual direction.

The answer was simple: white drums with black hardware.

The result is the new Tama Starclassic Walnut/Birch Piano White with Black Nickel Hardware, available exclusively through Drum Center of Portsmouth.

The contrast is immediately striking. The bright Piano White lacquer gives the kit a clean, classic appearance, while the Black Nickel hardware adds a darker, more aggressive edge.

It's a combination that feels both timeless and modern.

And while the appearance is certainly one of the first things you'll notice, the real reason this kit is exciting is what happens when you start playing it.

The Starclassic Walnut/Birch series was developed around the idea of combining the tonal characteristics of two different woods.

Walnut provides warmth and low-to-mid frequency body, while birch contributes attack, clarity, and projection. Tama's current Starclassic Walnut/Birch construction uses European Birch outer plies and American Black Walnut interior plies. The tom and floor tom shells are 6mm thick, while the bass drum shell is 8mm thick.

That combination gives these drums a distinctive balance.

You get the depth and warmth of walnut, but without losing the cut and definition associated with birch.

For a drummer who needs a kit that can sound substantial without becoming overly soft or round, that balance is extremely useful.

The result is a drum sound with plenty of body underneath the note, but enough attack to make the drums easy to hear in a full band.

As Shane describes it in the video, the Walnut/Birch configuration offers a little more cut and projection while maintaining the warmth that makes walnut such an attractive shell material.

That's part of what makes this particular Starclassic configuration so versatile.

One of the biggest advantages of the Walnut/Birch shell combination is the way it balances warmth with attack.

Walnut can give a drum a rich, full character, while birch helps provide the definition needed for the drum to speak clearly.

For live players, that projection can be especially valuable.

For studio players, the combination also gives engineers plenty to work with. The drums have enough character and body to sound full on their own, while the attack helps individual notes remain clear once guitars, bass, vocals, and other instruments enter the mix.

In the DCP video, the kit is tuned to produce a relatively controlled, punchy sound without sacrificing the natural character of the shells.

The result is a sound that feels powerful without being excessively ringy.

That's also helped by Tama's hardware and hoop design.

The Starclassic Walnut/Birch uses die-cast hoops, but they're designed with a thinner profile than you might expect.

That's an important detail for drummers who like to tune their toms lower.

Traditional die-cast hoops can sometimes make a drum feel more focused and raise the perceived pitch. Shane specifically points out that the thinner-profile hoops on this kit allow him to tune the toms down while still maintaining a stable, controlled sound.

That gives the drums a nice combination of:

• Focus
• Attack
• Tuning stability
• Projection
• Controlled sustain
• Low-end body

The result is a tom sound that works particularly well for modern rock, hard rock, metal, worship, pop, and other styles where you want the drums to sound powerful and defined

One of the coolest things about this DCP exclusive is that you're not locked into the huge configuration shown in the video.

The standard core kit includes:

• 22x16 bass drum
• 10x8 rack tom
• 12x9 rack tom
• 16x14 floor tom

The 22" bass drum comes with a double tom arm, giving you a convenient way to mount the rack toms directly from the bass drum.

That's already an extremely useful configuration for everything from gigging to studio work.

But this is where things get interesting.

The additional drums are available separately, allowing you to expand the kit as your playing and setup require.

The available add-ons featured in the video include:

• 6.5" deep Starclassic Walnut/Birch snare drum
• Additional 22" bass drum
• 14x12 floor tom
• 18x16 floor tom
• 8x7 rack tom
• 13x10 rack tom

That means you can start with the core four-piece configuration and gradually build toward a much larger setup.

Or, if you're the kind of drummer who already knows that more toms are better, you can go straight for the full configuration.

And that's exactly what Shane does in the video.

There is something undeniably fun about a fully dressed drum kit.

The version shown in the video takes the basic 4-piece configuration and expands it with additional rack and floor toms, another bass drum, and the matching snare.

It's a setup designed for drummers who want plenty of tonal options.

Having multiple rack toms and floor toms allows you to create larger melodic movements around the kit and gives you significantly more options when arranging fills.

The additional bass drum also opens the door to double-bass configurations and a completely different playing approach.

Of course, you don't need all of those drums to enjoy what makes this kit special.

That's one of the advantages of the DCP-exclusive configuration: you can build the Starclassic setup around your needs rather than buying a configuration that forces you into one particular approach.

Tama has also put considerable thought into the hardware supporting the shells.

The kit features Tama's Star-Cast Mounting System, along with Quick-Lock brackets on the toms and floor toms. The DCP product listing also confirms the use of die-cast hoops and included tom mounting hardware.

These details might not be as visually exciting as the Piano White finish, but they're important when you're actually using the kit.

Quick-Lock hardware makes setup and teardown faster, which is particularly useful for gigging drummers.

The mounting system also gives you a lot of freedom when positioning your toms.

And that's especially useful with a larger configuration.

If you add the 8x7 and 13x10 rack toms, for example, you want to be able to position each drum exactly where your hands naturally fall.

The bass drum tom mount also adds another layer of flexibility.

For a drummer who likes a lot of toms, that's a major advantage.

Let's talk about the finish for a minute, because this is one of the biggest reasons this particular kit stands out.

Piano White with Black Nickel hardware is an incredibly strong visual combination.

There's something about white drums with black hardware that immediately makes a kit look larger and more dramatic.

