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Improvement: The poplar shells are thinner and harder.

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• Manufacturer's Description

Escape claws

The revamped Stagemaster hardware package includes a tool/throne. The Swingstar also had the stool but at the expense of one cymbal stand. Now there are two cymbal stands, a straight and a boom. One aim of the double-braced stands is to eliminate noise. To that end, there's a rubber cap at the end of the upper stand tubes plus a nylon sleeve underneath the stand bases, eliminating rattling and swaying.

Instead of the usual geared bracket, the snare stand has a continuous tilter. This type works because you can get exactly the angle you want, which is impossible with geared tilters. The support arms have 'escape claws' - rubber support cushions which 'float'on the steel arms - for improved resonance and reduced arm fatigue. Great idea, painfully contrived name.

The stool, like the snare stand, offers continuous adjustment. This is because it uses a strong memory lock instead of the usual bolt-through-the-base-tube height pegging system. It's more flexible but perhaps not quite so stable. The seat top, at 13", is one inch wider than the former Swingstar seat.

Spring tight

The hi-hat foot pedal rotates around its tripod base for flexible positioning. The bottom cymbal cradle and felt are both fixed so they can't get lost. And the tilter has a locking nut for stability.

When packing up you unscrew the centre pull rod, turn it around and slot it into the top section tubing so it won't get bent in your crowded traps case. Full marks to Tama for addressing these familiar problems.

Finally, there's the HP30 kick pedal, previously included with the Swingstar, but still advanced for this level. It not only has the usual spring tension adjustment but also beater angle adjustment. There is also a spring tension lock. With hard playing your bass pedal spring sometimes works loose, but this pedal has a specially shaped Spring Tight nylon locking nut to prevent this. The pedal also now comes with a double-sided nylon/felt beater.

Tama says: "This time we upgraded everything", which is a slight overstatement, but you get what they mean. The Imperialstar still has many Swingstar features and there's nothing wrong with that. But there really are some big improvements, including the thinner, harder, poplar shells and the improved Stagemaster hardware.