Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

I agree about the tone...it is much better when the toms are not attached to the kick...the kick even has less rattle and deeper thud...I played for a long time with mounted toms on the kick but the past 7yrs I have them free standing...purchased some solid stands and will never go back....now if you have a small kit and only one tom of the kick this would be the only exception for me...

tunelow wrote:Any opinions on bass mounted toms vs suspended toms.

I actually have a different reason for not using the Kick-mounted Tom Support than any I have seen here so far--drum positioning. Have you noticed that "traditional" rock drum sets seem to be right-side heavy? Albeit, most drummers ARE Right handed, and it is the dominant hand that usually does most of the work around the drums--right hand lead fills, etc--but the fact that you have to turn your upper body to the right to reach that floor tom with your left hand seems a bit silly.

What I've recently done is taken the rack toms and put them squarely in front of me when I'm playing, on cymbal stands fitted with tom holders. So if I look straight ahead, my snare is flanked by both toms--but my kick drum is more to the right and my hi-hat pedal is almost the same to the left so I get a wide "V" pattern with my legs and the drums are symmetrically positioned more in front of me. The Hihat and floor tom are equally distant from my center line. My Ride cymbal is in the gap formed between the 2nd rack tom and the floor tom, over the kick drum. So now for me to face the audience, my kick drum is at about a 30 degree angle facing forward instead of straight-on.

Sounds maybe a little weird but what it accomplishes is a much more natural feel, more centric than right-heavy and enabled me to get around the toms much quicker and without reaching for anything. It's opened up my playing style quite a bit and is far more comfortable--at least to me.

I will have to post some pictures from the throne I'm sure...