I Bought an 18" Floor Tom 

Whats the biggest drum on your kit? Also, check out the Thrift Store Challenge over on Drumeo! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6aKQKd6VouI.html

I am totally blind, and I play drums. And I love, listening to your channel you do an excellent job on your videos.

I've replaced my 16" Floor Tom with an 18" Floor Tom even when I'm playing a 4-piece live! Welcome to the 18" Floor Tom cult!

So rad. How many kits do you have now? Maybe a collection video should be dropped....

Dude your kit sounds unbelievable.

I can't wrap my head around people letting instruments getting like this. Great job on the restoration. Very nice.

I mean, that 5 lick at the end is pretty cool.

I'm in the process of refurbishing a beat up old 18" floor tom and adding it to my kit. Since the wraps I know to buy would have to have a seem I chose to paint it 8 coats and lacquer it and polyurethane it on the inside. This sturdied up the old 5 ply shell and made it pretty solid and shiny black like the rest of my kit. New hardware is from Ebay, still trying to win the auction for the very nice pearl lugs. It was also missing a hoop so I bought that outright from Gibraltar, not interested in buying a used and warped hoop. Still need a head for the top (next paycheck) and new hardware for the legs. (rusted) I learned a lot about restoring old drums by watching your videos and thanks to you I'll be adding a thunderous floor tom at a fraction of the actual cost. Love the videos, don't ever stop.

I'm not going to lie. I found it satisfying to watch the drum cleaning montage section of this video :D

That 18" sounds amazing! Now what your kit needs is a 24" or 26" kick drum.

Dave: This drum is gonna need some work Me: Finally, a real christmas miracle

Just a friendly suggestion; try tuning the 18 reso head the same tuning as the batter for that rumble but longer decay. Tune the 16 slightly higher with the reso slightly looser than the batter so that it doesn't have so much sustain. It may eliminate some of that ringing you're hearing out of the 16. I usually tune my drums so that the reso is slightly lower than the batter so they don't ring as long. Some small moon gel on that 16 may keep it from ringing as well without sacrificing the sustain. Properly placed moon gel can give a drum a deeper seeming sound. Cheers

Yes! Finally! A drummer that not only demonstrates drumming skills by utilizing usage of two floor toms but also showing polishing part to respect maintenance!

Congrats on the 18! I used to have a massive Blue/Olive Ludwig set. It came with two 24'' kicks, 14 and 15'' toms, with an 18 and 20'' floor toms in thermogloss finish. It was an absolute monster! Happy Holidays!!!

Tip from a soundengineer, the "tail" of the floortom sound you said you don't want, that's what a tom makes a good tom. Compare it to the snare. Without the tail, you won't hear the snare rattle, only the attack of the stick. A ringing is something that makes the floortom beautiful, don't take it away

Dude UPS has been sucking lately. A guy I know ordered a BBQ to his home in Arkansas and UPS shipped it to California, marked it as delivered, and left it. Done. The manufacturers had to ship a second one. I recently ordered something that was shipped to within 40 miles of my house to the local distribution center, then 1.5 hours farther away, then back to the local center, then 3 hours the other way to another state, then back to the center where it sat for 2 day before going out for delivery. It was 3 days late because of the detours plus the 2 days of just sitting. I ordered a cymbal a few weeks ago and it similarly went past my house twice, 6 hours one way, then 7.5 hours back the other before finally coming here. UPS again.

I've always loved natural grain and lacquer finishes. Great job bringing that old beast back to life. For years, I played a 14" floor tom with my fusion size kit (20" kick, 8", 10", 12" toms and 14" floor) but am happy to now have a kit with a 16".

2011 MCM lick sounds good on that drum!

Channeling your inner Bonham! Congrats! I own a set of 1986 TAMA Superstars with 16 & 18 FTs. Using double ply heads top and bottom makes a HUGE difference. I like EVANS hydraulics on top, and any type of self-damped head on the bottom. Diecast batter hoops also makes a huge difference. Results in a thick, fat, meaty low fundamental with reduced high harmonics + controlled decay. Hope this helps you. Happy Holidays 2019 to all!!

