Getting a little thick bottom on the kit (BD as FT)

alparrott

alparrott

Diamond Member
So, spurred on by an errant thought I had earlier in the week concerning theater/pit setups and my general love for 1-up, 2-down setups, I went out in the practice space today and jury-rigged my 20" Stage Custom kick to serve as a 20" floor tom alongside my Standards.

Miked up, it doesn't sound too bad. If I had had unlimited head choices at my disposal, I would have put a G1/Ambassador weight head on the bottom/front/reso and a G2/Emperor on the top/batter. But All I had was a clear EQ3 batter, front and back. So to hear the drum, even with nothing in it and tuned medium tension, it's thuddy and has little sustain next to my 3-ply Ludwig FT on Pearl air suspension feet. But again, miked up it gives this growly little subwoofer-type note. With mallets, it sounds like a cannon shot.

To get it suspended FT-style, I used a Pearl 7/8" arm to connect the tom mounting plate to a tripod using a regular old multi-clamp. I swiveled the legs to stick directly forward of the reso head, and together we have a pretty even tripod effect. I have noticed no stability issues, even whacking it like it owed me money.

If I need to do a concert bass drum sound at the next show, I will invest in some less muffled heads to get a boomier, more open sound -- I might just do that anyways, to make it sound more floor tom-y and less rock kick-y.

So the moral of the story is, you too can have a gong bass drum or similar effect for very little effort.
 

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Ingenius tripod arrangement!

I tried the same thing once with my bass drum, as I use DW hoop-clamp spurs and have another of the same clamp for accessories. Just put floor tom legs in those and voila, a big floor tom. I plan to use it in the future (with different heads) if I ever need to record that Hans Zimmer-style taiko drum sound.
 
Matt Bo Eder said:
It needs to be re-covered in that color now ;)
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I was actually thinking about that. That would look tight, and then I could use the 20" as a kick if I wanted. Maybe that wrap would become my signature look!
 
Pretty ingenious there McGuyver :)

I wonder if brand new wrap would look too new.

Jammin Sam has access to Del-Mar wrap. I am assuming Ludwig used Del-Mar wrap for their Standards, they used Del-Mar for their other drums. You really need a spot on match with that wrap.

You could retro-brite your existing drums if the matching thing was an issue.
 
I'd look at the wrap too but then it will probably cost a bundle and you'll alienate it from the rest of your stage customs.

I like the way you mounted it.. Is it hard to play without hitting the hoops?
 
larryace said:
Pretty ingenious there McGuyver :)

I wonder if brand new wrap would look too new.

Jammin Sam has access to Del-Mar wrap. I am assuming Ludwig used Del-Mar wrap for their Standards, they used Del-Mar for their other drums. You really need a spot on match with that wrap.

You could retro-brite your existing drums if the matching thing was an issue.
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You can really see the difference in the original wrap on the rack tom and kick, and the rewrap for the floor tom that I did with Bumwrap in this pic. The difference in coloration is 100% my fault, because I designed the wrap.

The short story is that nobody makes any wrap that's a very close match for Standard Blue Strata anymore, including Jammin' Sam's.

Longer story: I contacted several wrap suppliers, including Jammin' Sam's, in my quest to rewrap that floor tom and was told in no uncertain terms by Sam himself that there wasn't enough original Ludwig Blue Strata wrap left in existence to cover a stubby golf pencil, and furthermore, Delmar wasn't making any more of it. So I took several pictures of the existing drums, and using them and a high-resolution graphic of a very similarly grained black oyster pearl, created an approximation of Blue Strata for Bumwrap to print on a piece of wrap for a 16x16 floor tom (I had an old Ludwig 3-ply red sparkle floor tom that someone had spraypainted black and I got at a garage sale for $40). When I got it and applied it, it was obvious that the older drums had a much darker, almost green look to them than my graphic - I'm not sure how I failed to get that right. If I were to decide to wrap the Yamaha kick (and probably the rest of the kit too, to match), I would probably also rewrap the Ludwig floor tom again, and alter the color scheme a little so that it had a closer, more greenish look to the original drums.

Duck Tape said:
I'd look at the wrap too but then it will probably cost a bundle and you'll alienate it from the rest of your stage customs.
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As I mentioned, if I decide to wrap the kick, I'll do the rest of the set too. That way I could potentially play the Yamaha toms with the Ludwig kick, or vice versa. You never know. Depending on the lug hole spacing, I might change the lugs to single tension to more closely match the Ludwigs. To think I was considering selling these Stage Customs a while back!

Duck Tape said:
I like the way you mounted it.. Is it hard to play without hitting the hoops?
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It's no harder than not hitting conventional hoops. The thing is so big, if you are used to aiming for the center of the drumhead, the hoops are almost in a different zip code. I thought I'd have issues at first too, but it's been a breeze.
 
Al if the original wrap is greenish looking, is it possible it's UV damaged? The Retro-brite will reverse the yellowing process and restore it back to original condition, possibly matching the newer wrap better. UV damage is yellow, your wrap is bluish. Yellow and blue make green. Sorry for stating the obvious. But the Retro-Brite will remove/reverse the yellowing, turning it blue again.
 
larryace said:
Al if the original wrap is greenish looking, is it possible it's UV damaged? The Retro-brite will reverse the yellowing process and restore it back to original condition, possibly matching the newer wrap better. UV damage is yellow, your wrap is bluish. Yellow and blue make green. Sorry for stating the obvious. But the Retro-Brite will remove/reverse the yellowing, turning it blue again.
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I'm going to have to look into that. I don't know all the particulars on the Standards' history - the guy who gave them to me rescued them from a dumpster - but it does seem to be UV, because the bottom of the kick is less yellowed. Could be a whole new ball game.
 
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How about recovering the whole kit in a new wrap? Precision sells every vintage wrap available I think ;)
 
Matt Bo Eder said:
How about recovering the whole kit in a new wrap? Precision sells every vintage wrap available I think ;)
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I actually really like the blue strata a lot. And as I mentioned, nobody makes it any more. The closest thing I found was from Precision, but it was out of stock ... apparently forever. So I'm not really looking to do something else.
 
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