Worst idea in Drumming

OK, You're a drum company. You want your drums to sound good.
Why not put good heads on them!!! HELLO!!!
I would pay the $50 difference in the price of the kit for decent heads!
WHAT ARE YOU BIG DRUM MARKETING IDIOTS THINKING???
Don't you guys read threads on this sight? We all hate you and your cheapskate ways!
Do you get kickbacks from the head manufacturing companies?
The heads are the most important part of the drum! If you put good heads on your drums they will sound better and you will sell more drums! When your drums are played next to a drum kit with cheap heads they will win, You will get the sale and you will win!

WAKE UP MORONS! SMELL THE COFFEE!

The worst idea in drumming has to be the choice of the manufacturers to install crap heads on their drums. By far!
Only a pencil necked geek accountant can be responsible for this.
I can see the meeting now.
Acct, "Wee can save five dollars per drum by putting crap heads on them"
Board of directors response, "Good idea, No one will know the difference, Put the cheap heads on"

Great post!!
Can you imagine how cheap the major drum manufacterors could get good stock heads from the likes of giants like Remo , Aquarian & Evans with the amounts they would order... bet they would cost next to nothing...
 
Has anyone seen a quick release lug system? I'm not sure if it was good or not because I saw a prototype a couple years ago. But how did they turn out?

Yamaha's Nouveau lug. Somewhat successful. There's been others (I think Ayotte did a releasable lug as well).
 
Great post!!
Can you imagine how cheap the major drum manufacterors could get good stock heads from the likes of giants like Remo , Aquarian & Evans with the amounts they would order... bet they would cost next to nothing...
My set came with Remo UX heads. They are one ply clear and they were complete garbage. Isn't a basic tom head around $15? I'm sure if they made a deal with the big companies they could get them for a fraction of that. It's stupid how they put Remos on but didn't consider spending an extra $30 tops.
 
Bob, at first I thought "Yeah, you're right". The I thought more ... that good heads can cost $30 or more each here ...a five piece is an extra $150. That 10% of a $1500 kit.

Then I thought about how we often decide what we want and when we hear a drum with a bad head on it we tune it as best we can and then imagine how it would sound with good heads.

Then I thought about how the tuning is even more important than the head quality, and about all the shop assistants having the skill, time and motivation to tune them really well when they are being paid peanuts. As for the kids just starting out, they probably won't know the difference - good heads, bad heads, well-tunes, untuned..

The biggest issue is tuning. Why risk putting on expensive heads, making your price higher than your competitors, when there's every chance that the retailers won't worry too much about tuning?
 
The biggest issue is tuning. Why risk putting on expensive heads, making your price higher than your competitors, when there's every chance that the retailers won't worry too much about tuning?

I agree with you on the tuning aspect. But maybe if they made it an option to get good heads? Like "buy this kit with this finish and for an extra $100 you can get these heads with them." It could also make a discount or something.
 
Sorry man but floor toms need legs!

Finally! I didn't think I could be the only suspended floor tom hater here. It's lonely being a crotchety old jazz drummer sometimes. Anyway, here's a history lesson for you whippersnappers:

When I was in junior high school, Rush's "Permanent Waves" came out, and everyone was into really big drumsets. A hot selling item was a roto tom rack-I believe it they were 6", 8" and 10" rototoms attached to a bar, with black dot heads, set over the hi hats so you could do the "Tom Sawyer" fill. It seemed to me everyone was way into them for a year or two, and then decided-all at the same time- that they sounded/looked ridiculous and then you couldn't give the damn things away!

A few years later, Remo came out with "spokes". These were the bottom parts of roto-toms turned upside down and attached to cymbal or hi hat stands. Terry Bozzio was a big promoter of them. They sounded about how you'd expect them to. Totally useless.
 
A few years later, Remo came out with "spokes". These were the bottom parts of roto-toms turned upside down and attached to cymbal or hi hat stands. Terry Bozzio was a big promoter of them. They sounded about how you'd expect them to. Totally useless.

And I scavenged a few old rototom castings back around 1988 and made my own "Spoxe". I used them as chime-like effects and then I guess I... can't remember what happened to them?
 
This has to rack right up there:

PA046.jpg


I believe the product is called the Gibraltar Paperweight.

Its for drummers who actually use the left foot in playing, instead being a human kickstand. no offense intended. However, if you can think outside the box, its pretty cool. I have a 6 pedal setup, 2 kicks, 2 hats, low cowbell mounted on gajate on the left and a high on the right, or sometimes a china is mounted on the right. Multi-pedal setups are great for keeping a groove with the feet and soloing on top w/ the hands, or adding dubbed cowbell parts that normally couldn't be played..... One mans trash anothers treasure I guess.
 
Sorry man but floor toms need legs!