Aluminum foil works great, dip the foil in coca cola to remove rust spots. I'm a automotive detailer and alot of the tricks I've learned can be used on drums. Another good cheat on painted surfaces or wraps. If you have a spot that is coming off but you need to really put some elbow grease into it. Try using soapy water and a dryer sheet before using a solvent. We use this to remove bugs, tar, and sap. I keep a spray bottle with water and two dryer sheets in it. I use it as a presoak, then I rinse grab a few sheets and my bottle scrub all the heavy bug areas, and then I wash. I was skeptical at first, but once I added it to my routine I found it can save me half-hour to an hour per detail.

I have a 1967 Ludwig Hollywood set...added a 16 × 16 Gretch (in addition to the Ludwig 16 x 16), and added an 18 × 20 Slingerland . The Hollywood is gold sparkle, and the 2 additions are COW . I play old Super (early Paiste) cymbals exclusively, and use nylon tip 2B sticks...7 cymbals + high hats . Took a while to dial everything in with tone rings etc, but the set has an ungodly bottom end ! Btw, I'm 73 and refuse to grow up !

I own three different vintage Tama Superstar kits in Super Maple finish: 1). A 1977 18/12/14 bop kit with sound rings and matching snare. 2). A early 1980s 18/12/14 bop kit without sound rings and matching snare. 3). A early 1978 20/12/14 Jazz kit with sound rings.

I have two 18" 80s era superstars. The reason being the kit was a bequeathment from the drummer in my father's band and he had cut the shells in half. Part of me wishes they could be restored but I'm happy to be a part of their history.

My main kit is a Tama Superstar, I bought the whole kit off a Facebook user for $200, it came with an 18 inch floor tom. I never had one before and I absolutely love it.

Late to the party here (3 years after the original post), but great job on finding and restoring the FT. I have a Pearl Masters BRX (birch) kit in Vintage Sunburst and was seeking a 16" FT to accompany my 14" FT. It took 5 long, patient years for one to pop up and I grabbed it. Like you, I like my floors to be deep and trying to get the tuning to my liking. Props!

LOL I played a 16" and 18" floor for 45 years...decided to make a change. Now I use an 18" and a 20" floor! Yup!

I've watched this video way more times than one person probably should, but mainly because an 18" floor tom was the one drum I wanted on my Rockstar kit from the 1990s. Also the rebuild montage from 4:21 to 5:38 is really good piece of video!

So I'm currently building my own kit and thanks to your tips of hardware restoration and eBay I have saved a huge amount of money. Thanks!

An 18 inch floor tom is a must and so rare these days. I’ve had one for 30 years and will never part with it. Another gem for rock is a 24 inch bass drum. I’ve just bought a couple of them too! 👍 Enjoy!

Keep them coming, merry christmas

Beautiful kit man. Love TAMA. Love 18’s. Love the natural wood look.

14x26 Kick, 16", 18" and 20" floor toms, 22" Gong drum. Love the thunder.

14x10, 15x12, 16x16, 18x16, 26x14 all 1971 3 ply Ludwigs. Plus a 6.5x14 supraphonic. I use coated Emperor on batter and coated ambassador on reso sides. Bass has a fibreskin front and Evans EQ3 batter. For muffling, I poke cotton balls through the air hole. They free float on the reso head. Add more or less as needed.

ive always had a thing for two proper floor toms, not for playing i never ever played a drumset that had this but the estetics is just there.

Those edits of the drum were clean

Nice...very nice...enjoy your rebuilds & refurbishing of drums , beautiful kit...

Those floor toms sound incredible. So punchy and dead sounding. Bigger is better when it comes to drums. That’s why I swear by my 13 x 7 snare and never use crash cymbals smaller than 18”. Wish I had those big boy toms 😭 can’t get enough of that dark sound.

