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Why You Should Only Use 1 Rack Tom And How Best To Set It Up

Photo credit: hylom

Right lets get the controversial part out the way first. Here's why you should only 1 rack tom:

• Its easier to set up
• It gives you more room for the rest of your kit
• Its less to carry to a gig
• It looks cool
• Its less work for the sound engineer at your gig to do. He will thank you for it. I guarantee it.

A lot of people don't agree that you should only use 1 but hey it works out fine for me. The other thing that people may not agree with is that you should never mount your tom onto your bass drum. Mount it on a separate stand.

This gives you much more flexibility over where you can set up your tom. Think about it. If you use a bass drum tom mount then your tom will always sit over the bass drum. With a seperate mount, your tom can be placed anywhere. The only downside is that you have an extra stand to carry to your gig but its a small price to pay for freedom.

The Where and How

For the most comfort set up your tom so that it sits behind your snare, directly in front of you. This means you can freely hit the tom with both hands without having to twist your upper body.

The only way to make this happen is to mount it on a seperate stand. Just try it out, you'll love it.

Setting it up so it hangs over the left hand side of the bass drum works well for me. You've have to reach further to hit your tom than you do your snare so set it a little higher.

Because its higher you're also going to need to angle it downwards towards you a little more.

Still Not Convinced?

If you are going to use 2 toms or more then all the above instructions still apply. Mount them on a separate stand and make sure that your toms are as close as possible together.If the space between them is directly in front of you then you will be able to hit both toms easily with both hands and you won't have to twist your upper body.

Note: When you're mounting your tom on a separate stand, make sure one of the stand's legs is sitting underneath the tom, pointing in the direction that the stand wants to fall over. This gives the stand extra support (I'd been playing drums for about 6 years before my non-drumming friend pointed this one out to me). Avoid setting your tom up so that it its too angled towards you. You'll ruin your drum heads.

So that's about it for the rack tom. Try moving it around, keep experimenting and don't forget to get out and play some gigs!

Whats your opinion on the 1 rack tom / many rack toms debate?

Alex
Have fun, think big and keep practicing.

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