And that is the key.

My setup changes every season of playing. That keeps me fresh (like a good deodorant) and inspired.

Enjoy and explore. That's what the art of drumming thrives on.

I don't think there is any reason to plug the bass drum. That rocker set is like box of Legos. You can build anything you want. The mount isn't going to affect the resonance of the bass drum any more than the muffling you put on the heads. I have a 7pc rocker II and the 14x22 is virgin, and I often play it set up like a super classic. I wish I had the bass mount, but I'm not going to drill. I usually have to use a Tom holder with clamp or snare stand. I would rather have my tom adjustment independent of my crash but I don't like the Tom too far off to the left like it is when in the snare stand.

Grass is always greener i guess huh?

You have a good point, and I have a ton of these drums. Look at the pic below of my "lego's" LOL!

I actually have a third 14x22 bass shell, thats the one I might make virgin. I bought a third one because I wanted all drums to have the maple interior instead of the granitone. I had one maple and one granitone bass, so I bought another maple one. Now the only drum sporting the granitone interior is the 16" floor tom. I would like to find a maple shell so the entire kit would have maple interiors. You can make two kits out of this easy, but its fun to build a monster set once in a while. Fun drums to play around with.

I started with 1 up and 2 down, but being short in stature, I had a hard time reaching the 2nd floor tom, so I went to 1 up, 1 down. As I got into Prog Rock and Fusion, I found myself wanting more toms, so I switched to 3 up, 1 down. I still play that configuration today on my modern Pearl kit. I switch back and forth between my kits when practicing or recording, so I'm still quite comfortable with 1 up, 1 down. At the space I jam at, there is a vintage Slingerland 2 up, 1 down kit, and while not as comfortable with that as the others (mostly because of the rigid tom positioning of the Slingy hardware), I've grown accustomed to it.

Stephen

Oooh, Jeff, I dont' know about the jellybean wood idea. I think it would look about as good as jellybean wood kitchen cabinets, and I bet you wouldn't encourage that!

Jeff,

Since you have pretty much everything else in that kit, you could turn that extra 22" into a pseudo gong tom. That would just scream rock and roll!

I've settled on 3 up 1 down as well.

It's probably the most toms you can get in the smallest amount of space unless you did away with the floor tom......which would be blasphemy.

One thing I really like about my set up is the rack tom mounted on the snare stand. That is a 10 x 14 rack tom, at first I had it mounted to the bass drum but it was so dang high. I like having the snare and all toms the same height, with the 14" on a slight angle. And the big drums sound great.

Stephen - I have big respect for the fact that you can change up between set-ups without complaining about an adjustment period. The fills I use lay down on the drums differently depending on the set-up/configuration. If I add drums to the set-up, it usually takes me at least one playing session to remember how to lay the fills down and simply get my chops back on that particular set-up. These days, this old man needs a little time to remember what goes where.

John

I think maybe it comes from many years of playing the house kit, or another band's kit at a gig. Plus, in my younger days, it was fun to try out friends' kits. Any time anyone in my circle of friends got a new kit or even a cymbal, we all had to play them. So during my formative years, I guess I never got too entrenched in one configuration.

Stephen