eric_B
Senior Member
In case anyone is interested: I recently recorded a short video, comparing the Pearl floor tom air suspension feet with regular feet: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFpnPSJfzLk&hd=1
I had to revive this thread because I'm really excited. The sound of my floor toms has been transformed with about 5 minutes' effort!
I just put some of these air suspension feet on my floor toms (14 and 16 inch) and cannot believe the difference. Especially the 16 inch.
They're Gretsch Cat Maples, and I'm still getting to know the kit after buying them used a couple of months ago. I seemed to recall Bob Gatzen recommending putting foam under floor tom feet to improve resonance, so I had bought 2 sets of the Pearl air suspension feet for this kit.
Anyway today I noticed that one of my floor toms sounded much better than the other and put it down to tuning, but while reworking the tuning I happened to hit them a couple of times while I was holding them by the rim. Then when I put them on the floor again and hit them the sound was pretty flat. So the tom was actually tuned fine, but standing it back on the floor was somehow reducing the resonance.
Long story short, I pulled off the stock rubber feet, put the air suspension feet on, and wow, what a difference!
Now I have floor toms that sound like thunder, for 9 Euros ($10) each!
OK, I'm going to go and hit them again now.
The effects are amazing. Booty Shakers do the same thing but they're an add-on, not a replacement. I think the Pearls are cheaper but they are designed for 10.5mm legs (they fit on 12.7mm but they're an absolute demon to put on, take it from me).
These have my vote for most effective under $10 drum upgrade of all time.
And much more effective than any isolation mount I have ever experienced. Rims, YESS, Opti-Mounts, etc etc etc