Applications for 13" tom

Cheungman

Senior Member
I have a couple 13" toms from when I bought drum sets in the standard 12 13 16 config, and now I hate them haha. I learned years ago that I would have much preferred fusion sizes or the recent 10 12 16, but alas, I now have a cheap 13 and a very expensive 13 that I do not play on. However I realized that a drum is a drum and I shouldn't waste it and that I'm sure there is something I could use it on rather than the standard set up.

What are some applications you guys could use with an extra 13" tom? Perhaps even outside of the drum set and into other percussive set ups.

I play a 4 piece set up now (thanks to the 13) so I've been thinking I could set it up on the left side of the hi hat as a shallow left floor tom as I've seen many people do before, but I feel like the 13" isn't going to be beefier enough to be of much use there.
 
I have a couple 13" toms from when I bought drum sets in the standard 12 13 16 config, and now I hate them haha. I learned years ago that I would have much preferred fusion sizes or the recent 10 12 16, but alas, I now have a cheap 13 and a very expensive 13 that I do not play on. However I realized that a drum is a drum and I shouldn't waste it and that I'm sure there is something I could use it on rather than the standard set up.

What are some applications you guys could use with an extra 13" tom? Perhaps even outside of the drum set and into other percussive set ups.

I play a 4 piece set up now (thanks to the 13) so I've been thinking I could set it up on the left side of the hi hat as a shallow left floor tom as I've seen many people do before, but I feel like the 13" isn't going to be beefier enough to be of much use there.

They make great lamps. Turn it into a lighting fixture.
 
The real deal is 13-16-22. Behold the 13, embrace it. Learn its power and place, lol

Keep the 13 and use the 12 for something else, like make a bass drum sub mic, or give it to a kid who is building a drum set from orphan drums.
 
About anywhere a 12 or 14 would work. You can tune it as you like. Heck, you can play with 3 14's if you like.
 
The real deal is 13-16-22. Behold the 13, embrace it. Learn its power and place, lol

Keep the 13 and use the 12 for something else, like make a bass drum sub mic, or give it to a kid who is building a drum set from orphan drums.

+1

13/16/22 is the original holy trinity of shell packs, and I personally think the only reason that 12" drums were added to make them 5-pc. kits was because they had plenty of 12s in stock for "jazz/bop" setups (12/14/20; the other holy trinity).

Years ago in Modern Drummer it was suggested that the "standard" 5-pc. kit should have 10" and 13" rack toms with a 16" floor tom, thus keeping what was awesome about 13/16/22, and adding the much more appropriate and versatile 10" to the high position that a 12" seems to be so clumsy in.
 
+1

13/16/22 is the original holy trinity of shell packs, and I personally think the only reason that 12" drums were added to make them 5-pc. kits was because they had plenty of 12s in stock for "jazz/bop" setups (12/14/20; the other holy trinity).

Years ago in Modern Drummer it was suggested that the "standard" 5-pc. kit should have 10" and 13" rack toms with a 16" floor tom, thus keeping what was awesome about 13/16/22, and adding the much more appropriate and versatile 10" to the high position that a 12" seems to be so clumsy in.

Not so sure Modern Drummer came up with this idea as Anton Fig and Allan Schwartzberg were the first very public drummers to be doing this. This was in Anton's early days with David Letterman when he played that blue Yamaha Tour kit with 10/13/16 standard toms. Schwartzberg also talked about his set-up in his Modern Drummer interview. And they were right. If you tune each drum to where it sounds good on its own, as a set, you get this great tonal separation.
 
I can't remember if the author gave any credit to those guys or not. What I do remember is that the gist of the article was on how we could improve the way that things were being done in the industry, and the 12/13/16 tom setup needed to go away. His other suggestion of offering 2" spacing like a 10/12/14 or 12/14/16 seems to be the way the industry eventually went.

I have long felt that 13" drums were blamed for problems that should have been attributed to their long-standing 12" neighbors. Unless one can set up and tune drums like a pro, 12, 13 and 14" drums should probably not live next to each other.
 
The problem with the 13's on cheap kits is they tend to be deep. Couple that with a 22" bass, and the drummer needs to be 6' in order to comfortably get on top of tom without being the subject of tom-angle ridicule.

