GIBRALTAR DOUBLE BASS CURVED - IS IT WORTH IT?

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Do your bass drums have tom mounts on them.? If so you can put one tom on the left bass drum and buy a double tom mount stand and put it between the two bass drums. How many cymbals do you have? The double tom holder is cheap compared to a rack and all of the clamps.
 
GRUNTERSDAD said:
Do your bass drums have tom mounts on them.? If so you can put one tom on the left bass drum and buy a double tom mount stand and put it between the two bass drums. How many cymbals do you have? The double tom holder is cheap compared to a rack and all of the clamps.
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yeh both bass drums have tom mounts in them.

im using a cymbal stand between the bass drum with the pearl triple mounting bracket to attach two toms to it.

problem is it takes a long time to set up, its awkward to get the toms exactly where u want, and there's always a slight possibility it could fall over at any stage.
 
Is it worth it? No.

Get this one instead:

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Pearl-DR80-Rack?sku=448530

You get a 3 sided rack instead of a 2 for less than half the price of the gibraltar. I used to own one then i got rid of it when i got my monster ICON rack for my studio kit, now i regret selling it because i would rather have it for my gig kit than the rack i'm using now, a gibraltar v rack. The DR 80 is billed as lightweight and it is way lighter than an ICON the same size but it is sturdy as a rock, sturdy enough to hold my '92 pearl export double bass 8 pc kit with power depth toms and 8 cymbal booms back in the day. Plus it's a square rack which means no slipping!!!!
 
diosdude said:
Is it worth it? No.

Get this one instead:

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Pearl-DR80-Rack?sku=448530

You get a 3 sided rack instead of a 2 for less than half the price of the gibraltar. I used to own one then i got rid of it when i got my monster ICON rack for my studio kit, now i regret selling it because i would rather have it for my gig kit than the rack i'm using now, a gibraltar v rack. The DR 80 is billed as lightweight and it is way lighter than an ICON the same size but it is sturdy as a rock, sturdy enough to hold my '92 pearl export double bass 8 pc kit with power depth toms and 8 cymbal booms back in the day. Plus it's a square rack which means no slipping!!!!
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but i dont see how that would fit both of my bass drums in it?
plus i think the gibraltar looks a lot better
 
quarantine said:
but i dont see how that would fit both of my bass drums in it?
plus i think the gibraltar looks a lot better
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All 3 sides are equally long, about 3'+ if i remember correctly so your bass drums go under either the 2 left or the 2 right bars and then the other side is extra to use as an "L" shape. You can buy the extension side if you want a 4 sided rack for i think like 65 bucks. Again, think of the space as the same as the curved giraltar with an extra side for your left or right wing. That gibraltar isn't going to wrap to your sides like you're thinking, it's just 2 front curved bars, if you want wrap around, guess what? you gotta buy extensions.

So again, if you think it's worth it to pay MORE THAN DOUBLE the price for the gibraltar rack to get FEWER SIDES because it looks better, then go for it. Sounds like you would be happier with the gibraltar. I'm not going to knock that Gibraltar for looks or quality, they're great racks but all i'm saying is you'd get a lot more bang for your buck with the Pearl. So to me, it's not worth it, but you may feel differently.
 
diosdude said:
All 3 sides are equally long, about 3'+ if i remember correctly so your bass drums go under either the 2 left or the 2 right bars and then the other side is extra to use as an "L" shape. You can buy the extension side if you want a 4 sided rack for i think like 65 bucks. Again, think of the space as the same as the curved giraltar with an extra side for your left or right wing. That gibraltar isn't going to wrap to your sides like you're thinking, it's just 2 front curved bars, if you want wrap around, guess what? you gotta buy extensions.

