This is an old photo of my Tama Imperialstar kit when I first brought it home from the music store and set it up. It began as a six-piece: metal snare, 22" bass, 12 and 13" rack toms, and 16 and 18" floor toms.
What is interesting about this photo is the pair of Remo "Roto-Toms" to my left. In the 1980s Roto-Toms were all the rage because it was a quick and relatively inexpensive way to add additional toms to a setup. Almost everyone I knew had a set of these unique drums that could be tuned simply by twisting the rims. The drawback was the metal drums were extremely top-heavy and the stand they came on was rather cheap and rickety. Despite this minor aggravation, these add-on toms were very popular back in their day.
Most drummers used the three-tom set which consisted of the three smallest sizes: 6, 8 and 10", but there were also larger sizes available that came in two-tom sets. There was this pair that I have in the photo above, which was a 12 and 14" combo, and there was even a larger 16 and 18" set. Drummers like Alex Van Halen, Terry Bozzio and Stewart Copeland used these drums in their setups and added to their popularity.
You can still find Roto-Toms on the internet, but usually only the small triple set. The larger sizes are rare and harder to find.
This photo features my son (who is now almost 18) knocking around on my makeshift "Ludslinger" kit with a set of Roto-Toms that have since been lost. I don't know what happened to them, but they may turn up eventually. They must be stashed around here somewhere, in the attic or in a closet. For some reason I also have a single 10" Roto-Tom lying around that I don't really use. Roto-Toms are cool to play around with, but I don't necessarily like them as a permanent addition to my kit.
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