I was at NAMM and there was a Dunnett drum kit with 4 concert toms on it and I saw Todd Sucherman and John Tempesta both enjoying them as we're numerous others.

Concert toms were kind of all the rage in the 70's. I believe it had to do with American's fascination with electronics. Stay with me on this. In the 60's, multi-track recording was a pretty new concept. As the technology improved engineers started seeing this as a way to gain more control over the final recording mix. Therefore, the thought was to isolate individual sounds as much as possible. This became much easier if the drummer removed the resonant head and a mic was placed inside. Then drummers, probably at the request of engineers, started really deadening their drums to remove any over-ring or sustain thus seriously cleaning up the tracks. (now that I think of it, the deadening came first). This lead to the less than fantastic drums sounds, particularly from the west coast with bands like the Eagles, the drum sounds from Tom Scholz basement that became Boston, etc. Everyone seemed enthralled with the technological dream of seriously isolated drum tracks. Concert toms were also much quicker to deal with which made them extremely attractive for music mill recording like Hal Blain and the Wrecking Crew. No one could afford to really spend a great deal of time on a drum sound and concert toms facilitated an acceptable sound quickly.

At the same time, a lot of drummers seemed to like the idea of concert toms and really heavily muted toms because, let's be honest, a serious percentage of drummers do not really know how to tune drums particularly well. Having a single, really dead head makes tuning a simple and very forgiving process.

Meanwhile, our friends across the pond were recording Led Zepplin, The Who, Genesis, Queen and their ilk with less emphasis on the technology and more concern for an actual drum sound and room sound. That is why, IMO, drummers have always been fascinated with the Bonham sound. That being said, both Phil Collins and Keith Moon used concert toms extensively. I have found that I still really enjoy listening to the particular drum sounds from many English acts in the 70's but cringe at much of the American recordings of the same period.

As the technology continued to improve with better gates, compressors, etc. engineers began to develop a keener desire for really quality drum sounds in their own right. Guys like Steve Lillywhite helped push that along. Double headed drums came back into vogue and concert toms eventually fell out of favor. Drummers started to realize a little sustain, and some warm resonance were actually very desirable and the fact that the drum actually gives you something back is a good thing.

Of course fashion tends to be cyclical and slowly but surely the lower tuning highly muffled drum sound is coming back in vogue. With it, concert toms are making a resurgence. Nothing wrong with that. They are not really my thing, but that is fine.

JC, in your situation you could leave your concert toms if you want as somewhat of a vintage thing. When drummers started adding a 10" tom to their five or six piece kit, the only option was generally a concert tom as you didn't really have a double headed version. Listen to the fill leading into the last chorus of "Fat Bottom Girls" to hear that as well as a bit of Roto-Tom if I recall correctly. In that situation, the concert toms become a different type of voice. No harm there. On the other hand, making that a double headed drum changes the timbre to more or less match the rest of your kit. So that is certainly up to you. If your goal is to play long fills from the smallest to largest drum then you might prefer matching timbres. If you want something for a specific accent sound quality then a small concert tom might be great. Kind of like an Octoban, Roto-Tom or even a small timbale.

By the way, does anyone know, are they called concert toms because they were originally designed as a symphonic orchestra percussion piece? I recall playing a lot of concert tom passages in college.

Scott, thanks for the wonderful history lesson. You made a very good point here,,

If your goal is to play long fills from the smallest to largest drum then you might prefer matching timbres. If you want something for a specific accent sound quality then a small concert tom might be great. Kind of like an Octoban, Roto-Tom or even a small timbale.

I think I will leave them as concert toms at frist. If I dont like it I can always add lugs and cut the edge but once thats done it would be pretty hard to go back to the concert tom again.

Thanks for taking the time to post such a detailed response!

JEff C

Agreed, good bit of history. I bought factory concert toms with my Slingerlands in the late 70's and always liked the way they sounded. Much quicker to tweek the tuning when you only have to tune 1 head. Always used 2 ply heads or hydraulic. The tones from single ply didn't appeal to me personally.

Just never liked the sound of concert toms. My ears, I know. Not crazy 'bout the dry boing or thud sound. The lack of warmth and resonance ... well, 'nuff said.

Wanna know what I think,..

..Draggs, double taps, and speed fills, ...so those that don`t play that type of music, can`t fit them in !!

I personally, with the above in mind,..like the accent off the two headed Bass and Floor toms. Soft beat hard fill`s kinda thing !!

tnsquint said it best. That's the way it was and is.

Personally, I would leave the OE toms alone and perhaps utilize them in the kit. 10 & 12" toms are good sizes for single-headed toms.

Good luck with your decision.

B

PS - I don't hate 'em, just don't dig 'em.

Jeff - Squint said it all. The only thing I can think to add is; tuning is all important with concert toms. The reason why 10"/12" are the best sizes for concert toms is, they usually land/end up in, the higher end of the tuning range. Tuning them -up- is the only way to get any tone out of them.

I'd leave those as they came from the factory. If you really want toms with reso's, treat yourself to a couple of matching orphans. You can alternate between the concert toms and the dual tension ones. No need to alter factory drums though.

John

Ya I have pretty much made up my mind to leave them alone. I have a neat idea for the trim on the bottom of them, you'll see. Waiting for the koa veneer to arive, Im excited to see it.