Hahaha agreed that's why they are called floor toms in the first place, add a stand they just become another rack tom and what's the point =P
 
Hahaha agreed that's why they are called floor toms in the first place, add a stand they just become another rack tom and what's the point =P

Ah, I dunno. If it makes a nice boom and doesn't fall or twist out of reach I call that mission accomplished. You could place a drum on the back of a small cow for all I care, just as long as it's in easy reach and makes my ears happy ... oh, and as long as it doesn't hurt the cow, of course :)
 
Ah, I dunno. If it makes a nice boom and doesn't fall or twist out of reach I call that mission accomplished. You could place a drum on the back of a small cow for all I care, just as long as it's in easy reach and makes my ears happy ... oh, and as long as it doesn't hurt the cow, of course :)

Hmm that's odd I thought out of all the floor toms that I have played, the ones with legs give the best boom cause they are much deeper and if you have the legs positioned properly and on the proper surface like a rug they won't really slide out of reach.

I also have had trouble with mounted floor toms in the sense that they become too heavy for the stand, they wobble, and if you add a cymbal to the stand thy just become really unsteady no matter how well you have the stand legs set but each to their own.

I like the idea about having it attached to a cow too, would that come with a free cow bell too and provide free refreshments for in between songs?

Sounds like a good marketing tool to me.
 
Hmm that's odd I thought out of all the floor toms that I have played, the ones with legs give the best boom cause they are much deeper and if you have the legs positioned properly and on the proper surface like a rug they won't really slide out of reach.

I also have had trouble with mounted floor toms in the sense that they become too heavy for the stand, they wobble, and if you add a cymbal to the stand thy just become really unsteady no matter how well you have the stand legs set but each to their own.

I like the idea about having it attached to a cow too, would that come with a free cow bell too and provide free refreshments for in between songs?

Sounds like a good marketing tool to me.

Maybe so. I was only talking in principle because I've only ever used floor toms with legs. But they're a pain to pack up so I see the attraction of mounting the drum. I can also see how a heavy hitter would find the mounted ones too wobbly.

The cowbell is a good idea but we dare not take the milk!

I have a Gig Traveler (variation on Rhythm Traveler) these days and it has some design features that don't strike me as very clever. First, the snare that comes with it is mounted on a stand on the kick drum, like a mounted tom. Your kick goes boom and the snare goes BUZZ. Yeeha. I use my normal vintage snare.

The other issue is with the kick, which sits on these four spindly legs like a half spider that are a pain to set up right so that they are at even angles and sitting flush on the floor. My old Rogers Memorilock kick drum could be set up perfectly in seconds ... slide the legs in and tighten the screw.
 
And I scavenged a few old rototom castings back around 1988 and made my own "Spoxe". I used them as chime-like effects and then I guess I... can't remember what happened to them?

Yea i had the rotos too.Thy sounded cool but placement got to be a issue with me.Didnt really liked the look anymore,SO Now days with my 3 up my 8" tom kind of fits the bill and looks way better............................And count me in with the floor toms got to have legs camp............
 
Another one who had a pair of rotos. I liked them a lot, although sound guys would have to work hard to get tone out of them.

Like Al, I have no idea what became of my rotos. I guess they went to the same place as missing pens, books and umbrellas.
 
Oh, I had the rotos and some castings for Spoxe. I know exactly what happened to the rotos. I sold 'em when I got my first real kit.
 
Remember the Vic Firth "Dave Weckl" drumming shoes? I mean really?
 
When spokes came out, I tried to imagine the meeting at Remo when they were conceived. It probably started with, "Holy crap! All our distributors just refused delivery of 50,000 rototoms because they can't sell them! We're dead! Emergency meeting!"
 
Maybe so. I was only talking in principle because I've only ever used floor toms with legs. But they're a pain to pack up so I see the attraction of mounting the drum. I can also see how a heavy hitter would find the mounted ones too wobbly.

The cowbell is a good idea but we dare not take the milk!

I have a Gig Traveler (variation on Rhythm Traveler) these days and it has some design features that don't strike me as very clever. First, the snare that comes with it is mounted on a stand on the kick drum, like a mounted tom. Your kick goes boom and the snare goes BUZZ. Yeeha. I use my normal vintage snare.

The other issue is with the kick, which sits on these four spindly legs like a half spider that are a pain to set up right so that they are at even angles and sitting flush on the floor. My old Rogers Memorilock kick drum could be set up perfectly in seconds ... slide the legs in and tighten the screw.

Sorry Polly I misread you I thought you said that mounted floor toms gave a bigger boom so I thought you were disagreeing or maybe you were lol I just aint with it today, I feel tired maybe I should just sleep.
 
I took apart a broken roto tome and make a spoke out of it.

It sounds like a cup chime, I even used it on ONE recording.

But for the most part it sits in the closet.
 
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