BLACK VISTALITE SET-UP SESSION

After finally acquiring an 8-inch concert tom for my Ludwig Black Vistalite kit, I knew it was time to set the whole collection up and see how it looked.  But because I am old and decrepit (and have a steady job), this process took quite a bit of time.  I'm talking like a month and a half.  I had to wait for the drum to come from Florida, clean it up, get a new drum head, find another clip-style tom stand, move other drums out of the way, haul all the other Luddies downstairs and dust 'em off, etc.  Hey, arthritis slows me down, dude.  And I have to work five days a week...like...every week.  So I don't have a lot of free time to spare.

Anyway, after I got everything in order I set up the kit indoors for tuning and/or playing.  You know, I tinkered around on it a bit and took some preliminary photos.  This is how it was set up:

Because my most favoritest drummer in the whole world is Neil Peart, of course I employed what I call his "spiral staircase" arrangement where the toms start small on the left above the hi-hat and circle down across the bass drum and down to the floor toms on the right, increasing in size as they descend.  Here I now have 8-10-12 (single-headed) concert toms, 12 and 13, a 15-inch mounted low like a floor tom, a 16-inch floor on the left and an 18 on the right.  (The snare is an unbranded MIJ white sparkle and does not enter into this discussion.)

So because I know everyone on the planet is just so un-freaking-believably interested in the miscellaneous mounting methods of the misplacedmtnman, this weekend I drug the whole kit outdoors where I had more room to maneuver around and photographed my collection in some additional configurations to see which set-up looks the best.  I'm sure all of you are eager to register your opinions in the comments section below.  Yeah.  That is definitely going to happen.

Ahem.  To continue, all of these are "spiral staircase" configurations with slight variations.  For instance, the one above is a "3-2-3" arrangement with three toms up high, two on the bass drum and three down on the floor.  Here are some others:

CONFIGURATION NUMBER TWO: THE "4-2-2" ARRANGEMENT

Here I have shifted the toms upwards and to the left.  The 15-inch is now up on the bass drum with the 13, the 12 is above the hi-hat with the 8-10-12 concerts, and the 16 and 18 remain on the floor (because there's not much else you can do with those big boys.)

I prefer this set-up to the previous, because now my toms are all in line from left to right and I don't have to "stagger" the three on the floor, but that jump in size from the 13 to the 15 on the kick drum just doesn't appeal to me visually.  I don't hate it, but I don't love it.  If it were a 14-inch, or if this were a double-bass kit it would look better slightly off to the right but the 15 just looks a little bloated sitting right up front on a single kick.  Let's try something else.

CONFIGURATION NUMBER THREE: THE "3-3-2" ARRANGEMENT

Okay, now I have shifted the toms back to the right.  The three concerts are up high and the 12 and 13 are back on the bass drum, but the 15 I have mounted on a snare stand at mid-level instead of down low.  Now the kit looks a little more balanced and is still in line.  Here's a shot from behind:

Eh.  I don't know.  The 15 still looks a little odd.  Maybe I'll take it out of the mix altogether.  Unless I find a 14-inch double-headed tom.  And a 6-inch concert.  In any case, it's time to wrap up this silly set-up session.  It's getting late and I'm losing the light.

CONFIGURATION NUMBER FOUR: THE "HUGIS-BIG-D" ARRANGEMENT

This is what I have now at the end of the day, a "Hurry Up and Get-'em InSide Because It's Gettin' Dark" arrangement.  And I'm too tired to mess with 'em any more tonight.....