I would expect as the years go by, those figures will rise and rise. Anyone that owns one appreciates that fact and tends to treasure them, though there is an increasing awareness of their quality and a few are appearing on ebay, generally between the $500 to $1000 region just now still frankly modest considering their quality and the respective price of a like-sounding Martin. Handmade by a select group of Ibanez luthiers for a few years in the mid to late 70s, they represent amongst the highest quality guitars of the period, both in skill of craft and the materials used. So far I'm £50 into it which I am happy with but I would appreciate it if you could help me identify it. Sorry about the lack of photo but my camera has developed a sense of humor and I haven't yet figured out how to post photographs.

It doesn't appear in any current catalogue I can find but I don't think its particularly old - it seems in good condition with very faint pitting to the chromed hardware which has cleaned up easily. The strainer is better than basic and works smoothly but doesn't seem top quality. The badge is a kind of very patina'd bronze colour (almost brown) and American Football/Rugby Ball shape. Don't think its a Starclassic though as the strainer mechanism doesn't appear 'high end' and there is no Starclassic badge on the drum - just a Tama badge with vent hole in centre. There is a serial number on the Tama badge - 151646 and has 10 tuning lugs per side with plain chromed hardware, plain varnished wood finish and Starclassic 20 strand snare. It sounds great to me - much better than the one with my Pearl Forum starter kit. I fitted an Evans G1 batter I already had and a Meazzi Reso (shop old stock for £5 - very thin), possibly not the best heads but I'll think of them when my tuning ability improves.

The heads were shot but everything else is good. Tama Serial Number Lookup I bought a Tama Snare on impulse on Friday for £45 but have no idea what model it is. Any leading zeroes are replaced by centered dots. The bottom line contains a hiragana character and a four-digit serial number divided into two groups of two digits separated by a hyphen. The top line contains the name of the issuing office (Tama, shown, is in Tokyo) and a vehicle class code. The illustration shows what a plate might look like.

Tama starclassic serial number search