Hey everyone, this is my first thread on the forum. Having played drums for 18 years I only just this arrived at 'my' set-up - the kit which feels right for all situations. Previously I had a larger set-up with 3 toms along the front and one or two floors - but I hardly ever gigged with it, and often ended up gigging with a four piece for convenience sake. Sometimes I'd add another tom but in the floor tom position - because I needed the ride cymbal easily accessible in the 'rock ride' position... I was either playing long covers sets (don't want shoulder fatigue so needed the ride nearby), or a live drum&bass dance sets (180 bpm so didn't want to be stretching!) or Swing sets (I'm really not a swing drummer, so I wanted everything comfortable with the least distractions).
But I missed having two rack toms, and when I set up a 5-piece with 2 floors I hardly ever used both of them, only in the odd fill here and there.
So for most gigs I've ended up with this - sort of a Chad Smith Blood-Sugar era but without the 2nd floor-tom:
But you never really see this set-up, and I wondered why?
Apart from the fact that it looks sort of lame (and I'm 33 so don't worry about that stuff too much now!
) I love it - the ride is right there, you have 3 toms to play with, and two of them are higher toms which I use more often. The floor is a 14 but I only changed to this when I got Oak Customs which are quite low and fat in tone... Because there's no 16" tom I can fit the whole thing into a small car quite easily, so it's practical and quick to set up. I find it works for rock, jazz, and more proggy-fussiony stuff too. I'd recommend trying it out.
So have you ever set up like this? Basically no 'name' players seem to and nor do any normal drummers I hang out with...