The Chopper, Gibraltar’s Road Series, includes the GRS-400C is one of the most versatile systems in our rack offering. And the GRS-150C Side Extensions make it even better. Check out how we’ve tricked out this rack!
Download the parts list PDF for the Chopper 8 Piece
Set-up Logic
The kit for this set up is rather large — three mounted toms 8, 10, and 12” and two 14” and 16” floor toms on legs. It also has a side snare to the left of the hi-hat stand and a large assortment of cymbals.
We wanted this set up to be functional so that everything could be mounted in perfect playing position – with pizazz. Enter the second tier. We’ll cover that in detail as we go.
The Set-up
This set-up starts as a basic curved front rack system (GRS-400C, figure 1.3) with two side extensions (GRS-150C, figure 1.2) to create a basic U-style rack. This design offers more than 40” of mounting space on all three sides of the rack. Important: Do not overlook the placement of memory locks.
Tip on Gibraltar rack bars and memory locks
Round tubing gives 360-degrees of positioning. The very nature of a customized rack is personalized, exact placement of your drums and accessories. For example, if you are positioning a drum in front of you, the rack should allow you to slide it left or right. The tom’s mounting arm should allow you to move it up or down. Gibraltar’s round tubing also allows you to rotate the tom and it’s arm on its axis, for better positioning, or simply because it looks cool. Also, Gibraltar Racks allow for simple adjustment to the height of the entire bar, be it a front bar, side wing, or side extension. With these adjustments, Gibraltar tubing can be arranged in infinite designs, in numerous lengths, for maximum design effect.
Round tubing gives a secure grip in all degrees of placement. Round bars need not slip. Take a look at Gibraltar’s Artist roster, and try to imagine Chris Adler or Rob Bourdon on stage with a rack that lets them down. It just ain’t gonna happen! Sometimes, however, rack newbies miss out on critical info. Always use memory locks alongside your clamps. 
The easiest way is to slide a few SC-GPRML clamps onto your tubes in between your primary clamps (your front toms, for example). Slide those memory locks up next to the multi clamps. Continue placing your drums and position additional multi clamps, and then add SC-GRSHML (figure 1.4) hinged memory locks to the new stuff. If you are a brutal pounder, sandwich the clamps of your heaviest drums with two memory locks.
Tighten with your SC-GTK key. Now it’s secure. And, don’t forget to use the memory locks on the main bars and legs– these locks are critical to making your Gibraltar rack set up and tear down exactly the same each time.
Extra cymbal mounting
We added two SC-RMAA (figured 1.7) rack mounting accessory clamps to each, upright of the side racks. The SC-RMAA Rack Mounting accessory attachment fits over any 1 ½” diameter tube and allows mounting of ¾”, ½” and 7/8” diameter cymbal tom and accessory arms.
This allows a cymbal boom arm or any down tube to be mounted from the vertical rack tube giving more mounting options.
- 1 pc GRS400C Basic Rack w/Curved Front Bar
- 2 pc GRS-150C Curved Right or Left Side Extension
- 4pc SC-RMAA Rack mount accessory attachment
Building the second tier of the rack design
- 2 pc GPR30C 30 inch Curved Rack Bar
- 4 pc SC-GRSMC Multi Clamp
- 2 pc SC-GRSARA Adjustable Right Angle Clamp
- 1pc SC-GPR30 30 inch Straight Rack Bar
- 1pc SC-GRSRA Right Angle Clamp
- 1 pc SC-GRSSMC Super Multi Clamp
- 1 pc GRS400C Basic Rack w/Curved Front Bar
- 2 pc GRS-150C Curved Right or Left Side Extension
- 4pc SC-RMAA Rack mount accessory attachment
- 2 pc GPR30 30 inch Straight Rack Bar
- 6 pc SC-GRSMC Multi Clamp
- 2 pc SC-GRSARA Adjustable Right Angle Clamp
- 1 pc SC-GRSSMC Super Multi Clamp
- 1 pc 9606NL No Leg Snare Stand w/Ultra Adjust Basket
- 1 pc 9607NL-DP No-Leg Hi Hat Stand w/Direct Pull
- 1 pc SC-EA200 Extension Arm
- 2 pc SC-GRSMC Multi Clamp
- 1 pc GUASB Ultra Adjust snare basket
- 4 pc SC-LBBT Long Cymbal Boom Arm with Brake Tilter
- 1 pc SC-MCSA6 6 inch Cymbal Stacker
- 2 pc SC-SBBT Short Cymbal Boom Arms with brake tilter
- 2 pc SC-CMBRA Medium Cymbal Boom Ratchet Attachment
- 2 pc SC-UCB Ultra Adjust Cymbal Arm
- 1 pc SC-4425D-1 Cowbell L-Rod Mounting Arm
- 3 pieces SC-BCLR-L Ball L-rod Tom Arm (12.7mm)
- Bass Drum 18 x 22
- Toms 8, 10, 12
- Floor Toms 14, 16
- Snare Drums 5 x 14, 6 x 14
- 20 Ride
- 15, 16, 17, 18 Crashes
- 16, 17 China
- 15 Hi Hats
- Splashes 12 14
- Factory Metal effects
- Cowbell
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Our thought was to add some vibe and flavor to this rack design by adding two curved rack bars from the two front vertical tubes. Kinda like having two handlebars come up from the front leg sections of the rack.
