attaching cymbals to toms

cetera

Junior Member
hello! this is my 1st post.

as a long time drummer who is sick of clutter and setup time, i was wondering if there is any way to eliminate cymbal stands. after a lit of thought, it seems to me that cymbal stands are the main lousy thing about setting up a kit when playing out.

i've looked at portable kits, and i hate that portable seems to be synonymous with shrinking all the drums. i like a bog rock sound so i want to have at least standard depth shells.

i'm looking for a clamp, sort of like the LP things for attaching small percussion bits.
it should have a boom attached to it so a large cymbal could be used without it getting too much in the drummer's face.

do you guys kind of feel what i'm saying here? is this silly?

i'd like 2 standard size rack toms that mount into the kick drum. attach an 18" crash to each of those. and one standard floor tom with a 20" ride attached.

i do realize this would cause some shaking of the kit, but i'm cool with it.

i've searched for clips/clamps like this and i'm just not finding them.

thanks for any help!
 
I know there are mounts that are designed for mounting small splashes to the rims of drums, but I've never heard of any piece of hardware that would let you mount an 18" crash from it. The rim of a tom would definitely never be able to support that kind of weight and movement.

The closest thing I can think of is the old vintage style ride mounts which attach to your bass drum, but even those might have a hard time standing up to a crash, since those are often hit a fair amount harder than a ride. In addition, it probably wouldn't be tall enough for a crash.
 
I have seen cymbal mounts that attach to the rim of toms but I'd be hesitant to use them for larger cymbals unless your rims are heavy-duty die-casts or at least 2.3mm. You run the risk of bending the hoops out of round. I don't know the make of this hardware and have only seen one or two pictures - it was a while ago.

I use a bass-drum mounted cymbal holder made by Danmar. I know Gibraltar make a similar piece of hardware. It's simply a matter of drilling holes to accept a floor-tom leg mount with the correct receiver diameter to the bass drum. All of my bass drums have this modification and it takes about fifteen minutes to install, with no issues of stability.

http://www.gibraltarhardware.com/?fa=partsdetail&curcat=2&bnd=11&cid=105&sid=472&pid=1621

This is the Gibraltar model. I really like this solution and it's been used on kits since the 1950s at least but is much less common now.

Another solution would be a three-holed tom mount. Yamaha make these and I've used this extensively myself.

http://memphisdrumshop.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10816

You'll obviously have to check the receiver diameter on the mount to make sure it's compatible with your current toms.

You could also use a clamp with a single or double receiver on the mounting stem from the tom mount:

http://www.gibraltarhardware.com/?fa=detail&mid=1247&sid=383&cid=31
 
yea i thought the rims might be too weak for this stuff. as a workaround i was imagining an adjustable clamp that attached to the top and bottom rims, distributing the pressure.

I have seen cymbal mounts that attach to the rim of toms but I'd be hesitant to use them for larger cymbals unless your rims are heavy-duty die-casts or at least 2.3mm. You run the risk of bending the hoops out of round.

You could also use a clamp with a single or double receiver on the mounting stem from the tom mount:

http://www.gibraltarhardware.com/?fa=detail&mid=1247&sid=383&cid=31

Vesbj.jpg


nice! with this, i could have 2 cymbals and 1 rack tom in the center, which is just fine for my rock purposes.

after that its a matter of the ride. i might be ok with a floor tom mounting to a ride stand as a compromise.
 
The 3-clamp is a the best idea.

I find when toms attached to same stand as cymbal, the cymbal resonates when you hit the tom, or the tom resonates when you hit the cymbal. One can only hear this in light playing though, in quiet pieces.

I'm all about lightening the load of hardware, but I just use lighter stuff.
 
I once set up my set with three cymbals attached to the tom mount post. My bass drum did not sound as good. With one mounted tom, it sounds great, but with those extra cymbal arms, it sounded muted. Just use as few cymbal stands as you can get away with. For me that is two. Peace and goodwill.
 
Multiclamps hanging off of the bass drum tom post should work. I'd also look for a clamp/cymbal arm that can attach to a floor tom leg.
 
hello! this is my 1st post.

as a long time drummer who is sick of clutter and setup time, i was wondering if there is any way to eliminate cymbal stands. after a lit of thought, it seems to me that cymbal stands are the main lousy thing about setting up a kit when playing out.

i've looked at portable kits, and i hate that portable seems to be synonymous with shrinking all the drums. i like a bog rock sound so i want to have at least standard depth shells.

i'm looking for a clamp, sort of like the LP things for attaching small percussion bits.
it should have a boom attached to it so a large cymbal could be used without it getting too much in the drummer's face.

do you guys kind of feel what i'm saying here? is this silly?

i'd like 2 standard size rack toms that mount into the kick drum. attach an 18" crash to each of those. and one standard floor tom with a 20" ride attached.

i do realize this would cause some shaking of the kit, but i'm cool with it.

i've searched for clips/clamps like this and i'm just not finding them.

thanks for any help!

You sound like the guy I work with. Always trying to be innovative about music stuff, trying to get around what's traditionally been done like it's the best idea ever...wondering how hard it would be to build a guitar from plywood he found laying by his house, wanting to build a cymbal stand on top of his bass drum, what if I made a bass drum out of copper tubing...etc you know the type.

I smile and nod. he's a funny guy but unfortunately kind of in la-la land.

I've never heard of such a thing, but really - cymbal stands fold down, and there's cymbal arms and attachments so you technically don't HAVE to bring all of your stands. The tom mounted cymbal thing sounds a bit ackward and like a disaster to me...just imo

OR you could just buy the Yamaha HipGig kit............
 
Check this site out:

Taye Drums - Hardware and Pedals
www.tayedrums.com/hardware/ - Cached
Ever feel like your pedal just isn't responding to you? Ever feel like you're adjusting to the pedal rather than the pedal adjusting to you?...learn more ...

Check out the "Accessories" pages for:

The ACS 5C5S, 5C5M, 55S, and other attachments can be attached to floor tom legs, L arms, boom extensions, etc.
 
Anyone remember the drummer from the 80s pop-reggae band Men at Work? He did a thing where he had all these attachments off of his bass drum. And things like that would work great if, like every drum made during the 80s, they were super thick and you could jack a car up on it.

But here's another way to look at your dilemma: once you start mounting things on other stands to consolidate, or start mounting all this stuff to your bass drum tom mount, when you go to travel around with it, it will get completely dismantled to get it into the case to travel. When you set up the next time, you will have spent the same amount of time, or more, putting it all back together as it would have taken you to just set up separate stands. And the stress you're putting on the one drum or stand will just shorten its lifespan.

I say keep your drums the same, just get flat-based hardware for your stands. There's a reason that stuff continues to work to this day. Work smarter, not harder ;)
 
You could use a Gibraltar grabber cymbal arm and clamp it to your floor tom leg for your ride. I've done this on some gigs where the space for the kit was tight.
 
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