Suspended Tom Mounts ?

Just wondering what everyone is using for tom mounts? What do you think are the best and worst out there?

There are many on the market and I really like the STM mounts by dw, GPI Alloy by Gauger and the EPEK EMMS which is actually a MAPLE tom mount in a matching finish which blends perfectly into the kit, really clever!

I'm really not a fan of the old pearl mount systems (iss?) and the yamaha's.

http://www.drumjunction.com/tom_mounts.html

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 26, 2005 03:43 AM: Message edited by: CLWarunki ]</font>

I can say with the utmost confidence that GPI Alloy mounts are the most effective suspension mounts on the market. I happen to know Gary very well and have spoken to him at length about the differences in mounts.

In my own experience, most of the mounts on the market are actually ineffective copies of the original RIMS, and are mostly designed to "look sweet" and "sell well".

Gauger's RIMS are actually so good, a lot of pros (Vinnie, Ashwin Sood, Travis Barker, etc.) go against the wishes of their drum companies and use Gary's RIMS instead of the mounts the manufacturer puts on their drums! (If you look at the cover of the A Custom video from a few years back, Vinnie is using the actual steel RIMS Gauger gave him in the mid-80's!!)

The RIMS are all hand-bent by Gary himself, and have to pass a very strict Quality Assurance process for him to feel comfortable shipping them out. If they are even slightly uneven, they will not work and Gary will not ship them out.

Check out the GPI website for more info:

http://www.gaugerpercussion.com/

(The pretty floor tom in the Dyna-Mount pics is actually mine!!)

Feel free to send me a direct email if you want some more information!

Side Note: In an issue of Modern Drummer a year or two ago, Gauger's RIMS were listed as the second most significant invention in drum technology since the synthetic drum head. Not bad!

I know about Gauger's RIMS, and it's a very interesting story he told in Modern Drummer some years ago, about how no Drum manufacter would use his great idea (Purecussion had them in for a few years, though).

Funny, that almost every company now have come kind of a copy of the RIMS. [img]wink.gif[/img]

Because of Denmark being an EU country, the Gauger RIMS are very expensive, and due to the Noveau lugs on my Yamaha Drums, I have bought the Tama Star Cast system for my two rack toms. I must say they certantly works for me, and on top of this, the Tama Die Cast rim are better than the Yamaha Die Cast rim [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

I have ordered the Dynamount from Gauger, though ;-D

The Yamaha YESS do NOT work properly (and they can talk about nodal point untill Hell freezes - I don't buy it), but there is nothing wrong with Yamaha's drums.


I don't think it's important which kind of suspension mounting you use, if you only play gigs where the drums are mic'ed.

I only play club gigs, whith no mics what so ever, and due to this, I have to get all the sound possible, so there still are some drum resonans, in order to have a great gig as a drummer, therefore I care much about the suspension system I use
[img]tongue.gif[/img]

Ouch!! It hurts to read that DSOP!! "The Man" has really gotten to you!! =)

If you are still mounting your toms on your bass drum, (which is the death of bass drum tone!) I would suggest abandoning that practice immediately and mounting the toms from adjacent cymbal stands. My rack toms are as close together as I dare get them (without having them rub together) using this method. Check it out (sorry, the pics are HUGE...):

http://www.joecunningham.com/images/...rightlight.jpg

http://www.joecunningham.com/images/...ter_2drums.jpg

Chris, I can't remember the exact issue that article was in, but I think it was the Anniversary issue a year or two ago.....I'll find out and let you know....

i use RIMS on my Gretsch kit, my Ayotte kit has the suspension system it came with and works fine and my DW kits have the STM's and they work well too.
The thing some guys don't like about RIMS is the drum can tend to wobble a little more then some of the other types of suspension systems out there.
all personal preference.

I have RIMS on my Gretsch too and they do allow the drums to wobble around a bit, not only that but they are big and heavy, remind me of a bumper on a '57 Chevy or something!

I have STM mounts on my dw's and they are the sleekest and most chic looking mounts ever... NO WOBBLE factor at all, and brilliant isolation. Very secure mounts and compact too!!!

Looking forward to the Gauger mounts on the new EPEK kit though, might go for the red alloy ones.

On second thought, these EPEK mounts are looking VERY attractive...

http://www.afreeimagehost.com/upload/6744/EPEK tom.jpg

FYI: The new Aluminum Alloy RIMS are MUCH lighter than the heavy old steel RIMS!!

Quote:

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Originally posted by Canarsie:
Ouch!! It hurts to read that DSOP!! "The Man" has really gotten to you!! =)

If you are still mounting your toms on your bass drum, (which is the death of bass drum tone!) I would suggest abandoning that practice immediately and mounting the toms from adjacent cymbal stands.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hey man, I didn't mean to offend anyone or burst any bubbles, but them's the facts. If you're a purist who seeks the best tone above all else, then sure. But my point is that no one else is going to notice OR hear a difference. If you have a good engineer, you could be playing on Pearl Export and get a great sound. If you have a bad engineer (much more common) then nothing is going to help you.

I think it's a lot harder to maintain a consistent setup when you mount off of cymbal stands (unless you carry around a carpet with all positions marked) and then you need to deal with wobbling toms and cymbal stands. Plus, setup will take longer.

My 24", 20" and 18" bass drums all had double toms mounted and sounded good to me, especially the 24".

