I saw in the 2007 DCI program that a new line of marching intruments under the name of Quantum is coming out next year. It had the Mapex symbol/name on it but i don't know what their like or about. If anyone has info on them please tell me. Thank

That's the first I heard of it, but I was able to find a press release on the Mapex web site:
http://usa.mapexdrums.com/news/news_story.asp?ID=152

Quote:

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The Quantum Marching Project is a collaborative effort between Jupiter brass, Mapex drums and Majestic percussion brands to offer a full series of marching and pit instruments...

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Jupiter actually had a line of marching drums in the early '90s. Arizona Sun, a Class A (Div. II) corps, used them.

It will be cool to see how someone fairs that is completely new to the market.

These will be a tough sell though, no matter who they offer a free set to, but I'm still curious to see who ends up marching these next year.

Mapex makes some very nice drum sets. Hopefully their marching will be the same standards as the sets.

Mapex has come a long way in the set world, they used to have some real heaps.

Hopefully this will work better for them than it did for tama...

As far as I'm aware the Tama drums were concept only and never made it market? Am I wrong?

No, that's accurate.

As the story goes, once tama figured out how much was actually involved and who they'd have to compete with at what level (DCI corporate sponsorships), they bagged the idea.

One of the initial issues was weight, which with that brand shouldn't be a surprise.

I'm curious to see if Mapex gives the line another astronomy-linked name, there's some cool stuff they could call the drums.

Saw this on another site-

It appears to be an ffx with Yamaha mts/stabilizers and the Dynasty strainer/j bars attachments.

It's really disappointing to think they just used everyone else's ideas.

Thoughts?

I'm not disappointed at all. If it has the sound of all 3 drums put together than I think they may have a great product. I hope the hardware is as tough as Yamaha's.

It's also nice to see a top snare unit with an easy throw off like Yamaha has. I wish Dynasty would come out with a new design.