I Hate Virgin Bass Drums and the Resulting Need for Stand Mounted Toms

  • Thread starter drums1225
  • Start date
    • This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
Houndog said:
Nothing worse than a self righteous 2/3 pc kit player telling the rest of us what we NEED ..
Click to expand...
No one's telling anyone what they NEED? More people are saying what you don't need and way too many people are overly particular and just sound like they're preparing to blame the gear or the setup for their crappy playing. It ain't the gear.
 
bigbonzo said:
I believe mounted is the most common term.
Though, I could be wrong.
Click to expand...
Does that still work if they're not mounted? That's what I'm saying. I run mine in a snare basket. All those terms listed are pretty common to the smallest and highest placed toms.
 
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
Hulakatt said:
Does that still work if they're not mounted? That's what I'm saying. I run mine in a snare basket. All those terms listed are pretty common to the smallest and highest placed toms.
Click to expand...
You could call 'em whatever you like. Just be sure that whomever you're talking to knows what you're talking about.

I have a set with a virgin bass. I still call 'em mounted tom's. People still know what I mean and don't feel inclined to correct me.
 
Last edited:
drums1225 said:
There's nothing wrong with virgin bass drums, themselves, though I would argue that the sonic "advantages" over a bass drum with tom mounting hardware are negligible at best, and virtually imperceptible when using muffling, pre-dampened heads, and/or a ported reso. But I digress. This is not about sound or even looks; it's about practicality. The fact that virgin bass drums necessitate alternate means of mounting toms is what makes me hate them. Give me bass drum mounted toms ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. Especially on backline kits.

I just got back home from a 3 show run at The Granbury Opera House, near Dallas, TX. The house backline kit was a Gretsch Energy kit with a virgin bass drum, and the (for me) dreaded combination tom/cymbal stands. Now, I love me some backline kits, especially when they're already set up and all I have to do is position everything to my liking, and maybe adjust the pedal tension. In theory, since I can set up my own kit in 15 minutes, including removing them from the cases, I should be able to be up and running on a backline kit within about 5. This is never the case when the backline kit has a virgin bass drum and combination tom/cymbal stands.

I position my ride just above and to the right of the 2nd rack tom and slightly overlapping (see image), which is next to impossible to achieve when the tom and cymbal are on the same stand. When we arrived, I got the toms where I wanted them in less than a minute, but then the cymbal wrangling began. For literally 10 to 15 minutes, I tried everything to get the ride where I wanted it in relation to the 12" tom with which it shared a stand. It just wasn't happening. At first, it was way too close to me. Then, to get it far enough away, the tom mount would prevent the cymbal boom arm from rotating enough. In the end, the tech said he had another cymbal stand, and we ended up setting that up. What a waste of time and energy, and an unnecessary source of frustration.

Bass drum mounted tom "trees" worked for nearly 100 years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%. I hate flying my toms off of stands and I hate putting them on a snare stand. When I ordered my USA Customs I ordered them with a bass tom mount. I bought my Classic Maples used and the bass drum was virgin so I had an Atlas bass mount installed. I'm a tom mounted to the bass drum kind of guy.

But hey, different strokes for different folks I guess.
 
I hang my toms on stands and put my ride over the 2nd rack tom , it is never an issue .
I’m not understanding the trouble some of y’all are having ???
 
Houndog said:
Saying what we don’t need is the same thing ….isn’t it ???
Click to expand...
No, there is a subtle difference but the world of music is full of subtlety and nuance, isn't it? I've always understood that the better musician does more with less while weak ones blame their tools for their own shortcomings. But I guess that's true in any craft.
 
Hulakatt said:
No, there is a subtle difference but the world of music is full of subtlety and nuance, isn't it? I've always understood that the better musician does more with less while weak ones blame their tools for their own shortcomings. But I guess that's true in any craft.
Click to expand...
Folks, witness Dunning Kruger in effect.
 
OK, boomer, I'm not the one whining about how toms are mounted or holes in my bass drum or how my cymbals are .3" off from how I practiced so I can't play right. I'm saying to just play and quit whining about it on the internet.
 
Hulakatt said:
I've always understood that the better musician does more with less while weak ones blame their tools for their own shortcomings.
Click to expand...
And I’ve always pitied the occasional drummer that points out how few drums they use in an attempt to illustrate their “superior” talent.
Most of my favorite drummers used massive kits. And each of them could smoke us work-a-day-job drummers with nothing but a practice pad. Yet they still brought lots of tools to the job site. Guess they didn’t get your memo.
 
Hulakatt said:
OK, boomer, I'm not the one whining about how toms are mounted or holes in my bass drum or how my cymbals are .3" off from how I practiced so I can't play right. I'm saying to just play and quit whining about it on the internet.
Click to expand...
I’m starting to see flashes of why you got banned from TGP. You are very confrontational. Some posters simply don’t agree with your logic. Accept it and move on without the name calling.
 
Hulakatt said:
No, there is a subtle difference but the world of music is full of subtlety and nuance, isn't it? I've always understood that the better musician does more with less while weak ones blame their tools for their own shortcomings. But I guess that's true in any craft.
Click to expand...
Brushes and a pizza box or you suck !!
 
I haven't been here long, about 6 months but am a regular and/or mod on other sites and it is refreshing that this is the first negative interaction I have witnessed on DFO. Imho, pretty good stats for the internet and it's usual keyboard militia.
 
Blue Zurich said:
I haven't been here long, about 6 months but am a regular and/or mod on other sites and it is refreshing that this is the first negative interaction I have witnessed on DFO. Imho, pretty good stats for the internet and it's usual keyboard militia.
Click to expand...

DFO is moderated pretty well. Troublemakers don't last too long, although some people are really good at walking the line.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top