I have Ludwig CM 16” and 18” floor toms and ran into the same problem as you as far as having difficulty getting the two sounding good together. I want my 16” low enough to sound like a floor tom, but the 18” not so low as to have a papery sound. I tune my drums a little higher than most anyway, so after some experimentation and listening back on recordings, I came up with a great interval and tuning between the two. I am a tuning geek so I documented what the tunings are. No muffling. 16” has a clear emp on top, tuned to 130 hz (C), clear ambassador on the bottom, tuned to 146 hz (D). 18” same heads, 100 hz (G -G#) top, 116 hz (A-A#) on the bottom. The fundamental pitch of the 16” is a D#, 18” is a B. That’s a major third interval. They sound huge and are distinct from each other in the mix. This tuning works great for me, hope this helps.

Super cool vid as all of yours are! This sounds like every 18" I've ever played outside of one DW Collector's Cherry. That one did not have the excessive SPLAT/THUD attack or the annoying mid range overtones. It resonated very pleasantly like any other tom. I think this drum would benefit from different heads and a different mic. I would recommend either a smooth white finish or suede finish Remo OR a frosted Evans head. Finding an actual tom head rather than a bass head might be challenging in those finishes. I find that these finishes deliver a controlled, "round" attack, that might reduce the SPLAT/THUD. You might want to try an Emperor on the bottom as the drum may want to resonate lower than an Ambassador can. Changing the bottom head might help a lot more than changing the top. For mic, I'd recommend a D6. You also might want to try a D112 positioned on the bottom head. Have fun with it and please post another video to show it off once you get it sounding great.

I recently bought an 18” floor tom to add to my kit, and what I found worked best was tuning it quite differently from my 16” floor tom. I tune using a tune-bot to the following frequencies: 16” batter: 95Hz 16” reso: 150Hz 18” batter: 65Hz 18” reso: 85Hz You’ll notice that the interval between the heads is quite different, which makes for more contrast between the drums. The resultant pitches of the drums are about a fourth apart. That’s how I’ve found to maximize the contrast between the drums without either becoming “flabby” or “muddy.”

@2:10 Wow bro your professionalism and knowlege really moves me Edit:Thank you so much for a text book drum video

You have one of the best sets that I have ever heard, and I’m a Gretsch person.

Yo you should put an emad on that

It's therapeutic watching your drum resto time lapses. thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas Dave!

That’s a nice groove

David. I bought two drum sets for $25 😂

Hey David! My main kit is the same Tama Superstar and I have the 12, 13, 16, and 18 inch toms..I'm telling you this because it was my dad's and he purchased them new back in '84. He tried so many different formulas of top and bottom heads and over the years I have as well, but what he discovered and taught me has really made me fall in love with them. Let's talk some time. Thank you for the awesome content. All the best to you.

I turned my 18” floor Tom into a kick drum some years ago. My Soundman always preferred it to the 22” one. It’s got a beautiful tight sound to it. Thanks for sharing man. Your collection is pretty awesome.

Try a thicker bottom head on the reso. I did that w/ my 18” and it helped quite a bit. Maybe another black dot on the reso may do it as well. Killer kit David.

You should consider putting an EMAD on that thing. Think it would get rid of all that low rumble noise.

i have an 18" flr and it is BEAST! for tuning, youd be surprised how the bottom head can have an impact. i tune the bottom heads of all my drums considerably higher than the top and it really helps the tone. when it comes to complimenting other drums, you're 100% right, thats the hard part. my huge rig had the 18" - i tuned the 10" and 16" off each other, and the 12" and 18" off each other, leaving the 13" as sort of the odd duck. like a passing tom if you will. i used G2 clear heads on this rig so there was a lot of open tone. my current working rig is a 12" rack and 14", 16" flr toms. the 14" is what i ride the most on so i ensure that has some tone to project unmic'd while still having enough low end to round it out as a flr tom. the 16" is my "bring the thunder" drum and adds the extra low end. i use EC2 clears on this set up. good luck tuning! soon as you hit that sweet spot you'll never want to let go \m/

I have similar vintage Tama Superstars in that same finish. But that's where the similarity ends. 10 and 12 inch toms up, a 14 x 14 floor tom and a 18 x 14 bass drum. To that I added a metalworks 13 x 6.5 black nickel snare and it kicks. When I was in High School ('79 to '82) I wanted Tama Superstars more than anything. When the opportunity came up to buy a set from a guy in Austin, I jumped at it. Once you get used to an 18" kick (raised it 2-3" to get a decent beater throw), it's fantastic. Fits in your car SO much more easily! That said, if anyone has a 22 they want to get rid of, I could be coerced.

