Thread about bad hardware?

ncc

Silver Member
There are a lot of questions about what is the 'best' in all the categories on this forum. The answers, unfortunately, are all subjective since not everyone uses or have used every drum or cymbal or piece of hardware and we all have our own preferences.

It seems to be a good idea to give people, especially the upcoming artists, information on who had bad experiences and what gear to stay away from, and why. This thread can be about 'other' hardware.

After thinking about it, it would be best to limit comment to items that are still on the market, not say 'i had a brand x 20 years ago that fell apart'. ;-) If you add to this thread, please be factual, not thrash any company.

Thoughts to doing this?
 
Maybe this belongs in that annoyance thread, but as much as I like Gibraltar rack components I can't stand the fact that much of the gear comes with cheesy logo stickers on them that seem to be affixed with superglue. It just makes the stuff look cheap.
 
Most stands are durable enough to last decades but I think there are plenty of designs that could have been better thought out.

My sonor stuff is just too heavy to want to take anywhere.

My pearl demon drives were a great piece of engineering but they were just clumsy to use.

My mapex falcons were also a great design except the put the little carpet gripping spikes right under the footboard, so if you didn't screw them down you'd have the footboard hitting them.

My gibraltar boom arms had plastic tubing that was too thick - my ufip crashes (which have a slightly smaller hole) would get a bit caught on them.

The bass drum clamp on my iron cobra was pretty fiddly on some bass drum hoops.

The upright poles on my pearl icon rack are way too tall, so if you want to put some cymbal boom arms in there, they don't really go as low as you want them.

Any throne that has even the slightest wobble pisses me off. I would rather have a fixed throne that didn't adjust if I could get rid of that twisting sensation.
 
Maybe this belongs in that annoyance thread, but as much as I like Gibraltar rack components I can't stand the fact that much of the gear comes with cheesy logo stickers on them that seem to be affixed with superglue. It just makes the stuff look cheap.

Might I recommend getting Dixon rack hardware then? Dixon is owned by Gibraltar, and their rack components are completely identical, minus the silly Gibraltar logo :)

On topic: Heavy duty stands. I love them for my kit at home that doesn't move. But I'll be damned if I'm taking them out to a single bloody gig; they just weigh too much.
 
I must say that I am completely off of Pearl hardware.

Firstly I have an add-on boom stand that will not sit still. Whether mounted with a cymbal or my cowbell with every hit it goes away from me.

Secondly, the big one, is my Roadster throne. I got the one with the back on it and in a month the back kept sliding out of place. The attachment that holds the back to the seat is so flimsy that it bent out of shape and will never again hold the back properly. Luckily the seat is pretty good so I don't necessarily need the back. But the big deal is that the whole base is held together by two minascule hex screws. If they loosen even a little bit the thing falls apart. It did this to me at a gig, I basically fell on my ass in the middle of a song and we had to take a break. I had to run home and get my hex tool kit which took a half an hour. This is not acceptable. Lucky I'm a metal worker and modded the crap out of it.

It may seem childish but this has put me off all of Pearl's products. There is just too much other good stuff out there. I'm even at the point where I'm looking at gear on EBAY, etc. and I won't even look at anything by Pearl.
 
Lately...(well...maybe over the last ten years? hard to say...), I've noticed that the roll pins that Tama uses to connect their cymbal tilters to the tubing are loosening/slipping. This allows the cymbal tilter to rotate in the tubing. None of my "Made in Japan" Tama gear ever did this, but the newer Taiwanese and Chinese made hardware just isn't up to the old standard in my opinion. I have Gibraltar tilters that do the same thing...but...erm...that's Gibraltar and not TAMA! VERY disappointing considering this is from "The Strongest Name in Drums". Hardware was what drew me to Tama wayyy back and it's pretty sad to see.

The silver lining is that I have begun replacing all my newer Road Pro double braced stuff with the much older single braced "MIJ" red label stuff (including hi-hat stands and pedals). I have had ZERO issues with the stuff that is 20 years old...

My advice to anyone looking for hardware is to buy the old stuff if you can. It's cheaper, lighter, probably looks almost the same finish wise, and works better! lol
 
I play a Saturn kit. I love these drums, but I'm not a fan of the bass drum tom mount. It's over engineered, bulky, and I find its a pain to get the toms low. The baseplate is triangle shaped, and basically blocks the individual arms from dropping all the way down. What you can do is put the individual mounts upside down, and spin the L arms upward, with the wing bolt facing down. However, it's a bit of a knuckle banger in this position. I'll take a simple Yamaha mount any day of the week over this system; my only complaint for an otherwise excellent drum kit.
 
All my sound percussion stands aren't really bad, but they're not good either. I'm pretty sure they use an alloy with a lot of aluminum because when I try to tighten them they feel as if they're going to strip. Even when I tighten them down to where they feel like they're going to strip they end up becoming loose from any car ride or performance. Also my PDP402 double pedal is pretty decent, except the slave pedal is just terrible.
 
I bought a sound percussion snsre stand once. Sad. My snare drum would just get lower and lower after a while. Even when I wasnt playing it. Then the screw snapped tightening trying to keep it at the right height. Smh
 
My SP boom stand is still going strong after 4 years, though I do have to get an Allen wrench to tighten on the actual "boom" portion because it will slip off if I carry it by that.

I have had some slight stripping on my Roadpro double braced stand, which is really unfortunate because they are well priced and I love Tama's tilter. I'm switching to Mapex Falcon booms, though, so I don't really mind that much.
 
My local drum shop stocks Pearl, Gibraltar, Yamaha, and Sonor stands, but has decided to keep Pearl as the 90% "in-stock" brand of hardware.

There have been several times over the last few years here in town that I've wanted/needed a piece of hardware, but ended up driving to Seattle for it, because the newest medium-weight Pearl stuff just doesn't stay where you put it. There's provision for memory locks on the tubes, but the midweight stuff doesn't include them, and so posts and tubes rotate and collapse freely no matter how tightly you turn the wingbolt connectors. Some of their incidental stuff, like clamps and hi-hat clutches, are excellent, but I wouldn't buy a medium-weight stand from them for any reason.
 
Lucky you, my gc stocks mostly sp

Well, my closest GC is 150 miles away... and I think the jury's out on SP or Pearl being less worthy hardware.
 
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