It takes quite a bit more than that for me to truly be offended, DSOP! I would like to point out however, that none of those were actually facts, they were all opinions. Chris asked for his peers' opinions, so that's what we're stating. He's excited about his new kit and seems to want it to sound as good as it looks, hence the interest in suspension.

Any engineer will tell you that it makes their job MUCH easier if you start with great sounding drums. RIMS were designed for use in the studio, by a working recording drummer.

Any copies that have been made since might as well have been made by Wal Mart, for they were all designed by teams of marketers and engineers to, like I said before: "look sweet" and "sell well".

I doubt when any of us bought our drums, or spent any time tuning them, were thinking about appeasing the general listening public or the next gig's soundguy. Personally, I want my drums to sound good for the same reason a guitar player wants his/her guitar to be in tune with the right amount of warmth, tone, overdrive, reverb, etc. A well tuned drumset can fuel a performance, and poor sounding drums have been the catalyst behind many a drummer's firing.

Unless you only hear your drums when they are coming through the monitors onstage or in a studio, I don't see the problem trying to make them sound as great as possible, before bringing them to an engineer to mic up....

That's just my opinion......

Thanks for the input on Gauger... It really seems like they are the way to go, and I checked out their site.

I will order these with my EPEK kit in the works.

Which issue of MD were they featured in again?

Gauger RIMS are great, but they don't permit very close positioning between the toms. I used them 15 years ago on an old Yamaha Recording Custom kit. They sounded great acoustically and recorded well, but they sounded good with conventional mounts too. I recommend going with a mount that is durable, easy to set up, and lastly, looks good. Getting a great sound has more to do with your touch and your sound engineer (live OR studio). Don't get hung up (no pun intended) on the perfect mount. It's really not that crucial.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Canarsie:
Unless you only hear your drums when they are coming through the monitors onstage or in a studio, I don't see the problem trying to make them sound as great as possible, before bringing them to an engineer to mic up....

That's just my opinion......

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I agree, but the point I was making is that it isn't crucial, that's all. At a certain price-point, I believe that that money is better spent elsewhere (like rent for instance).

You could make your own EPEK mounts, those are just a Yamaha type wood hoop with a plate drilled to the hoop for the tom mount.

I've used RIMs mounts for several years. But, you know those recordings of pre-YESS Yamahas and the non-suspension mounted Gretsch drums sound pretty good to me.

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Originally posted by Andy Vermiglio:
But, you know those recordings of pre-YESS Yamahas and the non-suspension mounted Gretsch drums sound pretty good to me.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Exactly. I think you can get a bigger bang from your buck from changing your heads and tuning properly. I think RIMS improve your tone by around 15%. New heads by around 50%.

Quote:

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Originally posted by drumming sort of person:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Andy Vermiglio:
But, you know those recordings of pre-YESS Yamahas and the non-suspension mounted Gretsch drums sound pretty good to me.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Exactly. I think you can get a bigger bang from your buck from changing your heads and tuning properly. I think RIMS improve your tone by around 15%. New heads by around 50%.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I didn't start this topic based on sound.

I was simply wondering why someone would chose one over the other. Which hold the drums better? Which look better? Do they infact effect the sound? In some small way I'm sure they do... but like you said it's mostly tuning, new heads, touch and of course the drums themselves. I think that although these things promote resonance, all these tom mounts are mostly cosmetic.

Fair enough. This pic might interest you, though, Chris. It appears even Epek orders GPI RIMS! =)

http://www.epekpercussion.com/images/fullkitgallery.jpg

As I said before, RIMS were designed by a working Studio drummer, not a marketing genius. As Baarts was kind enough to point out earlier, Drum Manufacturers originally wanted nothing to do with suspension because they didn't think they could sell it. It wasn't until they realized that all of their endorsees were retrofitting their kits with RIMS that they all had to hop onto the suspension bandwagon. You guys are 100% correct that all of these are indeed, purely cosmetic!!

I will agree that the money could be spent elsewhere (like rent money, which I wouldn't spend on heads either!) but whereas you have to replace heads every few months, depending on frequency of use, you only have to purchase a suspension system once. To me, it's a worthy one-time investment in making your kit sound as good as it can....that's all I'm sayin'.......

I've been using the original Gauger RIMS on my Gretsch since I first saw them. I thought it just made a world of sense. I use an older style Pearl rack, Yamaha ball and socket clamps for the smaller toms and Pearl holders (for added stability)for the "floor" toms. Next to my Rock-n-Roller cart I feel they were the best investment I ever made to my kit. Maybe the folks in the last row can't tell the difference, but they shure make the kit sound so big and ballsy from my perspective and that inspires me. To me there's nothing worse than trying to beat tone out of a drum that's choked. That's why I hate floor toms. I found that when I do have to use the legs on my floors if I place a thick cymbal felt under the shortest leg it'll expand the tone immensely. it's not like having them mounted but there's an improvement I can at least live with.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Canarsie:
Fair enough. This pic might interest you, though, Chris. It appears even Epek orders GPI RIMS! =)

.......

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, I was aware of that [img]smile.gif[/img]

Ed also used a few other suspension mounts including his own (above), gibraltar, pearl optimounts, ISS, etc. He can powder coat them too for a nice effect:

http://epekpercussion.com/gallery/X-...-w-pc-hdwr.jpg