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History -
1958 In 1958 Ivor Arbiter, who was an instrument repairer and drummer, opened Drum City in Shaftesbury Avenue in the heat of the theatre district. It was the first ‘drums only' store in the whole of London, and became a Mecca for all jazz drummers - the store introduced many different kits to the UK like the German manufactured Trixon drums and also Paiste cymbals. Later Ivor Arbiter gathered rights to Pearl, as well as being the first to stock a complete selection of US drums: Ludwig, Slingerland and Gretsch. 1962 In late 1962 a relatively obscure drummer, Ringo starr and Brian Epstein, a record store manager who had just signed on as the Beatles’ manager, walked in to Drum City, and announced that the band that Ringo played for was going to be really big and asked for help in getting a better drum kit. At first they wanted a black drum kit. But then, Ringo saw a sample chip of Ludwig’s new Oyster Black Pearl finish. Ringo pointed to the sample and said, “That’ what I want.” Luckily, Arbiter Had an Oyster Black Pearl Downbeat kit in stock. Epstein wanted the kit for free, but Ivor didn’t like the prospect of giving away such an expensive drum kit. After some negotiations he agreed to trade Ringo the Ludwig kit, for his old Premier. Ivor Arbiter wanted the drum kits brand name on the Drumhead since he had recently started distributing the brand, which he acquired from the previous NAMM show, this was before drum manufacturers habitually placed their logos on the front bass head. In reply, Epstein wanted the band’s name on the front as well, so on the spot Ivor designed the now famous ‘drop-T’ Beatles logo, and with the help of Eddie Stokes (a local sign painter) the logo was painted on the bass drum head, for no extra charge. 1969 1969 was the year that Hayman drums were first seen by the public. Poduction started in late 1968 when Ivor Arbiter joined forces with long standing drum makers, John E. Dallas & Sons, to take over the Carlton brand of drum kits. Ivor Arbiter wanted to produce a drum kit in England that sounded just as good as American kits. From experiments and prototype Ivor discovered that the drums needed a hard lining to coat the inside of the shell to improve the characteristics of the drums sound. A shell maker from Dallas - George Haymon - developed the “Vibrasonic” lining. It was a hard layer of polyurethane, which was built up over 5 coats and this was far superior to other coated drums of the time. This lining improved the projection and resonance of the drums. Further development of the kit was carried out by Gerry Waller, formerly at Premier and Gerry Evans, who would go on to bring about the success at Pearl drums. The kits where marketed as “George Hayman.”, but this was later shortened to “Hayman”. These drums where officially launched in February 1969 and took the drum market by storm. 1975 - The Birth of Arbiter Autotune In the early 1970’s Ivor left Dallas to develop a new drum kit - The Arbiter Autotune Range. They were constructed from fibreglass and they had a unique tuning system, where the counterhoops/rims of the kit would screw down on to the bearing edge. This was operated by one tuning lug which operate a series of tuning ratchets. This tuning system was in fact based on a pickle jar where a screw top tightens down onto the jar. The drums construction made them heavy and rigid, and along with the fibreglass made the Autotune drum kit extremely loud - they were possibly the loudest drum kit ever produced. It was also possible to tune any head on your kit, top or bottom, without leaving your seat - the start of a long tradition with Arbiter drums. The Autotune kits went on sale in 1975, and were used by many famous drummers including Rory Gallager, Carl Palmer (ELP), Kenny Jones (the Who) and Jon Hiseman (Colloseum). 1996 - Arbiter Group Manufacturing Established Arbiter Group Manufacturing was established in 1996, from acquiring a former suppler for the production of music stands. It was based in Ferndown Industrial Estate (where it still stands today as Ivor Arbiter 2004). It produced a large selection of music stands, from guitar stands to orchestral stands for violins, cellos and such like. This factory would provide the base of manufacture for Ivor’s next revolutionary drum design. 