Roto Toms Remo V cheapo

[TonyVazquez]

Meanwhile, I gotta finish putting my new red gummy heads on my rotos...

Evans Hydraulic clear red batter heads.

In a week or so, I will order the 12" roto-tom from Steveweissmusic.

As for the rack...
I ordered steel tubes from an old
Gibraltar electronic drum rack,
which I will modify for the rotos.
It will look much better than this cheapo DIY rack here.

 

[TonyVazquez]

Had to simplify my hardware setup for an upcoming show...

Temporarily using my Pearl ISS mounts for my roto-toms.

Meanwhile, I have my Brian Totten roto-tom mount installed on my 16" floor roto-tom so that I can tune it by turning the knurled handle by hand instead of spinning the entire roto-tom.

And finally, trying on my new Evans Hydraulic clear red batter heads.
Don't drink AND drum! LOL

I can't help it, I am soOo in love with the ping bell on my Zildjian ZBT Ride cymbal!

 

[TonyVazquez]

I'm not finished with this upgrade.
More to come. Stay tuned, lol...

 

[RobbiefromAtlanta]

Here’s mine with the new mounts I got off Reverb. I had to upgrade to bigger Dogbone mounts. Probably won’t rock the 2 up cuz I still need a place for the 2 trigger pads I usually have set up. I wanna use the 16” but will need to upgrade the mount. I have it set up with the old mounts in the one photo.

 

[TonyVazquez]

Here’s mine with the new mounts I got off Reverb. I had to upgrade to bigger Dogbone mounts. Probably won’t rock the 2 up cuz I still need a place for the 2 trigger pads I usually have set up. I wanna use the 16” but will need to upgrade the mount. I have it set up with the old mounts in the one photo.

That's a sweet ride of a kit there.

I'm just now learning that roto-toms can be finicky creatures, especially the 16 and 18 as they are bulky and heavy.
You did a good thing by opting for the bigger dogbone mounts, they can handle the weight of the large rotos.

I see you also have your acoustic shell floor tom in use. Keep it
(Unless you can get the 16 roto into a good low tuning range that will pronounce the tone when struck)...

I'm thinking of bringing back my acoustic shell 14" floor tom, because it's full body
cuts through everything when I'm playing it inside a small venue and I don't mic it... so I lower the overhead mics away from the cymbals and at chest level near my toms.
I'm using my 16" roto as a floor tom,
but I could never tune it to get the exact deep sound as my 14" acoustic shell floor tom.
If I tune my 16 too low while trying to make it "boom" it sounds papery with
too much stick attack.

Rotos are a new beast for me to tame, because I chose to start Using them NOW in this early part of the 20th century! LMAO.
But they look, and sound, so retro cool!
People in my town nickname us as the "pop band from the future"... we dress kinda retro on stage, and the roto-toms have this weird "Jetsons" look to them
when you mount them on a rack over the kick drum.

You've positioned your rotos just right...
thus saving you back pain and arm fatigue.

 

[TonyVazquez]

I'm still piecing together a full drum rack upgrade for my roto-toms.
My dayjob has me busy with Snow Removal Emergencies, so I'm too tired to do some serious hands-on mechanical work on my drum rack.
As soon as things calm down at my dayjob I will resume this project and upload new pics. Stay tuned.

 

[TonyVazquez]

Finally got my rack setup.
And, this time I brought back my
14" acoustic floor tom because I need
that deep cannon drum sound for
some of the VaVaVoodoos songs,
yes that small drum is a freakin CANNON.

Since my acoustic floor tom is back
in the game, I put away my 10" roto-tom.
In its place I now have my 14" and my
16" roto-toms mounted up on the rack.
They're louder, so I can tune them to
sound deep and still harmonize together.
My new baby 13"x5" snare drum looks
so cute beneath the rotos.

Next task: a new riser mount for my
16" kick drum; and my small
cut Oriental China cymbal.
Then, a mount for my cowbell
and my futon leg chime tube.

 

[chrisr777]

This is a pre-Remo prototype that I bought at the Valley Drum Shop in the mid 70's. When I bought it I was told that the only other people who had them were Danny Seraphine and whoever was playing percussion in Santana at the time.

