High End Hat Stands....Godsend or Gimmick?

I just bought my first hi-hat stand. And I can tell you, man, there might not be much difference between a middle of the road and a high end hi-hat, but get one where you can't swivel the base or adjust the tension, OR ANYTHING, and you'll appreciate the finer things in life to a great degree.

7i2.jpg


- Reggae Mangle
 
I think a nice hi hat stand is important but then I hate my old sonor hi hat stand for a few reasons. Some cheaper ones are fine but I like my dw9000 with its cam system, it lets me make finer adjustments than I couldn't make with a direct pull one. And I like to feel grounded since I am bracing one foot on it most of my play time.

I also got a Gibraltar quick lock clutch and no longer have to deal with loosening/tightening top hats. I really don't enjoy adjusting my top hat all the time.

So yep, definitely not a gimmick to me.
 
Wow. Never thought I'd see this thread again. As good as forgotten I'd started it.

Update for anyone who cares. I bought a Pearl H900 shortly after starting this thread purely because I decided it had everything I'd ever need and the price was right. However not long after that, I also walked into a killer deal on a barely used H2000 that I just had to buy in order to satisfy my own curiosity. Suffice it to say, the 900 now does all the heavy lifting and the 2000 sits in darkness under the stairs gathering cobwebs and dust. Despite playing around endlessly with cams and whatnot, I just never managed to get the response from the footboard I was looking for......it always felt a little sluggish and delayed. As "feel" pretty much dictates any set up I use on a drum kit, the far more expensive model got bumped for something lighter and simpler, yet far more effective for me.

So 3 years after starting this......and speaking completely personally, I'm calling gimmick..........at least on the H2000.
 
OK any hardware manufactures reading this: We need a lightweight HH stand that feels heavy and thus solid. Maybe heavy legs and light tubes, or the bottom half of the legs heavy. A 10mm rod. Each leg removable (like AXIS, forget rivets, use fasteners). Keep it simple, well made and cheap. Figure it out, it'll be a best seller.

What'd i'd really like to see is a 'fly by wire' HH stand, having the effect of an E Kit HH where there's no transfer of vibration to the foot when the hats are struck... way more comfortable and no fatigue.
 
I think a nice hi hat stand is important but then I hate my old sonor hi hat stand for a few reasons. Some cheaper ones are fine but I like my dw9000 with its cam system, it lets me make finer adjustments than I couldn't make with a direct pull one. And I like to feel grounded since I am bracing one foot on it most of my play time.

I also got a Gibraltar quick lock clutch and no longer have to deal with loosening/tightening top hats. I really don't enjoy adjusting my top hat all the time.

So yep, definitely not a gimmick to me.

We have the same h-hat stand setup! Unless you have the 3-leg 9000.

My hi-hat foot has dramatically improved in use and feel since I got my 9000 hi-hat stand. I love it.
 
I have an Atlas pro hi hat stand. It is awesome. Rock solid. Smooth. Built like a tank. I don't think it has any unnecessary offerings that I can think of?
 
I would never apply a gimmick to any piece of hardware because it either works for you or it doesn't. But I've found that with hi-hats (probably more than bass pedals), the cheap ones work just as well for me as the more expensive ones. My favorite hi-hat stands are the HS-740 and Canopus Lightweight. I currently favor the Canopus only because it's a little smaller and lighter so it fits in the bag I use. But both are as basic as you can get. The Canopus is $140, but the Yamaha which is just as nice is around $90.
 
I don't think it's a gimmick, necessarily. The bells and whistles do make an improvement to the feel, action, and adjustability of the stand. What many of you are saying is that you don't desire that in a high-hat stand, or that you don't want to pay more for those features. And that is totally fine. But that doesn't make those features gimmicky.

Yesterday, I tried out the DW9500 stand at the store, and I have to say it felt VERY good. I would consider spending extra money for that kind of quality.

For me personally, adjustments on pedals are evil. I just get things totally out of whack and then can't get it back to how it was out of the box, which is usually better than whatever I end up with on my own.
 
I think there are a lot of nice useful features on a lot of these 'hi-tech' hi-hat stands. Though I don't see most features as gimmicks, not every feature is necessarily necessary. It's just that some drummers may prefer certain features for whatever reasons, be it speed or feel, etc. I have a Tama Lever Glide hi-hat which has a nice smooth feel, though a nice simple hi-hat stand is quite adequate for my needs. Actually, I've found that some of the most basic hi-hats without any sort of tension adjustment feel better than some more expensive hi-hats. I like a hi-hat stand to be solid and sturdy, but not heavy, with a basic straightforward pull system. Also, when playing double bass, it is a big benefit, if not a necessity, to have swiveling legs.
 
Ok. So, I'm getting that people are keen to abruptly stop short of throwing around the word "gimmick".....but yet precious few respondents (and precious few appears to be incredibly generous too) actually feel that features like inter-changeable cams, Gucci glides and chain lengthening/shortening doo-dahs on a humble hat stand in any way enhance the functionality or playability of the thing.

Although, by this definition......

gim·mick [gim-ik]

5. to equip or embellish with unnecessary features, especially in order to increase salability, acceptance, etc.


......I'm not sure I'm too far off the mark.

But anyway, the word "gimmick" aside......I'm still getting many of these things are equipped with features that so very few actually desire, need or indeed use, in order to close the top cymbal a whole inch (or less) to the bottom cymbal.

Dare I throw around the term "over engineered" instead? :)
 
I think the "gucci glide" mechanism on my 9000 stand is a feature that I can't live without now. I enjoy playing on my hi-hats with my foot much, much more after my purchase of the 9000, and it feels just right to me. Not to some people, but it's perfect for me.

One reason we might not see a lot of discussion of the crazy features on a lot of hi-hat stands is because they're adjustments that people set every once in a blue moon, and then forget about. I wouldn't bring up the spring-tension adjustment mechanism on the 9000 because I set it once, like, 8 months ago, and haven't touched it since. However, it might have offered me an advantage then that I just didn't notice, or haven't noticed, because I wasn't in contact with it like I was with the drive system, or the footboard-folding system, much more often in my use time.
 
Back
Top