Needs a china right between the floor toms to complete the 90’s drummer dream set

You should put an Emad on it.

Just picked up a mega set of 90s Ludwig Rocker's with a 12,13,16,18, and two 22s. The 18 is by far my favorite drum of the 6 because it is so loud and punchy while still having that low rumble. Love massive floor toms

Sounds good man. The best sound is that coming from a happy drummer having fun. If you were Bonham, you just smash it and do your thing thoughtless far away of any kind of tunning.

18" is my biggest tom. I have a 14" snare, 13" tom, 16" floor tom, 18" floor tom, and a 24" bass drum. Probably just like the set up you have here. It's the Ludwig 110th anniversary wood-hooped mahogany set. It's so warm and smooth. Thanks for showing all the little cleaning tricks on this. They are crazy helpful!

That 18" would sound nice with an EMAD. Just a little suggestion :)

Just got out of the studio. We used a tunebot to get the drums sounding great. You should give it a shot if you are worried about tuning the toms up too high. It made them sound huge!

A lovely, new member to your Superstar kit. I once owned a big, chrome-covered Gretsch kit with 13", 14" toms, 24" kick and an 18" floor tom and I will never own another 18" floor tom again. I found it to be massive, sluggish, hard to tune and naturally pitched too low to be useful. I would have been better off to put a thin head on it and try to get a timpani tone from it. Glad to see you are having better luck. Rock on!

Your floor Tom is bigger than my 18”x14” bass drum

Mah boi is back!!! David...can you suggest me ways to practice without drums?i don't have a kit....or a practice pad😅 I've been playing drums for 3yrs now....thanks mate..

Nice work brother. My 6 piece Imperialstar set came with an 18”, but I bought an 18” to add to my Slingerland set. I found it on eBay in a similar condition to the one you bought. It took a little work to get it to look as respectable as the rest of my kit. Yes, tuning an 18” to work with an existing 16” is tough. I found something much cheaper than MoonGel pads I like to use on mine. Seasonal gel window clings from the Dollar store. They’re cheap, a buck for a whole sheet, they’re thinner, plus they look festive! Cheers from Tulsa. Rock on!

yes more tours! studio and workshop and more kits!

I have a 14" and 16" floor toms. I use Evans black chrome heads, they pretty low sounding.

The music @ 4:22 is the piece “Spinning Wheel” in case you were wondering

Mate, thanks for making the time to post your videos, always instructive and helpful. I'm reasonably well-versed in drum restoration but always happy to learn a new trick. Sorry if I missed this in a previous thread, and common sense really, but important to mention that having washed the shell with warm soapy water (mmm), towel it off immediately so that water doesn't seep into the shell through any exposed hardware holes and cause a stain underneath the lacquer. Just saying... I was lucky enough to start playing as a kid (late70's), at the time here in the UK the marketing/retail brand options were basically either Premier or Tama. I still hanker after a well-kept original Superstar kit (sunburst finish!) but can't get my hopes up. Like you, I'd obsess on getting every size ever manufactured (and those that weren't- 8" tom? 20x16 BD? etc). As has already been suggested here, I've had success with increasing the thickness of the reso head to match the diameter of the drum. I have a coated Emperor reso on my 18" floor tom which allows an extra bit of detuning before it 'flaps'. That said, sincere thanks for the CS nostalgia- they DO sound great, and chronologically appropriate... Thanks again and very best wishes, Simon

I bought a early 70s ' Big R ' Rogers kit in a pawn shop , it had been part of a huge custom kit but was just a 20 x 20 kick , a 14 x 10 rack and an 18 x 16 floor tom . I could never get a sound I was happy with from the 18 , so I bought some hoops and legs and turned into a bop kick drum . I found a Dixon 10 x 8 tom that was nearly a perfect match and used the 14 x 10 as a ' hanging ' floor tom . Just magic , mic the kick very slightly and Boy Howdy , did that cute little thing punch above it's weight .

