Somebody posted a pic here awhile ago showing a rack tom on a stand from early days, not common but it happened. I do it mostly just for rock shows if I think it might get rowdy enough for someone to fall into the drums lol - better to have them "scatter" than crack the shell of the bass drum or tom where the mount is bolted on. Certainly it allows for positioning the tom wherever you like...

Mitch

Looks like Mr. Bonham was doing it back in 1969. I believe guys who play vintage drums are mainly playing rock and therefore playing louder, some of those vintage tom mounts don't hold up well, not to mention the positioning. Some of the newer companies like C&C don't put mounts on the kick, so it's either a snare stand, a cymbal stand or rack, in which case, you'd probably need a rims system. I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate putting rims on drums, especially vintage drums.

... and Dino Danelli of "The Rascals" bested John Bonham by three years as he was using a snare stand for his rack tom in 1966!

Tommyp

And Slingerland were supplying snare stands for their toms with the model "Jet" kit around 66-67... (BD/tom mounts were an option)

Cheers

John

Funny, I started playing in 1963 and I have -always- used a snare stand for my rack tom. It allowed me to place the tom right where I wanted it and I never liked the idea of adding all that weight to the shell of a bass drum. Rail mounts are useless. They slip, they're hard to position and you can lose the whole shebang if something hits the rack tom. Rack toms on snare stands have been around as long as I can remember.

John

Call me a fool but I actually like rail consolettes.

I don't worry too much about positioning.

I just put it in a normal position and deal with it. :D

Keep in mind Bonham was using the snare stand in addition to a Swiv-o-Matic mount. The only time he used this set up was for his Thermogloss kit with the 15x12 tom. Once he made the switch to the 14x10 on the green sparkle and Vistalite he used the rail consolette. On the stainless steel kit with a 15x12 he was using a central tom mount with no snare stand.

Not really the subject here, but DW makes this over priced beast that mounts up to 16" toms on a snare stand..

http://www.dwdrums.com/hardware/hw.asp?hw=dwcp9399&v=XIUnec8blnY

I've seen a pic of Gene Krupa using a snare stand for the TT, but it's a posed shot not taken during actual playing.

D' Drummer