Hey, Big Daddy !

I remember lots of old Kents doing that... First thing, make sure you've got the felt gasket betwen the shell and the diamond mounting plate, and a diamond backing plate inside, and not just four fender washers. Second, make sure the four nuts inside are good 'n' tight.

Third, back off one or two tension rods maybe a quarter turn on the reso head, and that should have that tom sounding like it ought to.

If that fails, you'll have to check the shell for roundness. If she's out of round, she'll always give in to the tension on that one side of the shell, and you'll have to keep 'er on a snare stand.

Lastly, talk sweet to 'er, don't curse in front of 'er, and tell 'er she's lookin' gooooooood !

Dig it !

First let me say that I'm VERY happy that you joined our little community here.

I have all the parts and I'm pretty sure they were socked down nice and tight. I removed the mount, but I'll put it back on, make sure it's nice and tight and try again.

The shell is a bit out of round, so maybe that's it. Funny thing is, it sounds GREAT when it's not mounted. I would think that it would be a problem no matter what, but...

Anyhoo... I'll try the plate again and back off the rods. If it doesn't work, I guess I'll have to keep it on the snare stand. Small price to pay for the sound it produces.

Thanks once again!!

Are they 3-ply shells with re-rings, Big Daddy...?

'Cause you might be able to rectify a slightly out-of-roundness on a thin-shell tom by using heavier hoops.

I'd suggest a coupl of Pearl's SuperHoops, or anything 2mm or heavier. As they are in round, they'll help keep the shell "trained" somewhat.

Myself, I never liked a tom on a snare stand. I'm a traditionalist, and I'll suffer the woes of a shoddy rail consolette just for the sake of vintage purity.

(Of course, we always would drill a hole right through the rising bar and the rail, and put a bolt and nut through it to keep it from ever collapsing.)

And one last little trick for a slightly out-of-round tom -- or ANY drum, for that matter -- you can better seat the heads by setting the drum on a carpeted floor and stepping onto the center of it with your stocking foot.

You should see the looks on guys' faces when I do that to their snares or toms !

But the head and the shell will easily withstand it, and it'll seat that head, plus pre-stretch it. Then, once ya tune 'er up, she's fully seated, and she'll stay in tune much longer. That also helps "train" a slightly out-of-round shell a bit, too.

Whenever I put new heads on any of my drums, I do that.

From '80 to '83, I lived in Dedham, then Norwood. Took a job with Bally's, then went to Bose in Framingham (on "The Mountain") before going with Sperry-Maine to work on nuclear subs in Groton CT.

Used to love hanging out at The Mug 'n' Muffin in Norwood - my roommate, Paul "The Mad Irishman" Harrington, and I used to fawn over the same cute waitresses.

Started a little rock group with Norwood/Walpole guitarist Dave Droll, bassist Mark Nordblom, and vocalist (and girlfriend) Laurie Paquette. We had a rehearsal room above an old theater - I forget which town it was. But the band never got out of there before I went into submarines.

And thanx for the welcome to this neat community here !

What a blast of fresh air...Welcome aboard BNJazz.

Muchos gracias, brother Roscoe !

IYou cats have a nice neighborhood here.

Dig it !

To answer the drum questions... No, on the 3 ply/re-ring question. These are 2 ply maple, no re-rings. Standard on Kent's until they started using import shells. Just FYI... floor toms and kicks are thicker (4 or 6 plys maybe) so they stay in round better.

Kent hoops are probably the thinest hoops I've ever seen. I just may re-hoop the kit as they also used low quality chroming on them. They rust up pretty fast and lose the shine (if they ever had it to begin with).

The rail consolettes on Kent kits I've seen are VERY heavy duty/high quality IMHO. It's a strange mish-mash of quality - Excellent lug design, thin flimsy hoops, sturdy rail consolette, etc... and then there are the shells and their "bearing edges"... don't get me started - LOL!!!

When fitting new heads, I always seat/pre-stretch them by tuning them up pretty high and then use my hands and body weight (which I have PLENTY of) to seat them.

As for the rest of it... I grew up in Roslindale MA, so I know Dedham and Norwood very well. I also remember the Mug N Muffin (think it's long gone now). I moved to Dedham in 97' then up to North Andover in 2001.

I wonder if the theater you refer to was the old Pixie theater in Hyde Park? If so, I know it well and used to hang out with many of the bands/band members that rehearsed there.

My older brother used to rehearse there with his band as well. Do the names The Spores or Viperville ring any bells? Back in the early 80's, my band was known as The Bystanders.

Small world ain't it?

Thanks for all the advice. I'll see what I can do to get the tom back where it belongs - On the rail.

This is an all too common problem. I've had many drum mounts that sucked the life out of a drum as soon as it was mounted.

If the drum sings without being on the mount it's not an issue with the drum. You must figure a way to isolate the drum from the mount. To kind of "fake the drum" into thinking it's NOT on the mount.

Try this:

Yes, the felt gasket is a great start, but I think a thicker rubber one (made by you of course) would be better, and you'll need one for the INSIDE of the shell as well, with an appropriate plate to "sandwich" the drum between.

The trick here is to use rubber thick enough to tighten the bolts without squishing it entirely down to the shell effectively suspending the drum in a rubber mount that to the naked eye is nearly invisible.

I would use the type of nuts that have the plastic insert that keeps them from loosening up.

Like this:

[IMG]http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/woeimages/00002190.jpg[/IMG]

DON'T OVER TIGHTEN THE BOLTS!! The trick is to keep the drum suspended in the rubber in your mount, not to squish it down till the metal touches the shell.

All this might take a bit of "manufacturing" from you, but it beats the RIMS mount and will look almost "factory" and the added bonus would be no extra snare stand to carry.

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Most respect the badge, but all fear the drum.

Thanks Viper - I thought about doing something like this with either rubber or possibly leather. Another thought I had would be to use spacers between the metal plate and the drum shell. Basically, something like 3/8" steel tubing cut to about 3/8" long. Could maybe do the same with just a couple nuts and washers too.

One per bolt, inside and out, would keep the plate off the shell. It won't look 100% stock, but it maintains the basic look and keeps contact to a minimum, while maintaining (hopefully) a stable mount point.

I'll see if I can mock up something with pics.

I HATE having to carry any extra stuff. Not sure if it's my age or being lazy!!

I've found that same problem with Slingerland, Ludwig and Gretsch... once mounted, the tom gets choked. Sometime a different L/tongue think that's tighter fitting or angled differently will help. I've ended up using a RIMS type mount off a cymbal stand.

Try one the the angled arms that Precision sells.