tom mounts on cymbal stands

J

Jean Marais

Junior Member
Hi. I am looking at buying a Mapex Black Panther Blaster shell pack and one of my concerns is that the tom mounts on the cymbal stands might leave the cymbal stands top heavy and have them fall over. Please can someone provide me with advice in terms of do's and dont's regarding the set up.
 
Set the legs of the tripod up so that the weight is located over the centre of gravity.

Sometimes this means that a tom is directly over the leg, other times it means it's not. It all depends on where the weight sits given your particular set up. You'll just have to play around with it until you find that point where you can exert a little bit of force and the thing doesn't topple over..
 
Pocket-full-of-gold said:
Set the legs of the tripod up so that the weight is located over the centre of gravity.

Sometimes this means that a tom is directly over the leg, other times it means it's not. It all depends on where the weight sits given your particular set up. You'll just have to play around with it until you find that point where you can exert a little bit of force and the thing doesn't topple over..
Click to expand...

You could do that, or, if you only have one rack tom, put it in a snare stand. I like my one tom in a snare stand as it allows a good amount of flexibility, and it makes set up much quicker. I also use the "Little Booty Shakers" on the snare stand and these little neoprene pads that strap over the basket tips allow the tom to resonate incredibly well. At $13 it's a steal.

Once I started working a lot, where I was hauling my drums around on a nightly basis, I got away from the attachment thingys hanging off bigger stands because it just took too much time to re-set. Having a lighter, separate stand for each piece made everything easier to deal with.
 
You don't even need to put a leg under the tom if you're only hanging one. Most mid-to-heavy weight stands are plenty heavy enough to stand up on their own, even with that weight hanging off. There's a reason companies still use them.

If you're going to hang two toms, or really any considerable amount of weight, then you definitely want to have a tripod leg at least *close* to the center of mass. It shouldn't be much of an issue.
 
Make sure the legs on the cymbal stand are open all the way (as wide as you can get). This will make the stand as stable as possible.

Better yet, buy a kit that has the tom mount attached to the bass drum - I just don't know why some people are so opposed to this concept. I can get my toms (10" & 12") mounted in about 10 seconds - no fuss, no muss!!
 
Honestly, any stand worth its weight should be able to hold a couple rack toms without being wobbly. Buy a good medium to heavy duty stand and you wont have any problems. Tama Road Pro or Pearl 900 series are decent medium weight stands that dont cost a fortune and work great for holding toms, cymbal, accessories, or all three together.
 
I use a tom stand for my single tom now, but previously to that I used to mount it with a multi clamp on a cymbal stand, I stopped doing it that way because eventually the stand tube would become damaged making it more difficult to close, although it might well be that I was over tightening them.

Mark
 
If you want to carry both upper toms over the bass drum in the traditional manner, but don't want to drill the bass drum for the Mapex double tom mount, consider using the Ludwig Atlas Arch (LAC2983MT) with an additional tom mount for the second tom. This method would look good and be extremely flexible in tom positioning. You would simply replace the top two front lugs of the bass drum with the lugs included in the Atlas Arch, add the curved arch and the two tom holders. You will probably need to add the Atlas tom receivers to your toms (LAPAM1) because the Atlas rods are a hefty 12.7mm.

GeeDeeEmm

LAC2983MT-Path.jpg
 
I have done toms off cymbal stands for many years, and stand stability is only an issue if you take firm, confident steps to defeat the engineering of the stand to stay upright. The tripod is a time-proven stable platform for most applications, but it can be overcome if you mount a very heavy tom too far away from the stand, and if you either do not position it over a stand leg or do not open the stand legs far enough.

At one point I was suspending 14" and 16" toms, plus a 20" heavy ride, an 18" heavy crash, and a 14" china on one single-braced Yamaha stand, and it never failed. Not once.
 
alparrott said:
I have done toms off cymbal stands for many years, and stand stability is only an issue if you take firm, confident steps to defeat the engineering of the stand to stay upright. The tripod is a time-proven stable platform for most applications, but it can be overcome if you mount a very heavy tom too far away from the stand, and if you either do not position it over a stand leg or do not open the stand legs far enough.

At one point I was suspending 14" and 16" toms, plus a 20" heavy ride, an 18" heavy crash, and a 14" china on one single-braced Yamaha stand, and it never failed. Not once.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the information. This is a whole new thing to me as i have been playing with a 12 and 13 inch on the bass drum mount for years and now want to explore and embrace the better tones of both toms and kick without the rack mount.
 
All three of my toms are mounted on cymbal stands. I have no issues with wobble at all as long as I extend the legs out as far as they go and keep one foot generally underneath the tom. The only real drawback I can think of is that my large china tends to vibrate sympathetically with the largest tom, and even then it's not a huge deal.
 
Just get a rack!

Pearl icon are cool and affordable. Put cymbals booms on the end posts and position your toms whichever way you want. Bingo.

Hanging toms from cymbal stands is something I only do if I have to.
 
I have a Pearl kit and when I have gigs in small venues and do not have room for my drum rack, I clamp my toms on cymbal stands and do not have a problem! I use Pearl cymbal stands and tend to have the drum hanging over one of the legs of the cymbal stand and have no problems with them at all.
 
If possible I put the tom arm into the cymbal stand and use a clamp and the top part of the cymbal stand for the cymbal. That way the tom holder is in the center of the stand. Peace and goodwill.
 
One kit has a suspended floor tom, the other a suspended high tom. The only one I ever worry about in terms of gravity and centers is the bigger, lower to the ground floor tom. The small tom has never been an issue on the "roadpro" stand I've got it hung from.
 
I have just never done this, I've always had two rack toms mounted to the bass drum. I've done with every set, except one. CB-700, Premier, Yamaha, Rogers, PDP. I've never had a issue the bass drum or toms or anything. It seems so much more convenient to me.

With one set I had (Arbiter, and what a disaster THAT was) the bass drum had no mount, so I mounted the toms to cymbal stands...it was a pain in the butt. To me, anyway.
 
DrummerCA35 said:
I have just never done this, I've always had two rack toms mounted to the bass drum. I've done with every set, except one. CB-700, Premier, Yamaha, Rogers, PDP. I've never had a issue the bass drum or toms or anything. It seems so much more convenient to me.

With one set I had (Arbiter, and what a disaster THAT was) the bass drum had no mount, so I mounted the toms to cymbal stands...it was a pain in the butt. To me, anyway.
Click to expand...

I've never enjoyed bass drum mounted toms. When I play two up configurations I like to offset the toms to the left instead of forcing a straight appearance with them over the kick. It's either stand mounted or rack.
 
I agree with acidline. When I got my newest kit I wanted a virgin bass drum. I think they look nicer first off. And I like my ride cymbal over half the bass drum in the "sweet spot." So with the bass drum mount, one hole is open and I just feel it does not look as nice. Just personal preference though.
 
For a long time I carried around really heavy duty cymbal stands like DW9000 because I was concerned about things hanging off them. Now I have my rack tom hanging off a single braced Yamaha stand and I'm seriously considering trying the 2 down on one as well. As folks have said, point one leg as much under the tom as you can get and it will be fine. I also have the rack tom mount kind of twisted back on itself so the tom isn't cantilevered as far out as it could be. This happens to put my left crash where I like it with a straight stand so I works out great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top