Ivor Arbiter is one of the legendary figures in the UK drumming community. He owned Drum City in the Fifties and it was the place to be for drummers of all genres.

Ringo Starr purchased his now famous Black Oyster Pearl set from Ivor. But Ivor was also an inventor. In the mid 70's, he invented a revolutionary tuning system called the Arbiter Auto-Tune. The plastic shells had no tension rods. Instead, the drums were tuned by turning the head on the shell, like one would do with a jar of preserves. The drums were a failure, although by some accounts they were solid sounding drums. In the mid 90's, Ivor tried again. This time he used a wood shell. The drums were tuned with a single screw that connected to two clasps. Basically the clasps were two sections of the hoop. In theory, this should have worked.

Snare drums and complete sets were offered. Unfortunately. the drums were a sales failure. I don't recall ever seeing any drummer play the drums in a live setting.