Short video: Pearl floor tom air suspension feet

Bob Gatzen did a video a while ago just using some rubber squares and the difference is huge, amazing the amount of tone it will open up on a floor tom.
 
The Mapex Saturn tom legs are real cool too.
They are spring loaded to isolate the tom.
I really like mine.
 
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.
 
Last edited:
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).
 
i put these on all of my floor toms. the difference is CATACLYSMIC!!! i got a set of ludwig centennials (16 and 18 inch floor toms), and when holding the drums by the rim, they sounded really nice, but those pathetic little nubbins they came with not only killed their resonance, but caused them to migrate (separate directions, usually) like those old electric vibrating football players. i was either going to build an iso mount, or buy some kind of outrageously overpriced commercially available contraption. until i saw these. "why not?", i asked myself (i do talk to myself, and if you don't, you should try it). flat amazing!! the full resonance and sustain (i am a sustain nazi) are preserved. i LOVE these things!
 
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).


GRETSCH uses a variant (probably made by GIBRALTAR), fits 12.7mm- 'chambered rubber floor feet' is what GRETSCH calls em'.
 
Man that is one loose floor tom. I am sold on the feet too.
 
I just have to chime in...I have recently added the Pearl iso feet to my floor tom legs on my Yamaha club custom 14" and 16" floor toms...and absolutely, no question...big improvement. I want these on all my floor toms now...(gulp..I currently have a lot of floor toms) I buy every new set that comes into my local drum department (only one set in at a time haha).

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

Nice goin' Pearl!

BTW, their hoop saver metal plate is also a great inexpensive accessory. Really protects the hoop where your pedal attaches and won't disintegrate like the rubber solutions...

Neal
 
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

I would wager that's more because of the relative simplicity of the floor tom's mounting design and because of the drastic change between a "bonded" floor tom and a "floating" floor tom, rather than any magic engineering on Pearl's part. It's definitely a much easier system to figure out- hence why it's already pretty much perfected...
 
Back
Top