Is a rack worth it?

Drummer637

Junior Member
Hey everyone.

I've been looking at racks online, and I've seen a few in shops but I'm not sure. I like the idea of having stands.

At the moment I have a 5 pc Tama Superstar kit, 2 crashes, splash, and ride.
I'm soon to get another splash, maybe a china, and another hanging floor tom.

On the financial side, I find it's really expensive, compared to the stands and the HUGE range of clamps and accessories from Tama.

But my three favourites are the Gilbraltar V station, the PDP combo rack, and the Pearl DR503.

Thanks to all who reply.
 
Tons of threads on this on the forum here, do a search and you'll find plenty of opinions on both sides.

Distilled, the pros and cons of racks are these:
PROS: Setup stays almost exactly the same time after time; looks cool; may use less floorspace than stands.
CONS: may be heavier and harder to transport; may take longer to set up depending on hwo much you have to break it down to move.
 
I have a similar setup to what you describe (two rack toms, a floor tom on legs, two crashes, a splash, a china and a ride), and I enjoyed having a rack. However, as I've started valuing a more flexible setup, and also downscaled a bit (removed a tom and the splash) I have now sold my rack and gone to a stand setup. When I first got the rack, I loved it, but after road testing it and getting a feel for how a rack works in a live setting (mostly in regards to setup, teardown and hardware bag weight) the downsides really started getting to me.

There are pros and cons to both racks and stands, it all depends on what you value. The rack was 100% consistant every time I set up the kit, and it was rock solid. However, it was also cumbersome to set up, and it really has to be set up on stage. With stands, I can quickly adjust to any drum riser or stage size, and I can set up my stands off stage and just carry them on when needed. Same goes for tearing down, it's easy to just move everything off the stage one stand at a time, instead of having to break the kit down completely before being able to move it off the stage.
 
I'm thinking for the size kit you have you'd be better off with stands, even if you do add a few more cymbals you might be able to set one of your splashes up with a clamp and boom arm off another stand.
 
Ok, keeping in mind the two 'floor toms' are hanging, and I could use this rack for my next kit (which I'll get in like 100 years :p)

Thanks for all your advice.
 
Ok, keeping in mind the two 'floor toms' are hanging, and I could use this rack for my next kit (which I'll get in like 100 years :p)

Thanks for all your advice.


If you don't already you can hang both FT's off one stand. To me the stands make a little more versatile setup. Here's one way to look at it. You already have the stands right? You've already paid for them and they are working right? So save the $300+ bucks you'd spend on a rack and put it away towards that next kit you'd want to buy ;-)
 
coming from a guy that uses racks on all his kits, i'd say your setup is not big enough to warrant buying one.
 
Like others have said, If you don't have a big kit, A rack isn't needed unless you really want one. If you are going to play in small practice rooms and venues, A rack can be cumbersome to move and it can also take a lot of space.
For a big kit with a lot of cymbals, it is almost a must have! Five or six piece with five cymbals, Not so much a must have!
 
Racks are expensive. If you're doing a lot of 1 hr. shows (6-7 bands in one night), they can make life much easier for you. On and/or off the stage in no time flat. But......keep your stands. You'll run into situations where, your rack might not fit on the stage. There might not even be a stage. "oh, we just have the band set up in the corner" ......... with stands, no big deal. Gotta kick, snare, floor tom, hi-hat, ride, crash. Rock the room, get paid. Thank you very much. On the other hand, if you're not gigging at all......and you plan on building/adding onto your kit a lot, a rack will help keep the "tangle of stands" down. My Pearl DR-100 made 4 points of contact with the floor. I flew 8 cymbals. If every cymbal had a stand, that would have been 24 points of contact. Even "doubling up" would still leave me 12 points of contact. Racks are cool.
 
If you don't like stands you can do something like I did to my five piecer. I fly three cymbals on a custom made stand on my bass drum, and two cymbals on a custom made floor stand. Go to the pics in my profile and you can see the pics larger if you like. I have close up pics and captions on how I did it there. I did this a few years ago and I have never had a problem with it. I move my kit once or twice a week.
 

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Tons of threads on this on the forum here, do a search and you'll find plenty of opinions on both sides.

Distilled, the pros and cons of racks are these:
PROS: Setup stays almost exactly the same time after time; looks cool; may use less floorspace than stands.
CONS: may be heavier and harder to transport; may take longer to set up depending on hwo much you have to break it down to move.

Yup.

I have a rack, but I never use it to gig.

It's too cumbersome to set up at many clubs, and if the riser or stage isn't level, it can thrown the whole rack off.

But for my large kit that doesn't leave the house, it's pretty darn cool looking, and saves on stands.
 
I don't know many drummers that play bars and small to medium sized clubs that use a rack to gig. Some of them have racks at home on kits that they don't move much.
 
I don't know many drummers that play bars and small to medium sized clubs that use a rack to gig. Some of them have racks at home on kits that they don't move much.

I do... kind of.

My set at home is pretty massive, and when I used a full rack, it could take a long time to set up and tear down. Excessively long. But I had a rack, and only two stands, and the band I was in encouraged me to use a large set and progressive chops. So I went online, looked and experimented, and decided I could use smaller mini-racks on the sides of the set. They use about as much floorspace as one wide-stanced stand, while holding a lot more stuff. They are small enough that with all the mounting arms taken off and packed up, the can easily fit in the car without disassembling them.

When I load in at the club, I mount the arms back on the rack, stack the drums in the corner behind them, and can finish the job in about ten minutes on stage. Breaking stage consists of me taking the two rack sides, the bass drum, the hats, the snare, and the throne off the stage - done.

If the stage is really that small, I can actually clamp short rack pipes to my existing stands and enjoy some of the features of a rack without that much stance.

Also, the low-profile rack system such as Gibraltar's Stealth system may be a good compromise for some - the advantages of racks without the weight or size. The system is essentially a horizontal bar running along the floor between two t-legs.

In the end, it's what your budget, the size of your kit, and your playing situations dictate, but the idea has worked for me.
 
Cool.
If I took care of it, it could last for ages, which means i wouldn't have to buy more stands, and I would have the best of both worlds.

Anyway, thank you all for your advice. :D

The v rack offer is so tempting... but im in scotland and I don't have 190 quid on me.

Thanks,
Niall.
 
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