Arbiter Models
This page has been left unwritten for a long time. There are some good reasons for this, me being busy with other projects, for a start. But the main problem has been the difficulty I have had trying to obtain information about the AT kits. Bizarrely it has proved harder to find out about the AT story from a few years ago than the Autotune story from 1975!
Here at least is a mini potted History, with gaps... Hopefully I will have much more information soon now that I have made a few new friends who were involved in the AT
The AT was launched in 1997. AT stands for "Advanced Tuning" which was Ivor Arbiter's second attempt at the single lug tuning concept.
Unlike the Autotune, which was compromised by poor hardware and later by cost cutting measures, the idea was to ensure everything was manufactured to the highest standard with good quality hardware.
The drums were available in power or shallow tom sizes with 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 inch toms being available and either 20 or 22inch bass drums.
Originally the shells were 12 ply maple which were 9mm thick.
Later, around 2001, a thin shelled range was launched, with 9 ply 6 mm shells.
There seems to have been a policy of accepting special orders and it seems many kits were made with configurations not in the catalogues
There are about six colours listed in the brochure, but as my kit colour isn't listed I know for sure they made more colours than this!
Around 1999 the company launched the Vibrasonic AT range. This brand name was borrowed from the Hayman days and was Ivor's patented sonically reflective paint that was used to coat the inside of the shells, giving a loud, bright tone to the drums. The Vibrasonic were a budget range, with basswood shells and with the hardware fixed to the shells, rather than the suspension system of the Maple ATs.
Production of all the AT kits ceased around 2002, although possibly the snare drums were continued for longer, They certainly were advertised on the Arbiter website for much longer than this.
