Rack toms in opposite order(ala Mick Fleetwood)

Drewbrew

Member
So i've done a little snooping around the forum but still hav not found exactly wat i'm lookin for. How does having two rack toms with the larger one being on the left and the smaller one being on the right affect ur playing? Is the smaller one used less often? Any experience with this set up? If u dont understand wat im asking i suggest u look at pictures of mick fleetwood's current drum set
 
It's a preference thing. Whether it's because that's how he likes to roll off the toms, or just a preference to hit a certain tom in certain places of the songs, when he would like to hit it....nothing says he has to put them that way, or that they should be that way.

Derek Roddy had a "awkward" tom setup for a long while. Really, just a preference.

Set yours up to what feel most comfortable and works best with how you;d like them to be. Nothing more.
 
Kenny Aronoff runs a set up like this too. I believe I read somewhere that he prefers the 'broken up' sound when moving around the toms.

I also set up the kit like this at my church too. The toms run 12/10/14. I do it just because I actually prefer a two tom arrangement and rarely use the 10" tom. Personally, I just don't like the sound of a 10".
 
i've occasionally done this, but then i moved my floor tom to the other side of the kit, so when i'd do a roll down the drums and hit the snare before my floor tom. basically all preference, and what your playing requires.
 
Bernard Purdie uses that type of set up as well. It's a matter of preference, style, big sound for a 1st rack tom. Personally, I use 1 rack tom [13"x11"] up only - I removed the second one.
 

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I've been doing this myself lately. Mainly it was because I only found myself using my 1st rack tom (a 10") all the time, because I prefer the positioning of it, and rarely my second (a 12"). But, I prefer the deeper sound of the 12" combined with the 14" floor tom, so I swapped the 10" and 12" around. I would go with a simple 1 up 1 down configuration, but I figure I might as well just have the 10" there for when I need it.
 
I ran a "reversed" rack setup for years and still do this occasionally when the spirit moves me. Aronoff and Famularo do it to keep the comfortable feel of a four-piece kit (primary rack directly infront of them) while adding voices. Famularo actually runs a 12, 10, 16, 14 going left to right.

I find it the most comfortable way to run multiple racks AND it pushes me to be inventive with my fills.
 
i did that for a litttle bit i had my 16 floor on the left of the hats and my 13 tom were your floor tom would normaly be ,,it forces you to create mor interesting fills
 
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