Shane mentions some of the iconic rock drum kits from the early 1990s that used similar white-and-black combinations, particularly large setups that looked especially striking on television.

That aesthetic still works today.

The Piano White finish gives the drums a clean, bright appearance, while the Black Nickel hardware provides contrast around every shell.

It's flashy without being overly complicated.

And unlike a heavily patterned finish, it's also unlikely to become visually overwhelming once you start adding cymbals, hardware, microphones, and additional drums.

With a large configuration, that's important.

The finish becomes the foundation for the entire setup.

Another advantage of the Starclassic Walnut/Birch kit is the selection of heads Tama uses from the factory.

The toms come equipped with Evans G2 Clear batter heads, while the bass drum uses an Evans EQ4 batter head. The snare is supplied with a coated Evans G1 batter head.

That means you're not starting with a basic head package that immediately needs to be replaced.

The drums are ready to be tuned and played.

Combined with the Walnut/Birch shells and die-cast hoops, the factory setup produces the kind of controlled, punchy response you would expect from a professional-level drum set.

The drums aren't the only part of the video setup worth checking out.

Shane also uses Tama Spartan hardware, a series designed around the idea of reducing the amount of weight a drummer has to carry without sacrificing stability.

That's a particularly good match for a large drum setup.

When you have multiple drums, cymbals, microphones, stands, and accessories to transport, hardware weight adds up quickly.

The Spartan series is designed to make that process easier.

DCP currently offers a range of Tama Spartan hardware, including cymbal stands and the Spartan hardware pack.

In the video, Shane uses the Spartan snare stand and hi-hat stand along with the other lightweight hardware.

The concept is straightforward: less weight to carry, while still giving the kit the stability you need when you're playing hard.

That's exactly the kind of practical thinking that makes sense for working drummers.

The drum kit is paired with a selection of DCP-exclusive Avenir cymbals in the video.

Avenir was designed to give drummers access to professional-sounding cymbal options across a wide range of tonal styles and price points. The line includes multiple series, including Earth, Shadow, Expression, Sentry, and Amber, among others.

For this particular setup, the cymbal selection includes several different Avenir sounds, allowing the kit to cover a broad tonal spectrum.

Among the cymbals used are Avenir Sentry hi-hats, Shadow and Amber crashes, Earth rides and hi-hats, and Expression crashes and China cymbals.

That mix works particularly well with the Walnut/Birch drums because it gives the overall setup plenty of contrast.

The drums provide the foundation, while the different Avenir cymbal voices add color and articulation around the kit.

A great drum kit deserves great recording equipment.

To capture the sound of this Starclassic Walnut/Birch kit for the video, we used a selection of professional microphones from Lauten Audio, Earthworks, and sE Electronics across the bass drum, snare, toms, overheads, and room positions.

Rather than relying on one microphone type or a single close-mic approach, the recording setup was designed to capture both the detail of the individual drums and the overall sound of the kit in the room.

That gives you a better idea of how the Walnut/Birch shells, cymbals, tuning, and room interact when you hear the kit in the video.

The short answer?

A lot of drummers.

The 22/10/12/16 configuration is versatile enough for players who want a traditional setup, while the available add-on drums make it possible to build a much larger configuration.

It's particularly appealing to drummers who want:

• A professional-level Tama kit
• A powerful but controlled sound
• Warmth combined with attack
• Strong projection
• A versatile 22" bass drum setup
• Flexible tom positioning
• A striking finish
• Expandability
• A professional kit without stepping all the way into a fully custom drum build

The Walnut/Birch shell combination also makes it a particularly interesting choice for drummers who want something between the warmth of a traditional maple sound and the more immediate attack associated with birch.

One of the reasons the Starclassic Walnut/Birch has become so popular is the combination of professional construction and price.

You're getting a shell pack from one of Tama's established professional drum series, with the shell construction, hardware, hoops, mounting system, and factory heads all designed to perform at a serious level.

At the same time, the Walnut/Birch configuration offers an attractive alternative to some of the more expensive professional drum options available today.

For drummers who care about sound and build quality but also have to think about the overall investment, that balance matters.

And that's a big part of why we wanted to create this particular DCP exclusive.

One of the best things about this DCP exclusive is that you don't have to copy the exact configuration from the video.

Start with the 4-piece core kit.

Add the snare if you want a matching drum.

Add another bass drum if you're building a double-bass setup.

Add rack and floor toms as your music and playing style demand.

You can create a compact setup for smaller gigs or go all the way to a huge multi-tom configuration like the one Shane demonstrates.

Either way, the foundation remains the same: Tama Starclassic Walnut/Birch shells in the exclusive Piano White finish with Black Nickel hardware.

The new Tama Starclassic Walnut/Birch Piano White with Black Nickel hardware is exactly the kind of drum set we love creating at Drum Center of Portsmouth.

It combines a distinctive DCP-exclusive finish with a proven shell combination, professional-level hardware, flexible mounting options, and a configuration that can grow with the drummer.

The Walnut/Birch shells deliver a useful balance of warmth, attack, and projection, while the Piano White and Black Nickel combination gives the kit a look that stands out immediately.

And because the drums are available individually beyond the core four-piece configuration, you're not limited to one setup.

Whether you're looking for a professional 4-piece kit or you're dreaming about a massive multi-tom setup, this Starclassic gives you a solid foundation to build from.