A quick rant about drum gear, specifically...

... RIMS-style mounts.

Back in the late 20th century, a company called PureCussion created what are now commonly referred to as RIMS mounts for drums. It's an acronym for "Resonance Isolation Mounting System" developed by the company Gauger Percussion. It almost came about by accident, as a mounting system for their shell-less travel style kit:

For the quiet acoustic gigs or taxi-traveling drummer, this kit used RIMS mounts for every drum, including the kick.

It was a huge deal at the time. The guy I bought my first pro kit from (a Yamaha Recording Custom fusion-style setup) had taken the hex mounts off his toms in favor of the RIMS mounts, just not as far as the floor tom; it made sense at the time, as these were small toms - 8', 10", and 12" toms, all 8" deep ("standard depth").

Doesn't that look like a lot of metal for hanging some tiny drums?

In the late 80s/early 90s the thing to do was put RIMS mounts on your non-RIMS-mounted drums. This was around the same time drummers started opting for the "virgin" bass drum as well (I'll have a whole 'nuther rant post about those), where suddenly drum companies were selling the idea that the drum shell  was sacred, and if you had less screws going through the wood, the more tone you would achieve upon striking. RIMS mounts were designed in such a way that drummers could simply take the existing mount off of their toms to attach to the RIMS, thus saving much cost in buying new mounting hardware or stands. This was also a fairly simple thing to do, and in my case fortunately the guy I bought my Yamaha from had already done it for me. Of course in doing so, this left huge holes behind in the shell where the old mounts were; they were just hidden from the audience by the big mounting plate.

Yours truly behind said-Yamahas - that's an A's 2002 Playoffs hat on my head.

At some point in the late 90s/early 00s, either RIMS licensed the copyright for the mounts or had a lapse in renewing it or went bankrupt because suddenly every company was making RIMS-style mounts. Prior to this you could  only get RIMS mounts from Purecussion or a company with exclusive rights to use them, like DW (Drum Workshop). Most companies just cheapened the manufacturing process to make them accessible on more economy-priced drum sets (PDP), while others tried to put their own stylistic take on what were otherwise kinda bulky tom mounts (Tama).

Tama Star mount

Of course, the first thing you find out using the tuning-rod holding mounts is that it adds significant diameter to your drums, so if you already owned cases, they would no longer fit using RIMS mounts. Fortunately for me back then, I was made aware of this and ordered my Anvil fiber cases an extra size bigger to accommodate the mounts.

Of course, THEN you find out that they dont fit snugly in those cases, and the drums need to be wrapped in towels or similar if you don't want them sloshing around in there. But I digress.

So then you get older. Your tastes change. Suddenly that 22" kick drum is too big for the jazz sound you've (finally) discovered. So on and so forth. You buy some used stuff. You discover vintage drums.

Well buying drums second-hand has taught me that drummers LOVE to customize their drums. Especially back in the 60s and 70s, where if you wanted something unique, you had to do it yourself. Nowadays there's a boutique company for every percussive corner of the Internet. But some drummers still insist on taking their power tools to perfectly fine drums. But I digress.

"I made it myself!"

When I traded my Yamaha Recording Custom kit for a lesser brand bop-style kit that was more useful to me, I knew I was 'trading down' in quality quite a bit: a refurbished Yamaha, possibly Rock Tour or Stage Tour Custom series, that had been refurbished by Thumper Custom Drums, then a bay area boutique drum company. "A poor man's Gretsch" was how it was described. The bearing edges had been re-cut, extra holes professionally filled, die-cast rims added, and RIMS mounts on both the 12" mounted tom and the 14" floor tom.

Yours truly on the Thumper Customs w RIMS mounts, circa 2009

Well in gigging with the Thumpers, at one point I realized I was having a hard time tuning the small tom. Turns out that when the edges were re-cut, they kept the holes for lugs right where they were, and the rubber grommets of the RIMS mounts were squished tight between the top rim and the lugs which they were seated between. I had to be able to tune my drum - this was not acceptable.

I should probably note that while I have three drum kits that I rotate based on who I'm gigging with, my preference is for one small tom/basic four-piece kit. I also have more than three drumsets.

My Premier Resonator kit in studio

This is when I realized that, instead of having 4+ RIMS mounts on my various small toms that add significant weight to the drum and require oversized bags, I could have one concert-height snare stand a la Bonham etc to mount my single tom. It didn't take long for me to begin taking all the RIMS mounts off my various tom drums in favor of a single ~$60 snare stand.

Back to the Thumper Customs - the 14" floor tom has a "floor-tom-style RIMS mounts" which means that the RIM goes all the way around the bottom of the drum and the legs for the drum go thru holes in it. It's the only floor tom I have with that style mount.

A RIMS mount for floor tom

Now go look at any drum magazine/catalog today. You'll see that there are virtually no floor tom RIMS style mounts by any company. This is due to the bigger size of the floor tom; since it will naturally resonate for a much longer time, manufacturers figured out that they didn't need to make floor tom style RIMS mounts. (Although Pearl came up with some pretty cool ideas, those 'floating feet' come to mind:)

Pearl "Air Suspension" floor tom feet

So now only the small toms are given RIMS-style mounts. Think about this. If you had to "desert island" your drum kit piece by piece, I'm sure the small tom would be 3rd or 4th on the priority list, behind snare and kick. Now its become the only RIMS-mounted drum, suddenly special, almost separating it from the rest of the kit.

I am a firm believer of the 'whole sound' theory of the drum set. I like its inter-connectedness. I want the sympathetic vibrations that ring when the other drums are hit. Also every other drum is either touching or mounted off the floor. In this case, why does this one tom drum get so much separate tonal attention?