So again, if you think it's worth it to pay MORE THAN DOUBLE the price for the gibraltar rack to get FEWER SIDES because it looks better, then go for it. Sounds like you would be happier with the gibraltar. I'm not going to knock that Gibraltar for looks or quality, they're great racks but all i'm saying is you'd get a lot more bang for your buck with the Pearl. So to me, it's not worth it, but you may feel differently.
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I had that Pearl rack for a day. The black powder coating comes off easily (looked like soot on my hands), and breaking it down to pack away is aggravating. Plus, the clamps will only hold 7/8" tubes, 'cause they're hinged and will only close so much. The Gibraltar rack can be "curved" to various degrees, by bringing the sides either closer to you or further away. Bringing them closer together will sort of make a V with curved sides, and you can simply move the center post a little further away if it makes the side posts come too far back. Or, you can move the curved bars further into the clamps on the center post- who says they have to stop flush with the clamp hole? (Not that you'd want to exaggerate this with a big X lookin' setup, but if they stick out a couple of inches, it wouldn't look bad.) So yeah, if you're only looking for distance of horizontal mounting space, get the Pearl, otherwise the Gibraltar is much more versatile & modular, and you'll get better value for the money.

Just my opinion, of course. :)
 
timmdrum said:
I had that Pearl rack for a day. The black powder coating comes off easily (looked like soot on my hands), and breaking it down to pack away is aggravating. Plus, the clamps will only hold 7/8" tubes, 'cause they're hinged and will only close so much. The Gibraltar rack can be "curved" to various degrees, by bringing the sides either closer to you or further away. Bringing them closer together will sort of make a V with curved sides, and you can simply move the center post a little further away if it makes the side posts come too far back. Or, you can move the curved bars further into the clamps on the center post- who says they have to stop flush with the clamp hole? (Not that you'd want to exaggerate this with a big X lookin' setup, but if they stick out a couple of inches, it wouldn't look bad.) So yeah, if you're only looking for distance of horizontal mounting space, get the Pearl, otherwise the Gibraltar is much more versatile & modular, and you'll get better value for the money.

Just my opinion, of course. :)
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The black powder coat isn't very durable, you're correct but a quick coat of rustoleum texture coat solved that problem for me. As far as the Pearl only taking 7/8" hardware, look at his pic, it's a Pearl export. Guess what size hardware he has all around? 7/8". Look at the bottom pic of his kit, how he has the drums set up. If he gets the gibraltar, he'd have to put the right bass drum and big rack tom on the right half of the rack and then the crash and ride both have to be mounted from the front, unless it was in an "x" configuration, which would be awkward. The third side of the pearl would give him way more boom positioning options and flexibility. Who says the curved bars of the Gibraltar have to stop flush with the clamp hole? Everybody. They're not standard t clamps on that model, they're stackable right angle clamps, they only mount on the very end of your rack pole so unless you spend more money to replace them with standard t clamps, you're stuck with that configuration, and then if you do replace them, your rack bar won't be one continuous level, you'll have a level stacked higher and one lower. The only other way to adjust the distance between vertical posts without spending more money is to cut the pipes.
 
Don't get the old Pearl rack, it's not convenient at all...

My advice - get two of these:
- DR501C

Attach with this if you want to:
- RJ-50

Acquire the clamps and boom arms you need and then mount as so:

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It works out cheaper than buying a full rack for two kicks (actually it comes out cheaper than buying the new icon rack in its basic configuration!) and it's easier to carry around if you count on doing gigs!
 
As a general rule: round pipe racks are way more versatile and flexible than shaped systems like the Pearl or Yamaha hexrack. If your loyalty to Pearl should give way to DW or Ludwig or some such thing, then the pipe system will carry over without much trouble.

We're spending a lot of money here. Think about the future.
 
I don't agree with Mikecore - now with all the new gear out, the Pearl Icon system has become very flexible and you can virtually do anything with the Yamaha rack. The downside is that you need to buy the gear to mount the stuff as you wish, but it's the same with all of them. In any case he's not trying to build some architectural artistic scaffolding here - he just wants to mount his kit on a rack. However, I maintain that my proposition is the most road friendly that I've found so far in my experience...

Quarantine, I say read all the advice here, from that choose which rack YOU like best according to your budget and go for it.

