You should notice a pretty big difference in the amount of resonance. For me, it was night and day.

Man, you are right. I played a gig last night with those Little Booty Shakers on the rack tom stand, and what a difference. That 13" Ludwig tom sang. What a great invention.

Yea!! So glad I bought a set of them. I need to buy a secondary set as a backup, but these have lasted quite a while. I've probably had them for close to two years now.

Try them on your actual snare stand as well. It opens the snare up, if you like an open sound. I still muffle the snare just a little to take some of the ring out of it, but with those the snare just sounds better (even muffled all of the way).

I've had a good experience with mounting choked toms on a cymbal stand. Doesn't have that vintage look, but the resonance is good.

The rack toms on my Slingerland kit are mounted on that notoriously awful contraption, the Set-O-Matic, and there were two "gadgets" that helped me totally overcome its shortcomings.

First was 2-Ning (in my case preceded by LerNing2-2n).

I would try this before assuming that a gadget could help. We kinda lost the OP there, though.

My toms were also ultimately improved by putting nice vintage profile bearing edges on drums that had been bumpy when they left the factory.

Different strokes for different folks.

For me, it's not about having them sound "modern." It's about getting a nice, full tonal sound, that still sounds vintage.

Maybe I've just been luckier with my kits, I can't tell the difference when I hold the drum by the rim vs. mounting on a tom arm or snare stand. I would check the tuning or head selection before buying any gadgets to enhance the sound.

Something else to consider:

In the past I have used a "old school" snare basket, like the one pictured. Some "generic" snare stands have that type of basket as well. This supports the tom, but the tom just "sits" in the basket; it isn't tight around the edges so it doesn't choke the sound. The straight, non-folding arm is adjustable to accommodate different size snares/toms. You can also gain more resonance by putting a small piece of foam where the bottom hoop contacts each of the three arms of the stand.

Also, the old Ludwig "folding basket" stands (again, like the picture) have 5/8" tubing, which is compatible to many flat base stands, both vintage and modern, so you can use one with a flat base and get it closer to your bass drum as well.

Hope this helps,

V

I'll have to try that. I get a lot of ring now out of my current favorite snare though. Can't hurt to try.