I still use it. Here it is added to the backline kit at our last gig.

 

[TonyVazquez]

I swapped out the top long rack bar
for a shorter bar to bring my cymbals
closer to me.
And I mounted my snare basket with
its pipe to my rack on a clamp to
keep the snare drum off the floor.
I'll have to reinforce the clamp to
hold the weight of my snare drum
while I play it...

I'm gonna rearrange the percussion
above my roto-toms... moving the
cowbell towards my floor tom,
and the steel futon leg pipe can
stay above my roto-toms in the center
of the rack.

I recorded this rehearsal video to
to give me an outside listen to
how my roto-toms sound from
the audience perspective...

 

[dren68]

I'm making slow progress with my roto-toms upgrade.
I finally bought the 1" roto-tom mount
from Brian Totten MFG at Reverb...

Remo Rototom Mount Large 2022 Stainless https://reverb.com/item/46447136?ut...are&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=46447136

...the craftsmanship justifies the price of this awesome roto-tom mount.
It's machined from a chunk of solid steel,
and knurled so it fits snug in a multi clamp, V-clamp, and even a cymbal stand base.

I can't wait to install it this week!
So, I'll order 3 more of these mounts for the rest of my roto-toms.

I went for this large mount, because it will support the weight of my large roto-toms, and it will fit all roto-tom sizes; whereas the small mount will not fit a 10" roto-tom.
But you can still use the small mount for other percussive instruments.

This mount is very well professionally designed and made. It's what Remo SHOULD'VE done right in the first place.
But, I'm glad a drummer designed this mount. Because his foresight was (and is) very keen for this product.

View attachment 535400

I discovered these mounts last year, too. I had been searching for a way to mount some rototoms to a rack for a while, and came across them on Reverb. I'm so glad someone finally came up with an alternative to the carriage bolts. They work great and are very solid. It makes mounting them so much easier now.

 

[TonyVazquez]

I discovered these mounts last year, too. I had been searching for a way to mount some rototoms to a rack for a while, and came across them on Reverb. I'm so glad someone finally came up with an alternative to the carriage bolts. They work great and are very solid. It makes mounting them so much easier now.

Word!
And the coolest thing about these
mounts is that I can do "pitch bend"
effects by turning the roto-tom while
it's mounted sturdy onto my drum rack.
Can't do that with the old-school
roto-tom stand.

Every time I look at these mounts
I freaking Drool!
I wish I could have my own CNC
Machine shop to make drum hardware.

These mounts are efficient.
So now I can use the old roto-tom
carriage bolt as a cowbell mount,
and for mounting tambourines
and jam blocks.

 

[BoomBoom]

I swapped out the top long rack bar
for a shorter bar to bring my cymbals
closer to me.
And I mounted my snare basket with
its pipe to my rack on a clamp to
keep the snare drum off the floor.
I'll have to reinforce the clamp to
hold the weight of my snare drum
while I play it...

View attachment 546483

View attachment 546484

I'm gonna rearrange the percussion
above my roto-toms... moving the
cowbell towards my floor tom,
and the steel futon leg pipe can
stay above my roto-toms in the center
of the rack.

I recorded this rehearsal video to
to give me an outside listen to
how my roto-toms sound from
the audience perspective...

Cool band. Yall sound really good. The rotos sounded really good as well.

Well done men. Well done.

 

[bassanddrum84]

I swapped out the top long rack bar
for a shorter bar to bring my cymbals
closer to me.
And I mounted my snare basket with
its pipe to my rack on a clamp to
keep the snare drum off the floor.
I'll have to reinforce the clamp to
hold the weight of my snare drum
while I play it...

View attachment 546483

View attachment 546484

I'm gonna rearrange the percussion
above my roto-toms... moving the
cowbell towards my floor tom,
and the steel futon leg pipe can
stay above my roto-toms in the center
of the rack.

I recorded this rehearsal video to
to give me an outside listen to
how my roto-toms sound from
the audience perspective...