... Just avoid the old black Pearl rack lol!
 
diosdude said:
The black powder coat isn't very durable, you're correct but a quick coat of rustoleum texture coat solved that problem for me.
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cool.

diosdude said:
As far as the Pearl only taking 7/8" hardware, look at his pic, it's a Pearl export. Guess what size hardware he has all around? 7/8".
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limits his future choices for tom & cymbal mounts.

diosdude said:
Look at the bottom pic of his kit, how he has the drums set up. If he gets the gibraltar, he'd have to put the right bass drum and big rack tom on the right half of the rack and then the crash and ride both have to be mounted from the front, unless it was in an "x" configuration, which would be awkward. The third side of the pearl would give him way more boom positioning options and flexibility.
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I didn't have any problems doing it. I even had extra rack space left over on both sides.

diosdude said:
Who says the curved bars of the Gibraltar have to stop flush with the clamp hole? Everybody. They're not standard t clamps on that model, they're stackable right angle clamps, they only mount on the very end of your rack pole so unless you spend more money to replace them with standard t clamps, you're stuck with that configuration, and then if you do replace them, your rack bar won't be one continuous level, you'll have a level stacked higher and one lower. The only other way to adjust the distance between vertical posts without spending more money is to cut the pipes.
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what?? I don't now what kind of clamps you're talking about, nor what model you're referring to. On my rack, except for the clamps where the vertical posts meet the "foot" bars- the only ones that I could see being called a "T" clamp- no clamps on my rack stop the tube at any point. I've attached a pic of the clamps that hold my horizontal bar and side arms to the vertical posts. So the correct answer to "Who says the curved bars of the Gibraltar have to stop flush with the clamp hole?" is: nobody, because the clamps do not stop the bars at any point. I personally choose to only put the horizontal tubes in the clamp far enough to be flush to the other side of the clamp hole, but I can run the tube all the way through it to the other end if I want. It's a fact, so no one would say that. Maybe we're getting lost in a communication lapse here.
 

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timmdrum said:
what?? I don't now what kind of clamps you're talking about, nor what model you're referring to.

So the correct answer to "Who says the curved bars of the Gibraltar have to stop flush with the clamp hole?" is: nobody, because the clamps do not stop the bars at any point. I personally choose to only put the horizontal tubes in the clamp far enough to be flush to the other side of the clamp hole, but I can run the tube all the way through it to the other end if I want. It's a fact, so no one would say that. Maybe we're getting lost in a communication lapse here.
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ERRRRRRRRRR....not
HE's talking about the gibraltar double bass curved rack which uses a STACKABLE RIGHT ANGLE CLAMP not a regular right angle clamp like YOURS. Look at the pics and the specs from musicians friend.

This type of clamp allows you to have one continuous level all the way around the kit up to a full circle. BUT YOU MUST MOUNT THEM AT THE END OF THE POLE. Your regular right angle clamps force you to stack one bar lower and then the other bar higher if you mount them on the same vertical post.

So the answer was EVERYBODY

Diosdude believes that diosdude was right and timmdrum was wrong
Diosdude also likes to talk about himself in the third person
 

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Ok, cool, I stand corrected. Those clamps definitely do stop the pipes. My bad. Quarantine- you still wouldn't have to set up the rack with the two curved bars forming a continuous single curve. Pull the sides in enough so that the stuff on the right & left are close enough. This will make the curved bars form kind of a wide V with curved lines. You'll have plenty of room along the tubes and everything will be close enough.
 
Thnx for the help guys. Am still not quite sure what to get yet lol.

Am still highly considering the Gibraltar double bass, possibly with wings.


I just think that that looks so awesome:

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Thats with 1 wing right?

Cheers
 
Honestly man, it sounds like you won't be happy unless you get that rack so just go ahead and get it. Again, for value, i recommend the Pearl but value just doesn't mean anything if you're not going to be happy with your purchase. The gibraltar is a great rack, so get it and get drumming!!!
 
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