In this post, Brent Barnett, Artist Relations Specialist at Gibraltar Hardware, shows us how he put together Joey Bumpus’ (drummer for Lady Gaga) drum rack.
Joey wanted to have everything curved. T legs were used, but pivoted slightly to accommodate the curve. Four vertical curved poles were mounted along the center bar for the cymbals, giving it an upside down spider-like effect.
Curved bars make it difficult to keep other curved bars level. Brent solves this problem by checking the mounts with a level. The SC-GRSRA right angle clamps to connect the legs to the side extensions along with the SC-GPRML memory locks connecting to the outer legs. The SC-GPR30C curved 30-inch tube was added as a rear leg but about 5 inches were cut off with a saw. SC-RMAA and SC-RBA were added to the end of the cut tube to make it look clean and for mounting a boom, cymbals, or other 7/8 inch tube hardware. The SC-GRSARA angled clamp was used as the foot clamp to accommodate the curve being parallels to the foot, allowing the angle of the leg to be adjusted. A 30-inch curved bar was used to hold the no leg snare stand. The SC-GRSMC was used to connect the SC-EA100 to main rack to the no leg hi hat stand. GEMS mount is attached to the rack at the player’s right for a Roland SPD-S.
Then Paul realized he could customize it! Paul decided to kick his Stealth VMS up a few notches to better match his drum kit. He customized it by using custom 1.5-inch diameter wooded dowels finished in the matching custom burnt orange to match his Gretsch burnt orange drum kit. Nice job, Paul. (note: these are not available from Gibraltar, Paul made them)
Matching Wooden Dowels with the Stealth VMS
Figure 8.1 shows a front on view of the drum kit from the Stealth side. The front T-leg and horizontal chrome pipes of the Stealth VMS (vertical mounting system) were changed out to 1.5-inch diameter wood dowels finished to match the wood of the drum kit. The vertical pipes were left chrome to match other chrome hardware on the kit. Notice cool clean VMS set up with no tripod bases on the snare stand to get in the way. The horizontal wooden pipe runs under the double bass pedal connector nice and clean. The Gibraltar no leg hi hat is mounted to the Stealth VMS with a SC-EA-100 extension arm. There’s more! Continue reading the rest of this post…
There are three kinds of basic hardware setups. Traditional free standing stands, rack system based set ups and the combination of stands and racks which are called “Hybrid” hardware setups.
The Hybrid hardware configuration for this kit is a simple way to utilize your existing cymbal stands to create a custom hardware set up that looks as good as it performs. This style of set up also cuts down on the overall floor space of your kit while giving more overall space to mount drums, cymbals, and other mounted percussion.
Set up logic
Our goal with this set up was to cut back on the number of tripod cymbal stands around the kit. Many times drummers are setting up their kit on a very small stage or small area so having too many stands can create problems. This set up also gives extra mounting space for adding additional drums, cymbals or mounted percussion while not increasing the drum kit foot print.
The set up
This custom hardware set up utilizes the Gibraltar Super Spanner System (model GPRSSS) that is made up of a single 46 inch, 1.5-diameter rack bar mounted horizontally from two cymbal stands. A curved, 30 inch rack extension tube is mounted to the players left from the cymbal boom stand to form a mounting wing extension. This creates a clean visual set up with the efficiencies of expanded rack mounting. There’s more! Continue reading the rest of this post…
Hey! Check out Bryan Hitt’s Gibraltar Stealth VMS mounting system. Bryan is using a customized Stealth system modified with a curved vertical mounting tube that holds the two mounted toms positioned between his two bass drums. The cool thing about Stealth is there is a bar that also connects to a no leg snare stand. This not only looks cool but takes our that tri pod base on the snare drum giving Bryan more leg room behind the kit,
On the right side of Bryan’s set you can see the custom side rack. We took a full GRS-400 rack and mounted it low to the floor; this opens up more cymbal and microphone mounting options while keeping the set up clean and mean.
This is a great example of how a cool clean rack set up can add to the drum kits vibe while enhancing the performance of the kit.
Building a double bass rack system with the GRS-850DB
Set-up Logic
The classic double bass drum rack seen throughout the 80s was known as “the cage”. This setup pays homage to the cage – with an updated vibe and jaw dropping appeal. With Gibraltar you can turn your own custom design into a one of a kind look.
If you have a big kit, a rack is the way to go. Racks deliver the tight framework needed for mounting lots of drums and cymbals while keeping set up clean and unobtrusive.
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