16" Floor Tom to Bass Drum

19drum94 · #1 12-28-2011, 06:15 AM

I want to convert my floor tom to a bass drum. Which is the best converter to do so. It seems like the JG16 by Pearl is the one that everyone uses. However, I want to know if it fits most drums or only pearls. I dont want to blow $30 to find out that it doesnt fit into the leg holders. Also it seems like there are no 16" bass drum heads. Would an aquarian performance II work? The tom is a Yamaha Rydeen.

jackie k · #2 12-28-2011, 07:15 AM

I have a yamaha stage custom kit 1998. I just bought the JG16 and the legs do work for my floor tom. The JG16 by itself will not make your floor tom into a bass drum. You will need to buy one other pearl part. You need a Pearl IS1216 SL ISS mount $30. Your foot pedal cannot be attached to your metal rim without this parts. You might want to wait and see if what I said works. I did order two parts. a BT-3 tom bracket and the IS1216 part. It cost me $50. I am learning as I go. You do not need the BT-3 part. I also thought that I could get a 16" wood hoop and 8 claw hooks and put it on the floor tom. Just use a standard bass drum riser which attaches to the wood hoop and your pedal attaches to the riser. It would be a more expensive way of doing it, but it would probably look better with wood hoops on both sides of your floor tom. They sell everything you need to do it but you have to get from a custom drum website.

I was also thinking about attaching a bass drum cymbal mount onto the floor tom. This way I don't have to carry around a cymbal stand for the ride cymbal. The L arm attaches to your floor tom.

Basically you are making a Jungle kit. Used for small clubs with very little space for band setups. I put my rack tom (12x9) on a snare stand, instead of using a bigger cymbal stand and attaching my rack tom to it. It takes up alot more space. When I tried using a snare stand for my 13x11 tom which is now my floor tom, it's just to high even on the lowest setting. So I am going to check out a pearl short snare stand S1000D, I think this will work for me,
Like I said just wait and see what actually works for me, so you don't waste money by seeing what works.

19drum94 · #3 12-28-2011, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackie k

I have a yamaha stage custom kit 1998. I just bought the JG16 and the legs do work for my floor tom. The JG16 by itself will not make your floor tom into a bass drum. You will need to buy two other pearl parts. You need a Pearl BT-3 tom mount bracket $20 and a Pearl IS1216 SL ISS mount $30. Your foot pedal cannot be attached to your metal rim without those parts. You might want to wait and see if what I said works. I just ordered those two parts. It cost me $50. I am learning as I go. I also thought that I could get a 16" wood hoop and 8 claw hooks and put it on the floor top. Just use a standard bass drum riser which attaches to the wood hoop and your pedal attaches to the riser. It would be a more expensive way of doing it, but it would probably look better with wood hoops on both sides of your floor tom. They sell everything you need to do it but you have to get from a custom drum website.

I was also thinking about attaching a bass drum cymbal mount onto the floor tom. This way I don't have to carry around a cymbal stand for the ride cymbal. The L arm attaches to your floor tom.

Basically you are making a Jungle kit. Used for small clubs with very little space for band setups. I put my rack tom (12x9) on a snare stand, instead of using a bigger cymbal stand and attaching my rack tom to it. It takes up alot more space. When I tried using a snare stand for my 13x11 tom which is now my floor tom, it's just to high even on the lowest setting. So I am going to check out a pearl short snare stand S1000D, I think this will work for me,
Like I said just wait and see what actually works for me, so you don't waste money by seeing what works.

How are you liking the stage custom? Im picking up a used one tomorrow. The exact same year. Do I need those other parts if I am just planning to put the tom on a snare stand? Can you post a picture so that I can see what the other 2 items you mentiond are?

bobdadruma · #4 12-28-2011, 09:58 AM

Remo makes 16 inch bass drum heads. PS3 is one of them that is great.
Are you going to use wood hoops and claws or tom hoops?

19drum94 · #5 12-28-2011, 10:05 AM

Just the tom hoops and the riser that comes with the converter. Its probably cheaper too. I do not have a lot of money to spend. Plus it is not a good drum anyways.

jackie k · #6 12-28-2011, 02:24 PM

The 1998 yamaha drum set is a great kit. It's the best sounding and quality kit I ever had and I had several different kits. Yamaha makes quality. The older yamaha kits, 1980 to the mid/late 1990's some were made in England and Japan. They used birch/mahogany, beech wood and other combinations of different types of wood. Any of these kits are considered professional. My kit was made in Indonesia. It's still sounds great and well made.

Just google the part #s to see what they look like and see their cost.

You don't need any other parts to put a rack tom sitting on a snare stand. You just need to be comfortable with your height adjustment. I find that my rack tom is ok you can use any snare stand, but my other rack tom (13x11) just sits to high as a floor tom for me to play it on a snare stand, unless you can find a short snare stand, pearl has one, I just have to check it out.

Check out how my floor tom conversion kit sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzbh1M-8blc

bobdadruma · #7 12-29-2011, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 19drum94

Just the tom hoops and the riser that comes with the converter. Its probably cheaper too. I do not have a lot of money to spend. Plus it is not a good drum anyways.

Use a regular tom head then because it will fit the tom hoop.
Bass drum heads have thicker rims than tom heads.

#8 12-29-2011, 02:17 AM

I did exactly the project you're describing but with an old Export shell.

The JG16 is a great bit of kit. I can't see there being any problems with the legs. The problem will be with the mounting bracket underneath the tom that holds the batter side up. The part that comes with the JG16 is just a tube designed to fit Pearl tom mounts. In my case this was fine because I had a few around anyway but this would need to be fitted to your kit in this case. With Yamaha hardware I can't see an easy way around this without some fairly severe modification to a standard Yamaha bracket (my main kit uses Yamaha-style hardware).

Second-hand old style Pearl mounts that drill directly into the shell (think 1990s Export) are probably available very cheaply on eBay. ISS and Optimounts will be much more expensive. The going rate for a new ISS mount on eBay is around £20 (I'm in the UK) and the JG16 itself was around £35 from Thomann. An even cheaper option might to be to buy the Peace branded mount. This is a direct copy of the old Pearl mount and if my memory serves me correctly has the same gauge tubing.

I use a Fiberskyn Ambassador on my 16" with a coated Ambassador as the resonant. Mine is tuned very high.

Kenny Allyn · #9 12-29-2011, 04:52 AM

I already had an extra ISS mount, so making my old $39,00 Pearl Export kit into a "convertible" kit seemed like a natural ...

The JG-16 seemed just the ticket, and I works well as it is, but honestly I wanted a better support in front. The answer for me was in the form of a part made by
Rhythm Tech to hold multiple percussion pieces ... I pressed it into service (with a few mods) as the as the front support. It is very stable and just slighly raised
the front givinng the drum a little up angle.

Here is how it looks ...

That raised front had to be compensated for, by making a slight bend in the pedal foot (used a vise) ... the added benefit is that it lets my damping material
(poly fill) lay towards the batter head, when used as a kick and fall to the bottom when used as the floor tom. The front head is a Remo Fiberskin and the batter
a clear Remo pinstripe which is a good choice for my purpose.

Here is what the conversion looks like ...