On my cheap kit (Accent 12/13/16/22), I simply dog-boned the L-Bar to my cymbal stand and use it like I would a 14" floor tom.
 
Mikecore;1293582 Unless one can set up and tune drums like a pro said:
But that's the thing, people can learn how to set up and tune drums like pros. Alot of people have and continue to do so. Sometimes when manufacturers try to help people, they create an entire generation of people who can't deal with things "not in order". As Stan at Pro Drum has told me a number of times over the years, "They're drums. You play 'em!" It always comes back to players just learning how to make what they have work. And it's always obvious who those people are ;)
 
I had a 12-13-16 kit once and I hated the 13 as well until I realized that if I tuned it first so that it would sound good by itself, the 12 would still sound pretty good when tuned higher in order to make a decent interval. Starting by tuning the 12 first always made the 13 sound like a tubby bag of ass. I'll also be the heathen in this thread that doesn't like 13-16 as a four piece. I go 12-16 there.
 
Get creative with the 13" tom. I put mine next to my floor toms. I tune them so they complement each other (typically a major third apart).
 

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I am not partial to 13"s in a 5-piece or larger. My Yamaha set runs even sizes 8" to 16". My Ludwig 4-piece, however, is a 13/6/22, which sounds huge and round and great.

The church set which I use regularly has a "standard" 12/13/16/22 setup, and the racks are power toms. I agree that in this case, the 13" has to be tuned first and the 12" has to achieve a comfort zone a bit away from it. At home, I have my Yamaha 12" and Ludwig 13" tuned to nearly the same note, illustrating how these two drum sizes can easily overlap in sonic space. At the church, the 12" is tuned just a scoche higher and the 13" just a scoche lower, providing separation and a good tone from each. It also occurs to me that since the music we play at church is simpler, I could tune both toms the same and treat it like a four-piece with double vision -- or take the 12" off altogether.

I also recommend experimenting with placement. Maybe it would be interesting off to your left, or suspended over your floor toms, to mix up the sound palette. You could also try removing the bottom head and/or tweaking the tuning, to get a very different sound to the rest of the kit.
 
I agree with you guys on the 12/13 overlapping. When I first bought a kit 10 years ago, I set it up myslef with no idea on how to tune. I did notice that the 12 and 13 sounded the same when all set up. I Messed around with the 13 for an hour or so. I was disappointed. I decide to just tune it to what sounded good and tried my luck with the 12. The end result was the same as you guys, just tuned the 12 a bit higher and voilà! Kit was the sam ash "special" groove percussion in ugly ass red wrap. The 16 on did sound big though lol
 
My Rockstar kit has a 12/13/16 combo. Never had a problem with the tuning, so I must be a pro, eh? They are rather deep toms using square sizes, but that is the beauty of that 13 - it's deep enough to sound like a 14" floor tom. Since I'm used to playing a 4-piece kit (13/16/22), I use the 13 like another floor tom. A lot of my fills will bypass the 13, or I'll use the 13 instead of the 16. My other kit, like I said, is 13/16/22. I much prefer the 13" over the 12" in a 4-piece configuration, and would probably even prefer a 14/18/26 over that because I like the way big toms sound.
 
Actually, I really prefer a 15" floor tom to a 16. It is a little deeper than a 14 fusion thing, but doesn't disappear or get swamped by the kick like a bigger drum. The guys kit I'm playing in the avatar picture is a 12 and 15. So my ideal set up would be a 1 up 2 down of 10, 13, 15, instead of the 10,12,14 I use now. Some day when I can afford and justify a custom kit, that will be the set up.

There's a big difference between how the drums sound to us playing them at home, and how they sound out front at a gig. Deep round sounds get lost in the morass of noise going on. Especially with bass players trying to get a big fat sound and guitarists with 4 driver cabinets going for that impressive chunky thump.
 
I used to have a Yamaha 8000 13" tom and it was the most resonant & exceptional drum. Was so sad to see it go when I had to part with that kit. Anyway, for the most part I set it up to the left of the hi-hat in a otherwise 8/10/12/14/16 configuration.
 
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