Little Music City Mystique reference at 6:51? I was on that rack line!

The biggest drum on my kit is the bass drum

Looks and sounds gorgeous. Love this kit. Thanks for your vids, great stuff. Merry Christmas to you and yours from Lisbon, Portugal.

If you don't like that pitch bend on your 16," tighten the bottom head little! Pitch bending up or down results from the relationship between the batter and reso head, with the initial pitch coming from the batter. Love the sound of the kit!

Damn that kit is sexy

You should put an EMAD on that thing. 😉 I kid… I KID! 🤣🤣🤣

Tun Bot is a great drum tuning tool and online they give multiple tuning options. A little elbow grease and some replacement parts and you've got the final piece to the puzzle.

I played two down for a while. I found bonham tuning worked best. Little tighter on the reso and loose up top. From there I’d go looser on the 18 reso to dial it in, and create separation between the floor toms. Also make sure there is no contact between the drums. Otherwise you’ll get tons of sympathetic vibration and overtones. Kit is gorgeous, you’re a lucky guy!

I also have an 18" floor tom

yup, dave's slowing turning into john bonham.

My kit is a 1972 Ludwig thermogloss (natural glossy) maple finish, the sizes are 14, 18, 22 and I’m in love with the tone of the 18, super cool that you added one to your kit!

Had pretty good luck with the tune-bot app on my iPhone. It lets you select what Tom sizes are in your kit and if you want high or low tuning. It asks you how much resonance you want out of your toms. It gives you a starting point to tune the frequency of each lug top and bottom. Then the fundamental note of the whole drum gets pretty close to the predicted note frequency. It gives you a frequency for each to in relation to each other. It worked pretty well. Enjoy your videos. Thx.

01:30 does he really say I don't have a 18" a-hole..?

the "wooooaaauuwww" sound is generally referred to as pitch bend, and it has to do with the relationship between the better and reaso heads. Also, you should put an EMAD on this thing

I had a 7pc Tama Swingstar kit back in the early 90s and I saved and bought the 18" matching floor tom in gun metal gray,I loved that extra deep boom when it was going thru the pa,I wish I still had that kit

I love my 18" Tom to pieces. Sounds like a Taiko drum with the way I have it tuned. Also makes 'hot for teacher' sound amazing

That is a gorgeous kit! I like the 'pitch dive' on the toms but everybody want's "perfect fourths" & shit nowadays. Was gonna say the secret to big toms is big sticks and a six pack of beer but you're doing so well.

Nice tasteful resto video. The sound potential makes me wish I had an 18 back when I played. I remember adding a 16 to mine because the widdle 14 Ringo student Ludwig Tom wasn’t cutting it as my bottom. Lol. It took me many hours of experimenting with tuning the other 8 drums and it to find it’s voice and where it all fit in. But that’s how you learn and it was fun figuring it out. Solid advice man.Thanks. I’ll be watching more.

Beautiful complete set. Never thought of using a plastic razor before to remove certain things, so obvious yet never crossed my mind. Love your vids dude, everything from the editing to the sound track to each video but mainly your passion for restoring and building anything to do with drums. Keep on doing your thing cause you are good at it.

Great set! To this day, those old '80s birch Superstars are some of the best sounding drums. Honestly, regarding floor toms, I have found the most versatile size to be the 14". It just seems to sound good tuned way down low or cranked up tighter. 16's and 18's for me have always been kind of a one trick pony in that they prefer only to be tuned very low. But with a 14", I can tune it just as low and still get a nice tone out of it. Just my opinion. Drum on!

i have a tama kit and my biggest tomtom is 18inch floor tom and i just wanted to say how much you inspire me to go and play so thank you so much and have a good christmas 😁

How very satisfieng to see the TLC you gave this! great tip using the plastic razorblade, cheers for sharing.

