Snare not high enough to be more so even with toms

thelavender

Junior Member
Hi all,

My wife picked me up a low cost kit for Christmas. Just something to see if I would be interested in getting back into playing drums.

Sawtooth Rise Student drum kit.
http://www.sawtoothworld.com/rise-by-sawtooth-drum-sets

Beautiful gesture on her part and really did make my Christmas. Enough of that though, the main point of my post is that, I want my 12' and 13' toms to be more so even with my snare height wise. I was thinking about mounting them to the cymbal stands I have on order.

Two Mapex Mars Series B600 boom stands
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K0OMW0C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I was also thinking about buying a new snare stand as well that would most likely go higher than what came with the kit.

Mapex S800EB Armory Snare Stand
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K544J6C/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

What would I need in order to mount the toms to the stands? Would that be better? Any advice would be very much appreciated!!

For further information, I also bought two Stagg DH-CMT18E 18-Inch DH Exo Medium Thin Crashs
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GBW204/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I love their sound. The price was really good. The last time I was playing I had never heard of Stagg, although that was in 96-98 time frame and it looks like Stagg has only been around since 95. Makes sense why I hadnt heard of them.
 
With any five-piece kit that has two mounted toms over a 22" bass drum, your issue is not only common, it is universal. The tom heads just end up being higher up than the snare head when the angles are fairly level, and so there we are.

With an 18" bass drum, you can get a 12" hanging tom down level with the snare drum more easily, and still not have a very high snare drum. And you can also have the snare and toms tilted, and lean back in the chair and play up in front of you, but even the great drummers who used to play like that have mostly matured into flatter layouts (though not all).

So one solution is to use one mounted tom, over to the side of the bass drum, or put it on a floor mount, and then put your larger mounted tom on a floor mount beside the floor tom, and fill in the gap with a comfortable low ride cymbal. (One up two down)

But basically, any kit can be reconfigured over and over until you find the right way. I like everything close together and on one plane, like a marimba or a TrapKAT, so I try to mess around with a kit until I get it close to that as reasonably possible. Supplied hardware often does not make that easy.
 
I had to picture this in my head but I finally realized what you were describing.

Something like this:



Side question: What would I use to convert the smaller tom to a floor tom ?
 

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You have a set with the 2 toms mounted to the bass drum and for my money until you find out that you really wanted to get serious about this I would leave them where they are. You'll spend as much on parts as that drum set cost to convert them and you really havent gained anything. I would put the money into better bronze cymbals and leave the drums alone.
 
In addition to what's been offered already, you could buy a double tom stand and put it to the hi hat side of the bass drum. You could go low then, the bass drum is just far enough out of the way. You could even angle your bass drum to the right (looking out from the throne) to get the tom stand in as close as possible.

A remote pedal is another option. Put your rack toms on a double stand set low, floor tom close to the 13 x 9, cymbals off dogbones in front, and the bass drum wherever you can get it. That's kind of wacky.

A 20" bass drum might be the best bet, but it's too late for that.

My suggestion is.. get yourself used to playing them with what the set came with. You'll adjust. You'll thank yourself later. I felt exactly like you at one point. I had a 24" bass drum. It makes life easier if you can be flexible. Just lift the arms up, it will become automatic. Part of the skillset. I'm guessing the great majority of drummer's small toms are higher, by more than a little bit, than their snares.
 
Can you convert a standard rack tom to one that will accept an L bracket instead of the normal tom mount a typical 5 piece comes with?
 
They do.

Does anyone by chance know what I would need to convert them? Although I'm leaning towards the Gibralter 3 mount platform stand.


I was thinking this

Gibraltar SC-USS Universal Suspension Mount Fits 8 Inch-14 Inch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000EEJ99A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_N60yyb7MNHM1J

Gibraltar SC-STL3 Super Tom Mount With Wing Screw https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002F7EQQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_K80yybGT5TDR3



Or better yet this

Gibraltar SC-STL4 L-Rod Tom Mount Chrome https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002F79N4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fb1yybZ9CVT1D
 
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This is a 20" bass, but picture these toms 2" higher and it's not bad. Please excuse the rubber mutes.
 

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