We added two 30” curved bars to each of the vertical legs of the front rack using the SC-GRSARA adjustable right angle clamps. Each curved bar gets two SC-GRSMC multi clamps with memory locks for mounting boom arms. The second tier adds cymbal-mounting space and gives an attention-grabbing look to the set up.
No-leg snare stand
One major benefit of a rack set up is having the ability to mount anywhere off the rack. Snare stand tripods can take up valuable floor space needed for multiple pedal set ups. To fix that, we create a no leg snare stand mounted off the left front rack leg. This really cleans up the floor space, is easy to mount and looks good.
A 30-inch rack tube SC-GPR30C is mounted to the lower section of the front vertical rack tube via a right-angled clamp. A super multi clamp SC-GRSSMC or SC-GRSMC is used to mount the 9606NL, figure 1.9 No-leg snare stand.
Left Side of Rack Set Up
Left side view. An Ultra adjust cymbal boom arm (SC-UCB) is mounted from the far left vertical rack leg via the rack accessory attachment (SC-RMAA). The second side snare drum is mounted from the left side extension bar via SC-GRSMC multi clamp and Ultra Adjust Snare Basket (GUASB, figured 1.12). Next, a SC-LBBT long cymbal boom arm is mounted to the rack bar via SC-GRSMC multi clamp and adjusted straight. The no leg hi hat stand (9707NL-DP) is mounted to this same bar with the SC-EA200 extension arm and a SC-GRSMC Multi Clamp.
A note on Ultra Adjust Cymbal Arms SC-UCB, Ultra Adjust Double UA Cymbal Mounting Arm and SC-USCB Ultra Adjust Cymbal Boom Arm.
Gibraltar’s Ultra-Adjust cymbal arms (pictured below) utilize a ‘ball joint’ (see figure 1.13) that can be rotated in all directions of the axis, yet tightens with only one wing nut. To illustrate, imagine a globe. The South Pole goes into your cymbal stand base. The North Pole is the tube that will terminate at a cymbal tilter or tom-tom or whatever. You can tilt that tube down, from the north pole towards south, on any meridian, and you can also tilt it ‘round the globe east to west at any latitude, all at once. It’s similar to a ball & socket tom mount (used on drum sets since the 60’s), but with greater range. It’s pretty hip, and Gibraltar has included it in a variety of cymbal arms, tom and percussion arms, a snare stand, and a funky new, semi-remote hi hat stand.
Front view of rack set-up
The front mounting bar has three tom arms mounted on SC-GRSMC multi clamps with hinged memory locks SC-GRSHML. The two vertical curved bars each have one long cymbal boom arm (SC-LBBT) and one short cymbal boom arm (SC-SBBT). Each short boom has a SC-CMBRA medium cymbal boom ratchet attachment for front placement of two splash cymbals.
Ride side view of rack
The right side of this set-up is pretty straightforward with a side rack extension mounting ride cymbal, cowbell, and china cymbal. We used a SC-LBBT (figure 1.16) long cymbal boom arm with a SC-MCSA6 6-inch cymbal stacker to mount the ride cymbal and Factory metal crasher. A cowbell arm (SC-4425D-1, pictured below) is mounted on the horizontal bar with a SC-GRSMC multi clamp. Make sure to use a memory lock if you’re heavy on the cowbell. At the far right is the second Ultra adjust cymbal boom arm (SC-UCB) mounted from the SC-RMAA rack accessory mount.
To recap, the list of pieces in this set are:
Download the parts list PDF for the Chopper 8 Piece
List of Parts for Gibraltar Chopper 8-piece Set – Free Legal Forms
I want one.
This is an awesome setup. I’ll be using this as a basis for my rack setup which has one less floor tom and not as many cymbals but it will feature some octobans on the left side near the aux snare.