I recently got a 9 piece Artstar Cordia 83, also has an 18. It rivals any kit I own, or ever played. Hadn't been played for 30+ years. It was an old neighbors spoiled kids. Block lettering = round edges. Great tips

Now that's a drum kit. Welcome to the club. Two floor tom's is of paramount importance. To me anyway..........and yes, tune it up. That's the key........... Welcome.

I really don't know how to play drums, but I can't keep a rhythm forever. My wife "forbid" me to buy drums, so I kicked her out ... bought an Acura TL, a GSXR 750 and a set of Yamaha stage custom drums, and then added a few pieces to them just to have more to hit .. remember, I cannot play drums. I bought double kick pedals, upgraded the hi hata to A Custom 15 inch, changed all the batter heads to Evans 360 EC2's with damping rings, then bought a triple roto tom set up. The 2 latest things I just bought about a week ago was a brand new Stage Custom 18" floor tom and a brand new Yamaha stage custom steel snare 6.5 inch by 14 with upgraded wires. So the setup is 22" kick, 12" and 13": rack toms, 16" and 18" floor toms, cow bell, hi hat tamborine, one expensive 22" HHX ride cymbal, A Custom 10" spash and the other 4 cymbals are junk B8's. I swear I keep making purchaes to upgrade the drum kit not because I'm getting so good at playing, it's just because nobody is "forbiding" me anymore ... hehe I'm in the process now of hooking up a big screen TV with a computer hooked up to it so that I can play youtube videos and watch as I learn. Just for fun, I picked up a complete PA system with powered Yourville 300 watt speakers on stands, a Yorkville 400 watt subwoofer, a Mackie Pro 12 mixer and just because it has drum effects built into it, I also got a Pioneer SSB 2 DJ turntable setup...I'm certianly no DJ at 63 years but the effects are cool, plus for shits and giggles, I picked up some second hand microphones and now I have the drums miked up for more kick out of the drums. I'm really like the low end sound of drums, so everything is tuned low, but not tuned properly, I just saw a video where the guy said turn them finger tight and then give them another turn ... and that's what I did....again... I don't know jack shit on how to tune drums.

started my career on a Tama Imperialstar with 16" and 18" floor toms. Later I bought an older Superstar in a classic 22,12,13,16 set up. Comparing both sets at that time I preferred the Imp. because that Zola coating made a darker, acoustical heart "deeper" sound....... I always found that Tama birch shells from the early 80's had not enough deep end compared to Gretsch, Ludwig and the upcoming Yamahas, so I bought the newest birch drums of Sonor, the SonorLite......it's nice to watch all the vintage kits been restored and played by young drummers but I personal really prefer modern shells in a modern construction...... I had the feeling playing a 80's drum kit in the 80's, now I want contemporary sounds....... but great that the old kits are so much appreciated and cherished........

I had the same set up on an old Pearl set. I tuned the 18 to it's lowest fundamental, then I tuned the 16 a 4th up, and the ride (12") a 4th up from that. Those intervals worked well together and I still got the low rumble you mention. Later I put power strokes on them with the same tuning. That took away some of the "doppler" effect in the decay, but still maintained the volume and rumble. Nice set BTW.

Your video cuts are really good now. Been watching for a year or so and it’s improved. Thanks for making it interesting and having the best knowledge

I played a Superstar from 1985 to 1996. Great kit. Especially the kick! The 16x22 kick is the only thing I really miss.

I got a great deal on a DDRUM Reflex Bombardier kit. It’s 100% alder wood and actually sounds pretty amazing. I bought it from a private owner and for whatever reason he felt it necessary to get two of the 25x15 bass drums, 13x10 and 14x10 rack toms, and of course 16x16 and 18x16 floor toms. I had to get the booty shakers for the feet of my floor toms. That seems to help a lot as far as giving the two huge toms depth while keeping them both deep. Also the bass drums both have Kickports which adds an awesome boom. It’s hard to hear it from behind the bass but when mic’d up you can definitely tell the difference.

This kit is the bomb, just looking at it you can tell it's beefy and designed well.

Always love watching you sprucing up old, less-than-loved drums! Great job, sounds beefy! Merry Christmas!