1997 - The Birth of Arbiter AT 20 years after Autotune, Ivor Arbiter had another idea of how to revolutionise the drum industry. Ivor was investigating a leak in one of the turbo systems on his boat. To fix it, he removed the clamp which was holding the offending pipes together and, in the process, discovered that he couldn't move it sideways - its unique V' shape held it and the flanged ends of the pipes firmly in place. This was a genuine and radical innovation. Drum tensioning has changed very little since it was patented in the last century for Duplex, but Ivor Arbiter realised that the V-clamps in his boat's turbo system could be used as the basis for a similar system to the Autotune. Hence, in 1997 the Arbiter AT system was born. Arbiter AT tensions the head by adjusting the circumference of the V-Clamp. A steel counterhoop is gripped by the clamp and stresses the head as it is tightened against a lower ring sprung into a groove in the shell. The Arbiter AT system was released as two distinct types: The Maple Series and the Vibrasonic Series. The Maple Series had a 100% maple shell and used a rail mount system so the only hole was the single air hole. They came originally in five colours (red, natural, blue, green and black.) and could be covered on request. The Vibrasonic Series shells were made from basswood and were all vinyl covered. Three colours were available (red, natural and black.) and the hardware was bolted on. On their release, they went down incredibly well provoking a perhaps surprisingly favourable response from critics and the public alike. 1999 - The Birth of Arbiter Flats Arbiter Percussion released their revolutionary, award winning 'Flats' drums in July 1999 - whereupon they were immediately voted 'Best New Product of 1999' by the Music Industry Association. The company's original 'AT' drums gained an award as 'The Most Innovative Musical Instruments of 1997' and in 1998 were the only musical manufacturer to receive the British Government's coveted 'Millennium Logo' - - the supreme accolade from the British Government awarded only for products demonstrating outstanding creativity and innovation. The Arbiter Flats were developed directly from the Arbiter AT system. It came about from producing custom AT kits, which were mostly custom cut downs of original sized AT kits. Through the development of these kits it was realised that you could almost remove the entire drum shell, just leaving the all important bearing edge behind and still leaving you with a completely capable drum, that had a highly credible sound almost indistinguishable from of conventional single headed drum in regard to sound quality. Noticing the possible weight reductions and storage and transportation improvements over other drum kits, the Arbiter Flats system was designed with these points in mind. The Flats system was and still is under constant development and improvement. The first incarnation of the Flats kit was designed in 1998, it had a metal lower ring (taken from the AT system) and had a metal plate welded to it for means of mounting the drum. This was assembled with a in house manufactured wooden ring, that provided the bearing edge. This wooded ring was routed from a pre-constructed drum shell blank produced on our own rolling mills, and then they were prepared and sprayed in the Arbiter Group Manufacturing factory. This lower assembly was then fitted with AT counterhoops, V-clamps and Remo heads. Later the lower assembly was replaced with a ABS moulding and fitted with a ABS mounting plate. This improved the resonance of the kit and also reduced the weight. The Arbiter Flats Drum Kit was born and instantly became very successful, selling all over the world from America to Japan. 2002 - The Birth of Arbiter Flats Lite The year 2002 saw the release of 'Flats Lite' - a complete drum set in a box! This was done by replacing the steel V-clamp and counterhoop with innovatively designed plastic mouldings which could more than stand up to the forces involved in the operation of a Flats drum. The new moulding also used the AT’s progressive single-screw tuning system that had served AT and Flats pro kit very well. It was realised that the best way to provide this kit to the public was “one drum kit - one box.” All of the hardware, cymbals, stool, sticks and the drum kit itself had to be fitted into one box - the now famous big yellow box. This was done with the help of Kaman. Reducing the amount of space that the pre-packed hardware would take up and also reducing the amount of space the kit need to a minimum was only possible with the ultra thin design of Flats Lite. Flats Lite has become Arbiter's most successful selling kit to date, making a huge impact on the music industry in the area of compact portable drum kits. 2004 - Ivor Arbiter 2004 Established Ivor Arbiter 2004 was created from Arbiter Group Manufacturing in 2004, following the restructuring of parent company Arbiter Group. This resulted in a more efficient production practice. The company's sole aim now is to further production and development of the Flats series. 2005 - The Birth of 'Arbiter Flats Lite Rack' In 2005 production of the Flats series continued and was further enhanced by the introduction of 'Arbiter Flats Lite Rack’. This features the drums from Flats Lite incorporated in to a high quality and convenient rack system. |
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© Arbiter Group Ltd 2003 - 2008 E&OE. Website designed and maintained by Arbiter Marketing.
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