Interesting cymbal positioning

I bought a copy of Aquiles' Priester's DVD "The Infallible Reason For My Freak Drumming" yesterday at Guitar Center. Fantastic DVD if you're into that type of music, or just want to hear fantastic drumming. One thing I noticed beyond his insane abilities was that he positions the majority of his cymbals with the boom arms on top of the cymbal rather than the traditional method. Picture below:



I have seen some other drummers do this as well. Scott Rockenfield of Queensryche does this with his ride cymbal. Is this just for looks or is there any advantage to position them this way?

That setup looks cool.

Hey, why not do a DVD review in the /Drum Technique/ section (DRUM INSTRUCTION DVD & BOOK REVIEWS).

I'm not sure whether there is any noteworthy difference in stability in top vs. bottom mounting, but I think one reason would be the less cluttered view into the audience/between band members. Things look tidier from the drummer's perspective, but that's a subjective thing.

Most of the Megadeth drummers have had this set-up over the years as well- more for the cool factor than anything else.

For a while I was doing this as well. Stability? Quite the opposite. The cymbal tends to flop a bit more. It's not sitting on the stand, it's hanging from it and all that's below it is the felt and the wingnut. (Obviously, for this setup you have to use felts and wingnuts... sorry to those who don't believe in them.

There is absolutely no benefit other than visual, and of course the extra muscles from lugging the extra hardware to the gig.

It looks a mess to me, but the idea that anyone other than a drummer would notice seems fanciful.

Davo

I don't see any benefit to doing this at all. It looks different, that's all.
Plus, the wing nuts tend to gradually loosen - Well in my experience. So If you set up like this when you hit your cymbal it could fall off on top of your kit and you'd look like a clampet.

The only conceivable (useful) purpose that I can see is if you have an issue with mounting something over another cymbal.

If your ride is low and you want to hang a crash or splash near it, the hardware won't be in the way for hitting the bell etc.