You guys sound good. Love the kit very cool. You gained a new subscriber!!!

 

[TonyVazquez]

You guys sound good. Love the kit very cool. You gained a new subscriber!!!

Thank you so much for the kind words
and for subscribing!

 

[TonyVazquez]

Cool band. Yall sound really good. The rotos sounded really good as well.

Well done men. Well done.

Thank you so much for the kind words!
Our band is a 3-piece: two guys, and our bassist is a lovely 60 years young lady, lol.
I'm the youngest band member at almost 57yo.

I hope that I can maintain consistency in the sound of the roto-toms.
At first, I wanted to use Remo coated Emperor batter heads on my roto-toms (and perhaps someday I might), but then I opted for the Evans Hydraulic clear red batter heads for their wet sound; and so that the audience can see what I'm doing behind my drums.

 

[BoomBoom]

Thank you so much for the kind words!
Our band is a 3-piece: two guys, and our bassist is a lovely 60 years young lady, lol.
I'm the youngest band member at almost 57yo.

I hope that I can maintain consistency in the sound of the roto-toms.
At first, I wanted to use Remo coated Emperor batter heads on my roto-toms (and perhaps someday I might), but then I opted for the Evans Hydraulic clear red batter heads for their wet sound; and so that the audience can see what I'm doing behind my drums.

Ooops. Couldn't see her head so thought she was a long haired guy. Could be my implicit bias showing ...

She plays very well. I did notice that.

Keep up the good work!

 

[TonyVazquez]

Ooops. Couldn't see her head so thought she was a long haired guy. Could be my implicit bias showing ...

She plays very well. I did notice that.

Keep up the good work!

Lol... my phone was positioned on a low table top, so her head was cut out of view.
Thanks again!

We're gonna play a show this coming Friday night, and I will post some video footage of the gig into the Gigs thread.

 

[TonyVazquez]

I played a gig last Friday evening.
Unfortunately I didn't get to play MY kit.
The drummer in the opening band
let me play on his kit, mighty kind of him;
but I struggled to keep the kit from
sliding around during my setlist performance...
the carpet on stage was too small
for a drum kit except for the
kick drum, hence everything else was
sliding away from me thus hindering
my performance. UGH!

I plan on donating a brand new carpet
to the venue, a huge 22x48 carpet that
should fit a large drum kit AND hardware
stands so everything will stay Put.

I have a show next Saturday night,
and I'm anxious to use my kit to see
how my roto-toms will sound mic'ed
on stage.
I just hope that I can bring my kit
to the gig...
...although I appreciate bands letting
me use Their drum kits (for the sake
of speedy changeovers between bands
during a show) I prefer to use my kit.
I never know if the house kit or another
band's drum kit will be 100% playable
or it could turn out to be a beater kit
that could flop and fall apart on me.

 

[TonyVazquez]

Zombie thread resurrection, LOL...

Oooookayyyyy, now I'm trying my
14" and 16" roto-toms with the
Remo Emperor Coated batter heads.
(I also updated my kick drum
batter head/sound)...

Fact:
Roto-toms will never produce the
warm Body tone of Full-Shell rack toms.
That's because the roto-toms were
designed as timpani instruments for
Orchestral music.
Rock bands adopted the roto-toms as
percussive add-ons to their drum kits
during the 70s and 80s.

Anyway... so, I'll fiddle with the
Remo Emperor coated batter heads
for a little while.
Then I will try the Remo C.S. black-dot
batter heads.

The reason I migrated from my red
Evans Hydraulic batter heads is because
they're designed more for studio use.
They sound awesome when mic'ed
on stage, but they don't help the
roto-toms as much except for their
colorful theatric appearance.
They're better off used with full-shell
rack toms and floor toms.

 

[cochlea]

I don't know if you've seen this but an 18" roto tom option is now listed on the Steve Weiss website. They're not yet in stock but since I've not seen this listed before (the largest size they previously listed was 16"), I assume its something that's incoming.

EDIT: This is weird. I just went back on the Steve Weiss website and the 18" rototom that was there yesterday is no longer listed.