Haha Steve i figure you're refering to the 30th at Cafe? or Feb 6th at Bar Bleu? We're in NYC this weekend so that'd be quite a Trek for you! But if you're that loyal of a fan i suppose i could buy an expensive NYC drink or something.

Mark is a seasoned professional that's giving you good advice... I'd suggest following it and thanking him for it.

Just my 2 cents... shrugs

Well, yeah Zen. I just didn't know what to type. I'm actually gonna start a new thread... Look for it in Hanging Out.

I had a rack. I think i played about 4 shows with it over a period of 6 months. Theyre more trouble than they're worth in my opinion. Now i just use stands but i get an adaptor so i can clamp it onto a stand and attach another boom arm onto it. That way i can have 6 cymbals and only 3 stands. MUCH easier to take on stage than a rack.

The less gear the better. It forces you to be more creative too.

You dont have a ride cymbal?

Hey Lars played that way for years.

I hate to re-awaken this but i kinda had a thought about it this weekend. Last night i played with a reggae band which only required a limited kit. I brought Kick, snare, hat, 2 rack toms and two crashes. Normally for such a circumstance i'd use my bass drum anchored tom mount, and two cymbal stands. But since all that stuff was at my other bands practice house, i was forced to use my rack...

I did feel a little bit like 'that guy' showing up with a tini kit but using a rack'... but actually it was a really good move. I took up a really really small amount of space on stage. Only as wide an area as the feet of the rack. It was great. It was super fast to set up as I set it up off stage and then just moved it on stage. It was great, much easier than stands...

Dream stick i know this probably doesn't help you very much cuz you have like 2 or 3 floor toms... and your cymbals are kinda far away, you may want to stick to stands for the time being. ( still say a ride cymbal is looking like your best investment.)

Yep, two floor toms. Isn't the one up two down becoming more common?

I do need a ride. Well, in all honesty, the next investment will be a throne that you can sit on without having to adjust it after every song!

Hey, Bill Bruford played without a HIHAT for a while.
Jerry Marotta played no cymbals at ALL on the first Peter Gabriel solo record...

Here with some visual aids is why the rack works for me...



Notice the tape around the base of the legs...



Stands attached to rack...



Drums up...



Add cymbals.

And while I do have 4 or 5 stands that go to the ground, it's much easier to position them at this point.

HOw long does it take to set this thing up??

I'm sure not long at all when he has his kids and wife do it for him while he is checking the temp of a nice cold Bud Light!

Hey Bongster, I'm curious why you only have your rack posts marked with tape on your drum rug? I have the kick pegs and
pedal marked. Also the snare and hi-hat stand. Basically anything touching the rug.

Actually, on that rack you dont need tape at all. Once you have the rack opened and the wings extended, you simply scribe two lines on the rack brackets and there you go. I use to scribe lines for all the hardware mounts as well.

That thing is in desperate ned of a paint job buddy

If my boy Bruce is helping, no more than 25 min.
I can do it myself in about 35.

Yeah, yeah, I'll paint it!

But to answer the question, once I have the rack spread out, every thing falls into place. The basses are set by the pedal markings.

Obviously things do change from gig to gig.

Thanks for asking.

You sure do love showing off that kit bong.

Wouldn't you?

Racks are cool. It's easier to get everything right were you want it.

Assuming you don't move the kit.

Once you start gigging a lot, then it can become a different story.

My biggest problem, and why I stopped using racks live, was stages are not always level. Some drum risers have sagged over time with lots of use. And when the stage isn't level, it throws the whole rack off, and it's tough to make last second adjustments if you have your rack locked down with memory clamps.

Stands aren't so thrown off by an non-level stage or riser.

And if your band is booked into a smaller than normal venue, a rack can cause a lot of problems, where as stands can be moved without throwing off the whole kit.

I still have my rack, I still use it at home. But it doesn't ever leave the house.

I finally got around to taking some pictures of how I utilize my hardware. This is my home kit; a 6 piece with 9 cymbals. The gig rig is 4 piece with 6 cymbals. All the hardware is DW 9000 series utilizing dogbones.

The first picture is 1 stand that holds 2 rack toms and 2 cymbals. You can also kinda see my hi-hat with was an auxiliary ride attached in the background.



The second picture shows the next two stands. One stand holds my ride, a crash and a floor tom. The other holds an auxiliary hat, a crash, china and a rack tom.



The next two pictures show the kit as a whole. In my opinion, it has a fairly clean look for the amount of pieces being used. It is very comfortable to play and there is a nice field of view for the audience when viewed directly from the front, which is important to me. COuld I use a rack with this kit? Sure, but I wouldnt be able to gig with it efficiently.





My current gig kit only has 2 cymbal stands. One holds a rack, a crash and 2 splashes and the other holds a floor, ride, a crash and a china. Takes me 3 trips to load in and out by myself.

I probably went a little overboard in the detail here, but oh well. We all like pics, right?

Man Steve, what an efficient setup.