Hi all,

First time poster here. I recently bought a beautiful 1970s Slingerland Pop kit which is all single-headed down to the kick. One reason I got such a kit is the portability factor of nesting drums (they also sound and look great). The person I bought it from did an excellent job restoring them, and being a player and not a collector I was particularly attracted to the upgrades in the floor tom legs, bass drum spurs, and tom mount.

However while I was initially psyched about the modern hardware, the tom mount is a DW slider which, while pretty cool, is also so heavy that I wouldn't be surprised if it weighs as much as the two toms combined! A bit too much mount for the purpose of supporting two 3-ply toms that have half the hardware.

So I'm considering a move to a lighter weight tom mount, with the caveat that I do not intend to drill additional holes in the shell and would prefer to use hardware that matches the preexisting holes. That leads me to the original Set-O-Matic but I understand than in addition to fetching premium vintage prices it's also just not that good. So my questions are:

1. As I doubt any other brands have mounts that match the drill hole spacing/orientation, is it possible to use Slingerland brackets with other brands' hardware? I know that the Set-O-Matic tube is typically notched or D-shaped; did Slingerland ever make a SOM or other model receiver plate that has a typical round hole and if so, what diameter?

2. Likewise, are the SOM brackets on the toms compatible with anything else? I read somewhere about people using them with Yamaha hexagonal tom arms which would be perfect as I am a big fan of Yamaha mounting hardware.

As stated before I'm not planning to do any woodworking so if there's no other option I'll just suck it up and keep the DW. But practicality was a major reason behind buying this kit and it would be nice to lighten the load of my hardware bag especially if it's not necessary to be so heavy duty.

Thanks!