Tom tree or VBD?

[GetAgrippa]

You can always mount a virgin with a Tom. So you have the option of a virgin or mounted. I like both so I can see both. I've never mounted my 24 virgin-I've kept it a virgin with a port.

 

[Ransan]

Wait, we calling double tom mounts ‘tom trees’ now?

I refuse, in that case VBD for me … just cause I’ve honestly never played from a tom tree… unless…

(Darn! Uncle Larry - touché, well played 🙂👍)

 

[C.M. Jones]

Sound is a non-factor for me, as I muffle my bass drums pretty aggressively.

My stance is the same. The sonic difference (if one even exists, which I very much doubt) between a bass drum with a tom mount and a virgin shell is meaningless to me. Especially once muffling is added, which I use as well, getting caught up in the purity of resonance and tone is a contradictory preoccupation. I just like having my tom in a snare stand, making mounts on a bass drum pointless in my case.

 

[Superman]

I prefer mounted toms on the bass. I've tried both and mounting them on cymbal stands is something that I just can't get used to. I tried to force myself to like it, but eventually was forced to admit that I didn't.

 

[gish]

I’ve been a 1up,1 down guy for many years now, and have no plans to change. My preference is to have a bass drum mount; however my DW kit features a virgin kick so I mount my rack tom in a snare basket. Not as convenient as the tom tree but I’m fine with it. Not a fan of flying toms from cymbal stands.

 

[Woolwich]

I've noticed a subtle change in threads like these over the years. When RIMS style mounts were still relatively "new" and bass drums without tom mounts started to become popular, talk was mainly focused on resonance, getting the maximum out of each drum etc. Nowadays it's, in my opinion, gone in a more practical direction with people discussing the advantages and disadvantages to them of different ways of mounting their tom toms.
There is no absolute right or wrong, it's what the individual prefers and how it works in their situation.

 

[mikyok]

I have one of each. Kit in the profile pic with a mount and ye olde Ludwig that I use a snare stand for.

Does it make me any difference to my playing or load in/out.........nope!

 

[Jasta 11]

I never understood the advantage of a virgin bass drum for a gigging drummer. carrying extra stands to support the toms isnt optimal, and neither is the virgin bass for a live setting. there just isnt enough of a difference to matter to a bar crowd and the stands take up too much realestate. and as far as a differnece in a studio..its all up to the engineers to create the sound, the drum has little to do with it. I play a gig with a Rogers kit as a backline. the bass is stuffed with a blanket and some towels and the head is loose and sounds like dead paper when you hit it. the sound guy litterally throws a mic in the bass on top of the blanket and when he turns on the mixer it becomes this booming bass that you wish all bass drums sounded like. Virgin vs Tree doesnt matter for sound, its all about convenience. The tom tree for me, always.

 

[Al Strange]

I have both and don’t have a real dog in this fight. That said, I’m seriously considering switching to one up (snare basket) one down when playing my 24” VBD kit…

 

[mikyok]

I have both and don’t have a real dog in this fight. That said, I’m seriously considering switching to one up (snare basket) one down when playing my 24” VBD kit…

Go for it, you can get the tom a bit lower which personally I like to do with bigger bass drums.......well 22" and above!

 

[AzHeat]

Go for it, you can get the tom a bit lower which personally I like to do with bigger bass drums.......well 22" and above!

This was the greatest driver for me. Virgin or not, I couldn’t get my tom where I needed it with a tom tree. I came close with my PDPs , but there was no crashing the ride without it contacting the tom mount. Also, to get the tom wher I wanted it, meant I couldn’t have a second tom without moving my hats more left. My transition to 1U was slow, but once I realized the ergonomics of it, there was no going back. If the BD mount works for you, great. Use it. It’s a much faster setup. As already mentioned, I also like sliding the BD out for tuning without disassembling everything. There’s no perf setup, but nice that we have options.

 

[Capital D]

I have both, but my main kit is VBD because it is one up one down and the tom is on a snare stand. I like that aesthetic. Not for everyone, I know but I like the look.

My kit with 2 toms are bass drum mounted all day. I'll go further and say that I don't use rims mounts or any other fancy non drilled resonance maximizing tom mounts. My toms that mount have brackets drilled into the side of the shell old school style. Damping the drums to me renders any rims mount or resonance maximizing mount useless. That goes for bass drum mounts as well, maybe more so because of the damping put into bass drums.

 

[Hollywood Jim]

I have both. For gigs the pre set tom tree works the best. For my virgin bass drum I use a snare stand for the one tom.
I hate hanging toms from cymbal stands. Too much work and I hate it when toms wiggle while your hitting them.

.

 

[timmdrum]

Well, if over to one's right/left side over the bass drum is where one wants the tom(s), then a BD tom mount does the trick. I prefer to have a lot of my setup easily and "evenly" reachable with both hands, so my toms are more centered in front of me, on a rack in my gig kit and on a stand in my rehearsal kit- like a double bass kit minus the 2nd bass drum. (In a typical setup, the bass drum is not a player's "center"- it's in front of the right/left foot, which is spread apart from the other so as to straddle the snare. Those who make the BD the kit's center, and facing straight downstage, are seated either with his/her center facing diagonally over to one side or with the torso twisted to face downstage.)

Bonus, for those who use a kit with the mount base still on the bass drum but don't use the mount (I did this pre-Kelly Shu)- 2 minute internal BD mic holder. I took the memory lock off the tom mount post, put one of these (the post diameter is the same as most BD tom mounts) inside the bass drum, upside-down and into the mount base, and put the memory lock flush on the very end of it that stuck out upwards, so it won't fall down into the inside of the shell should the base's wing screw loosen. Then I put a cutoff piece of the threaded end of a microphone stand in the clamp hanging down inside the bass drum. Even without any sort of shock mount, there was zero vibration noise in the mic signal.

 

[PorkPieGuy]

VBD for me. I just like the look.

I used to argue that I could never get the tom angles right with a kick-mounted tom holder; however, with shallower toms, I probably could. I just don't because all my kicks are virgins and/or have rail mounts.

 

[someguy01]

My 12" hangs off a Tama combo stand as the kick has a receiver for a tom mount, but I do not have one to use.

 

[Stroman]

It's been so long since I mounted a virgin, I can't remember what they sound like, or if there is even a difference in sound. 😉

 

[petrez]

I used to be on the VBD side, but switched over recently. Always thought a virgin BD looked the best, but since I wanted a big setup, I had to complement it with a rack, which is a pain in the a... to gig with regularly. I grew very tired of it, and after being on a couple of tours using a doublebass backline kit with toms mounted on the bassdrums, as well as crashes on both sides, it just makes transporting and setup so much easier. I don't care that much about the looks of it anymore, I like the flexibility and simple setup (as simple as it can get with a big kit like that). Check out Tom Hunting (Exodus) for reference, that's were I got inspiration from on a big doublebass Yamaha setup (except he's a leftie, of course...) with mounted toms/crashes.

 

[Iristone]

You can remove the tom tree from a drilled kick drum but not vice versa

 

[opentune]

Tom tree is actually more 'sustainable development', saving the world more metal (by requiring no stand).