I have a Gretsch 18" that someone else turned into a bass drum. It works dandy although it has ten lugs instead of eight like a "normal" 18" bass drum. That person went all out, getting wood hoops and Gretsch claws and all but you can do it with no modification to the drum. Pearl sells a setup that converts a floor tom into a bass without drilling holes. It works better on drums with three leg mounts than ones with four.

Are you wanting to tear it down and use the shell to create an 18" bass drum or just turn it sideways with as little/no permanent modification as possible?

K.O. is correct. You can covert it without doing any modifications.

Gibraltar also offers the Dunnett conversion kit, which consists of two spurs (that go in the existing leg brackets), a lifter that clamps on the regular, triple flanged hoop, and a rail mount that goes into the third leg bracket (which is on the top of the drum in playing position). It's a little pricey, but certainly not any more expensive than obtaining wood hoops, claw hooks etc.

Gibraltar also sells the Dunnett clamp (that the lifter uses) separately. It's like a triple flange hoop version of the DW Claw Hook Clamp. You could add a cymbal arm or cowbell etc. with one of these too. Completely up to you, that's what is fun about it, you can go all out or you can "leave it alone" by using the Dunnett stuff and have no permanent modifications, and the you can simply take it all off in about one minute and be back to your normal floor tom again.

Whatever you decide to do....................have fun!

V

I went all out and converted a tom to a bass for a Faux Premier set. Collected vintage hardware and did all out conversion. Faux logo on the bass head as well. Fun project that sound pretty nice for gigging.

Have fun with it.

Guys you know me I am not the kind that starts to ruins a collector drum I like your idea and I just want something small to bring to a small setting and cant find a bob kit, so I’ll look into that because the 18 is in mint condition and the color is dead on for a match on my Hollywood pink champagne

https://www.drumfactorydirect.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6_105_359&products_id=8497

https://www.drumfactorydirect.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6_105_359&products_id=8497

for the Pearl you'd need one of these too...at least to use it as designed

https://www.drumfactorydirect.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6_105_77&products_id=9052

My misfit orphan drums came together to make a nice little bop set. I acquired a 1930's Leedy 7x11 tom that had been altered to have a big Sonor mount on it. I then acquired a 1950's Leedy 16x12 marching tenor drum. The, I found an 18x16 Slingerland floor tom. I patched the big hole on the 11" tom shell, installed tom legs on the marching tenor drum, and put Leedy lugs on the bass drum conversion. Two of the leg mounts sever very well as spur receivers. The other two leg mounts work very well for cymbal mounts. All that was left to do was wrap the drums in White 3-D material just like the old Camcos and then install bass drum hoops and a rail mount apparatus to the bass drum and small tom. No sooner did I finish this project than friend took in a used Camco Tuxedo snare in White 3_D wrap. I traded him some ear for the snare drum. This little drum set is one of my favorites.