Rack Issues

buzzbuzz

Member
When I play out, I need to get on/off stage kinda quick. I used to have 7 cymbal stands but I went to a rack. I really like the rack. However, it's really heavy and bulky and hard to move. It is a Pearl curved icon rack and also includes a bar and a leg on the RH side. The front rack bar holds 3 toms and 3 cymbals. The side rack holds a ride cymabal and I have a cymbal coming out of the top of the far RH leg. And I attach a china to this cymbal arm also - hope that makes sense.

When I am tearing down, I take the cymbals off and fold the two major pieces of the rack toward one another and carry it off as they are connected. What would you do to make this more efficient/easier?

1. Leave as is.
2. Remove the side piece and replace with 2 cymbal stands.
3. Unattach the side piece from the front but then I would have to buy another leg a t-leg brace. Plus the new t-leg brace would be hard to place because of the existing t-leg brace on the front rack. I could buy a mini t-leg but would it topple over if I had a mini t-leg on one end of the stand-alone side rack?
4. What would be great is if there was a way I could unattach the side rack from the front rack without having to pull/thread it off of the top of the front rack leg - is there such a thing?

Thanks to all who took time reading this probably very confusing post. Any help is appreciated.
 

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I used to gig a Gibraltar rack until I got tired of carrying everything. Since then I've experimented mightily with stands and found that you can actually cram a lot more, with more stability, onto stands than you might think. It involves getting the right tripods, and being creative with how you clamp and fly toms and cymbals.

I look at your setup below and I think to myself, "Seven stands? I could do that with three (plus hi-hat and snare stands)".

Get a double tom stand for your leftmost two rack toms and fly your two leftmost crashes off that stand - either with multiclamps or a cymbal station rack tube. Make sure it's a pretty sturdy double-braced with a wide spread.

The rightmost rack tom and right front crash - easily mounted on one stand.

Your three right-side cymbals can be mounted on one stand, either a three-hole mount stand or on a big boom stand with clamps or a cymbal station. (Made far easier by the fact you have free-standing floor toms - mine are hanging.)

To explain something: "Cymbal station" is what I call clamping a short horizontal bar to an upright cymbal stand with a normal rack clamp, then clamping additional cymbal stands (or tom arms) to that short rack bar, as in the illustration below - light, flexible, and easy to move vast amounts of bronze quickly. In the example, I have a 14" and 16" tom, an 18" crash, and a 20" and 14" china mounted on one stand.

Hope this helps!
 

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I use 12 cymbals, 2 blocks, cowbell,zilbell,chimes,mounted tamborine and all this goes on my gibralter rack including an 8" and 10" tom..plus 1 very heavily loaded heavy duty stand.. I only remove cymbals, drums and chimes...blocks ect. stay on rack..I then fold it up and throw it in back of truck...it saves me a 1/2 hour+ on set-up and teardown..this sounds for the most part what your doing..I dont know how more time could be saved?
 
I used to gig a Gibraltar rack until I got tired of carrying everything. Since then I've experimented mightily with stands and found that you can actually cram a lot more, with more stability, onto stands than you might think. It involves getting the right tripods, and being creative with how you clamp and fly toms and cymbals.

I look at your setup below and I think to myself, "Seven stands? I could do that with three (plus hi-hat and snare stands)".

Get a double tom stand for your leftmost two rack toms and fly your two leftmost crashes off that stand - either with multiclamps or a cymbal station rack tube. Make sure it's a pretty sturdy double-braced with a wide spread.

The rightmost rack tom and right front crash - easily mounted on one stand.

Your three right-side cymbals can be mounted on one stand, either a three-hole mount stand or on a big boom stand with clamps or a cymbal station. (Made far easier by the fact you have free-standing floor toms - mine are hanging.)

To explain something: "Cymbal station" is what I call clamping a short horizontal bar to an upright cymbal stand with a normal rack clamp, then clamping additional cymbal stands (or tom arms) to that short rack bar, as in the illustration below - light, flexible, and easy to move vast amounts of bronze quickly. In the example, I have a 14" and 16" tom, an 18" crash, and a 20" and 14" china mounted on one stand.

Hope this helps!
I had 7 stands because each cymbal had it's own stand. There's also a china that I have over my hi-hat that is not in this pic.

I think what I would like to intially try is what you recommend. Remove the RH rack and try 1 stand. Here are my concerns. On that stand, I would have a ride, crash and China - the spread between those cymbals is pretty far and I'm not sure how that would work. Here's a top view that might help.
 

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I used to gig with a 3 sided Pearl DR100 rack. When I needed to get off the stage in a hurry, have someone help you. First, I'd pull the whole rack off stage. Then the kick, floor toms, snare, hi-hat.​
Once the drums are off the stage, then tear down further.​
I usually found the drummer for the next band willing to help out, because he understands drums .... and .... he wants to get my set off stage ASAP so he can get set up quicker.​
 
I had 7 stands because each cymbal had it's own stand. There's also a china that I have over my hi-hat that is not in this pic.

I think what I would like to intially try is what you recommend. Remove the RH rack and try 1 stand. Here are my concerns. On that stand, I would have a ride, crash and China - the spread between those cymbals is pretty far and I'm not sure how that would work. Here's a top view that might help.

I'm going to assume that in your diagram, the 20" crash is really your ride.

If you set a cymbal station or multi-clamp fairly low on the stand, you can extend a boom out for your ride probably as far as you have it positioned in your photo, either from the stand with your crash and china, or from the stand with your far right rack tom.... which I don't see any reason to get rid of, unless you haven't got the stands for it.
 

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Alparrot,

Man you went to a lot of trouble - thanks for the advice. Yes, I meant my 20" was a ride. After researching what your'e talking about, something like this is what you're saying I believe. I think that would work. I'm just hoping it wouldn't topple over w/ a 20" heavy ride on it and I would only have to buy the cymbal station piece like you mention as I have the other pieces.
 

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I have the same number of cymbals, plus a pair of hanging floor toms, on a single-braced stand using this technique, and the china is extended out to the furthest extend of the boom to the left, towards the kick... and it still all holds just fine.

The trick is, the cymbal on the one end helps to counterbalance the one on the other end. Just make sure you have a tripod leg along the line of most weight and you should be just fine.
 
You could "adjust/modify" your side Icon rack configuration .... to more of a Gibraltar "stealth rack" ....
 

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You could "adjust/modify" your side Icon rack configuration .... to more of a Gibraltar "stealth rack" ....

Harry's got a point. Take the right side off your Icon rack, lower the cross bar (or don't), mount the stuff as normal there. Then mount your rightmost rack tom on the front upright of the Icon. Do what I suggested with the left side. Down to one stand and a two-leg rack that one person should be able to move, but two could very easily.
 
Buzz---here's a thought I just had while looking over your setup and needs. Take a look at Taye drums website and look under their "accessories clamp systems". They have an amazing range of lightweight yet sturdy hardware accessories that will take pounds of unwanted gear and the total number of stands off of your setup routine. I would suggest mounting your cymbals on the right side with the boom arm attachments to your floor tom legs and drop the whole right side of your rack. Mount the three front toms on cymbal stands and you may be able to do away with the rack altogether. JMHO... look at this photo for an idea then check out their site for further ideas. I see you were playing in Houston when that photo was shot. Tell Jim at Texas Music Emporium dave said hey! Not sure who sells Taye in Houston though...might have to google that.Good luck and let me know if this helped.
 

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