I don't want the extra weight, I certainly don't enjoy the look of it, and did I mention those things add up in weight??

But the capper - recording. Has a recording engineer ever told you that "Your tom does not sustain enough. It's sounding too choked," or does he throw towels and gaff tape all over your meticulously tuned, rather expensive custom drums? In the history of recorded drums, no one has ever wanted more sound out of them, period. If a producer ever did say that to you, s/he wants the sound out of YOU not the drums.

When I see drummers with RIMS mounts and moongels (head dampening) on their drums, I shake my head. But I digress.

GAH.

So that's my rant. I've been think about busting out of the $500-second-hand-vintage-drum-set range that I've lived in my whole career, but if it means having to custom order to avoid RIMS mounts (i.e. spend more for less), than I will just wait until the industry comes around to the fact that small toms are just not that significant to warrant it's own, isolation mount.

Caveats:

Back when I first started paying attention to the aesthetic of RIMS mounts, my favorites of all these various manufacturer solutions ended up being Yamaha's "YESS" mounts, which still penetrate the drum shell with two small screws, but effectively look the same as 'traditional' Yamaha hex mounts. I just didn't have confidence that the two screws were enough for strength; that somehow they'd strip out of the shell, although I never once read about that ever happening.

Yamaha YESS mount

The traditional Yamaha mount extended into the drum through a large hole in the shell.

Ludwig Atlas mount

Also shout-out to Ludwig's recent Atlas mounts, which sort of hides in place of a standard lug. I still think it looks too bulky, but companies are doing a lot of innovation in this area and I applaud their efforts - but I already have a basket-style stand that can fit any of my toms accordingly and I don't see myself ever deciding that I would need anything else.

...can you imagine Hal Blaine on his concert tom kit if it had RIMS mounts. His roadies woulda hated him LOL

I know you blog, but what am I?

I know I had a blog somewhere. But I never updated it and I wrote like, twice a year, if that. So in the interest of trying to be a better member of one of the many, many online communities of which I participate, I am starting fresh - fresh for 2013. I mean, 2014.

Well, when could be better than January - NAMM is literally around the corner, and all the drum companies will showing off their newest wares. I always love the #NAMM hashtags - or maybe it's #NAMMdrums , I forget - because you get to see some pretty interesting products, sometimes ones that end up never seeing the light of day (read: mass production). Anyhoo, I've never been. I am an unsponsored, non-music-business-having individual drummer.

(Incidentally, one of my good friends has the best name for a blog - Drum and Drummer.)

So, what kind of gear am I looking forward to this year? That is the Million Dollar question. Some background:

Ever since I was a poor, broke teenager trying to find a good deal on drums, I have been a classified ad expert. Before craigslist, there was the Classified Flea Market, as well as the local weekly alt papers like SF Weekly, SF Guardian, and East Bay Express. I used to read the "Musical Instruments For Sale" section of the Classified Flea Market (CFM) every Tuesday, the day the newest issue was released. I remember that if you waited even till evening, if there was a good deal to be had, it would be gone by the end of that Tuesday. If I was lucky I could buy things later in the week, as back then if you got to someone by phone first, they tended to be nice about holding you to purchasing their item (this is to say, there was never a thing like "craigslist flakes" that seems to permeate that site).

So fast-forward to early internet, and craigslist becomes my de facto shopping window for all drums used or unloved; except now I have to check everyday! And believe me, I do. I can't buy everything, but often I'll see a good deal only to find that the next day the ad is gone. So why am I telling you all this?

My drum collection is mostly vintage Premier drum sets, along with high-end Paiste or Istanbul cymbals. Most every item I own is meant to be played (i.e. not period correct pieces to be gawked at), and has a specific purpose for one of the various groups I play in. I have a tiny bop kit for my jazz gigs, a slightly larger size for loud bands in small rooms, and the big kit for loud band in loud room. Well i'm getting to a point where I realize I can't play all these drumsets at once. I might even have to sell a couple. Anyhoo, this changes my craigslist perusing habits. If I see a great drum set that is just my style, I realize "I have plenty of my own style drum kits - I don't need this."

... so now the million dollar question: What do I NEED?

Well, I've decided it's percussion. Not necessarily traditional stuff, but some. I've got about 3 cowbells, some small effects-type cymbals, about 25 various 'jingle'-related things, and some egg/toy shakers.

I need a conga. Maybe a cajon too, I dunno if I like those though. I also have an old fire alarm or maybe school bell bell. Its bright red with a tiny hole in the middle. I recently bought my first popcorn snare, a Gretsch Blackhawk 8" one.

So this goes back to "sounds" - as the New Orleans players put it, "Freak sounds". All the horn guy who used hats, glasses, plungers, etc as mutes were called 'freak players' for getting freaky sounds out of their instrument. Now, I dunno if I wanna go total Glen Kotche and start installing doorstop springs in my snare heads, but I do want some of those freak sounds. Maybe I'll get a big Rototom, or some vintage, drumset-style bongos.

I also saw a picture of Chris Daddy Dave using what looked like a $25 Made-In-Japan metal snare recently. I immediately knew what it sounded like and why he was using it. From the picture! That kinda blew my mind. truth be told. ("Do I need one??") As opposed to say, Dafnis Prieto, who uses the mounted frying pan. I have no idea what that frying pan sounds like or how he uses it.

It was just a subtle reminder that there are so many cool sounds out there, and drummers have this luxury of being able to mount just about anything for drumset use. I feel like I've ignored this aspect of drumming in favor of a classic, 4-piece drumset sound. I think I'll try to break out of that mold this year.

Maybe even go hybrid electronic? Boy, that's a tough question.

Meanwhile, I can work on my Flex-a-tone soloing.