Thoughts on the 13" tom

my 13" is a pain in the butt.

to say my 13" is a pain in the butt is to put it lightly. it's flat. it's bland. it's lifeless. it has no punch. and after fiddling with it to the the point where i finally think...hey...that's not bad...i hit the 12" and 16" and they SING !!!! compare the 13" again...flat...dull...lifeless.

i'm debating replacing it with a 14x11 or 16x13....but i've never heard a 16x13 so i don't know what to expect.

does anyone have experience with this size rack tom ?
 
The reason is thus, The 13 inch tom when it is next to a 12 inch tom makes me crazy!!!

In an optical sense I also find this to be true, it can sometimes be hard to tell which tom is which/bigger, you have to lay a stick across the heads to check.
 
I like the 13" rack tom, myself. Own 4 of them, currently, that belong to different sets. They're no harder to tune than any other drum I own.​
 
My issue with them is that I have one 13" up and 16/18 down and the 13 is always played in context with those drums that have almost 3x the volume of the it so it always sounds out of line a little. The answer for me has been a thinner reso head to give it more resonance and volume.

No issue with the size but my huge floors make it sound wimpy.
 
when i got interested in drums and started listening to demos of all the different kits i could, the 12 and 14 inch toms seemed more musical and pleasing to me, while the 13 inch tom sounded sort of blah.. i can't dispel that idea yet because i don't have a 13 inch tom to experiment with
 
My issue with them is that I have one 13" up and 16/18 down and the 13 is always played in context with those drums that have almost 3x the volume of the it so it always sounds out of line a little. The answer for me has been a thinner reso head to give it more resonance and volume.

No issue with the size but my huge floors make it sound wimpy.

i've tried that, and it does help, but when i hit my 12", it's still night and day in regards to volume and projection and tone.

the 12" and 16" - Yayyyyyyyy.
the 13" - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAggggggggghhhhhhhhh !!!! {sniffle}
 
I really like my 13" toms. I have two - one a thin Keller maple (that goes with 15 & 18 floors) and the other an '80s Tama Superstar that goes with 16 & 18 floors. The Tama also has a 14x10 that I've been using lately and it's cranked up pretty tight. That 14/16/18 is pretty fun.

I'm playing a show tomorrow with the Keller kit and have been practicing with it all week. It's pretty cool, too, but it's currently configured as a 22/12/15. That's a great combo, too.

Even though I'm not using a 13" at the moment, I still consider it to be my default rack tom size. I've never had any trouble tuning it. As others have already pointed out, it's only when tuning it along with a 12" rack or 14" floor that it gets a bit dicey. I never run either of my kits that way, so no troubles there.

As a stand-alone rack tom, there's nothing inherently difficult about tuning it. In fact, I've had more trouble getting my 12" into its sweet spot than I ever have with either of my 13s, but I think that has more to do with me not being used to using just 12s - I can't imagine there's anything more inherently difficult in tuning 12s than there are for any other drum size.
 
13s (and 15s, for that matter) are at their best in 1-up, 2-down setups like 10/13/16 or 12/15/18 where you can stretch your tonal range a bit without adding more drums to your setup. Great midrange drums. Like speakers, you can think of 6, 8, 10 as tweeters, 12, 13, 14 as mids and 15, 16, 18 as woofers.

If we had 11s around, an 8/11/14 bop kit would be awesome.
 
Last edited:
I think one reason why the 13x9 became popular on the classic 4 piece sets was that they produce such a LOUD volume, and this could be useful when amplification was not available. This is not usually the case anymore. I find the 12x8 much easier to control and tune, specially for overtones, and will use it as my single tom with a 22x14 bass drum.
 
I've gotta agree with the OP. I love my 10x13! I don't use a 12 or 14 so it pairs very well with my 16. I've never had an issue tuning it up.
 
In the late 60's I was playing rock with a double bass setup and had a 9x13 next to an 8x12.
I never liked those two sizes together either.
 
13X9! Perfect size, IMO, with the other sizes you mentioned.

Second that. I'm never happy with a 12" now...gotta be 13" for me if the music rocks at all. I like a 12" for other genres It's a noticeably smaller, less resonant sounding drum, surprisingly.
 
The 13 x 9 was the high tom of choice for Gene, Buddy, louie, and many other great ones.
I could go on and on.
The smaller toms became popular when the two or more up kit came into fashion.
Of course the Jazzers went small when they played in trios and quartets.
 
I can tune my 12x8 to sound close to a 10" or a 13". 12x8 are versatile. But when I try to tune my 13x9 to sound like a 12", it just doesn´t sound right.
 
Back
Top