Hardware: whats all the fuss?

Ok so everyone pretty much covered it already but I'll reiterate, quality does matter to an extent. Just from personal experience, it really sucks when you are setting up for a gig and a cymbal stand breaks and you have to decide which cymbal you are gonna go without, or you're in the middle of a song and suddenly your crash has moved out of reach of your arm, or your hi hats aren't holding closed. That's not to say that more expensive is always better, because there are some stands that I think are extremely overpriced. But if you can afford something you know is stronger, more reliable, and will last longer why not get it? Those cheap stands are great, but they do break I've got a big pile in my studio if you don't believe me.
 
I love your setup Caddy. It's clean and functional. With your grocery store analogy I would compare it to a beautiful older woman at the store in jeans and a t-shirt and she looks just fine in that.

Yowza!

Now I've been meaning to ask you and I suppose this is as appropriate a time as any, what brand is that stand you've used to hold your ride? It's defiantly a cheaper solution than getting a separate stand for your kit.

The cymbal stand is a Yamaha 600 series, and the clamp holding the ride is a Gibraltar splash boom arm. My idea was to get all of my hardware to fit compactly in a single, small case, and also be light to carry. I chose the suitcase, and didn't stop until I found a solution that worked. Since only two cymbal stands could fit in there, splash boom arms were my only real option, and low-and-behold, they've held up after all of these years of setting up, playing, tearing down.

Cheaper, yes, but more compact and lighter, too! I love it when people argue that you *need* beefy, double-braced stands in order to hold toms and multiple cymbals. It makes me laugh a little. It has the same amount of credibility as my 5-year-old son telling me all about being a secret agent...
 
They both look exactly alike, and the SP percussion is half the price. I imagine they would both last about the same length, however even if the DW lasted longer, if would half to last more than twice as long to be worth the money.

Longevity isn't the only issue though... The cheap boom arm might have a bad tilter system, meaning it has a tendency to suddenly give out during a gig, dropping your heavy ride cymbal straight onto your kick drum. There are more aspects to quality than how long it lasts before breaking.
 
1) smashing your $300 cymbal on the guitar amp (or the guitarist's head..). :l
In general, I'd call that a worthwhile investment!

Ok, seriously for a moment. The engineer in me can spot quality problems a mile away, but sometimes those qualty problems are hidden from view, especially in the case of castings. "Not all that glitters is gold" I think is the saying, & I've had a few issues with DW stuff. I had a tilter casting break, throne retention screw strip out, & memory locks on the throne break in half, twice! Never an issue with my 5000 pedal though. Had issues with my son's Pearl stuff too, (but my DRC rack's holding up to road punishment really well) but never, repeat never, had a single issue with Yamaha hardware. Their grade of material & forging/casting quality is in a different league to everyone else.
 
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In general, I'd call that a worthwhile investment!

Ok, seriously for a moment. The engineer in me can spot quality problems a mile away, but sometimes those qualty problems are hidden from view, especially in the case of castings. "Not all that glitters is gold" I think is the saying, & I've had a few issues with DW stuff. I had a tilter casting break, throne retention screw strip out, & memory locks on the throne break in half, twice! Never an issue with my 5000 pedal though. Had issues with my son's Pearl stuff too, (but my DRC rack's holding up to road punishment really well) but never, repeat never, had a single issue with Yamaha hardware. Their grade of material & forging/casting quality is in a different league to everyone else.

Same here. I've used some DW, PDP, Gibralter, Tama (no problems with Tama, either), but as far as what I actually own, aside from a single cowbell holder it's all Yamaha.

Part of this description from Yamaha's website shows some insight as to why:
Yamaha's innovative hardware is legendary for reliability, durability, and versatility. Utilizing manufacturing processes perfected in the Yamaha motorcycle factory, Yamaha system drum hardware is the most requested hardware in the industry.
 
Not all hardware companies use the same measurements. Drum companies try to create hardware specifically for their products so you'll need to purchase everything from them.
 
*cough*Pearl*cough*
.

Them in particular. When I was building my Gibraltar rack setup, they have tom arms called "Pearl-style". They had to create special arms specifically for Pearl drums. Everything else fit on a 10.5mm L-rod or Hex-rod.
 
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