That mount does look like junk. Worse than anything I've seen on the cheapest MIJ kit.

That mount is awful.

My 1966 Stage Band has a rail mount that is centered on the bass drum. I never understood why companies put the rails on the far left of the bass drum.

My first kit was a 70's Stage Band black duco 3 pc. It looks correct. I bought a silver sparkle kit with that tom mount. Slingerland stage band didn't always have badges on toms in the 60's. My opinion, these are the best sounding drums.

peace...

Look at drum sets from the 1930s and 1940s. The tom positioning off to the side(s) is a carryover from back then. It was very common for the drummer to actually move his body position to better reach the drums off to the sides.

They also used big kicks, like 26 or 28, they had no choice but to have tom that far over. That setup looks very uncomfortable.

Try playing a four hour gig on that.The Band

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftw3oIXhxt8"]Vintage drum kits 1920s 1930s Polarity Records * Samm Bennett - YouTube[/ame]

Here is a really interesting video I just now found....baby Dodds.....terrible sound overdub, but lots of cool shots of an old timer playing old timer style on an old timer drum set with the drums all over the place! LOL!....very fascinating stuff, in my opinion. Check it out:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IMMeEWD-2A"]BABY DODDS (Full Film) -"NEW ORLEANS DRUMMING" - YouTube[/ame]

No issue with this tom mount though I like the Ludwig CD placement better

Ya, that's definitely a better mount, but I wonder why they chose to put it so far over instead of centering it like the CD. Maybe they didn't want to be too much like Ludwig, their biggest competitor.

I always wondered about this placement myself! It's just way too far off the bass for comfortable playing! Having it in the middle not only makes more sense, but also makes it easily adaptable for left-hand placement.

-Mark