I'm currently on the hunt for a second floor tom. My home/gigging kit is a Tama Superstar 3 piece kit, 12" tom, 16" floor tom, 22" kick, all in "Liquid Metal" finish, which was a limited edition EFX finish from Tama back in the mid-2000's. Right now, I'm "borrowing" the 14" FT from my recording kit, a 6 piece Tama Silverstar set. They don't match in finish, lug design, or hoops. Don't get me wrong, they sound good together, but I'd like to return the 14" to it's rightful place with the rest of the Silverstars, and get a matching FT for my Superstars. So I've been scouring Ebay and Craigslist to try to find a 14" FT to match my Superstars, but it's looking like it's not going to happen. I even opened my search to any finish, as long as the lugs and hoops were the same. No dice.
There are, however, a few 16" FT's with the same black chrome lugs and die cast hoops as the rest of my kit. I could re-wrap it to at least come pretty close to matching.
So I'm curious about using two 16" floor toms. A couple years ago, I had a Yamaha Stage Custom kit with two 12" toms, that I tuned one higher than the other, and they sounded great. I'm just concerned about the larger floor toms, and if they would work together like that. Do any of you guys or gals use two floor toms of the same size, tuned differently?
Here's the best shot I could find of the finish and lug design of my Superstars. And no, I don't usually wear make up and a wig! This was at a Halloween gig!
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I've used 2 FT's since my first set of Ludwigs (1961). All the sets of Ludwig's that I've owned were 16x16 and 18x16. I found it easier to get the 2nd tom where I wanted it, which was (obviously) a little deeper.
I did have a set of Slingerlands with 2 16x16 FT's that I found to be more time tuning the 2nd FT to be deeper than the 1st, and they never sounded quite right to me.
My personal opinion is if you want 2 different sounds, you get 2 different size drums.
Last edited by rickthedrummer; 02-07-2015 at 02:06 PM. Reason: ===
I agree with you there Rick. I really do want a 14" floor tom, but finding it in the same model and same era is damn near impossible.
I've considered getting a different model. Some of the Rockstar lines have very similar lug designs. I'm just concerned about the difference in quality/sound.
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I use 14, 16, 16, 18 as my floor toms and I just tune the 2 16s a bit different.
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Diameter and tuning are not the only aspects that effect pitch (at least in theory). Shell thickness, depth and wood type can be considered as well. Deeper and thinner usually translate to a lower fundamental pitch. I don't know what your existing FT is (16x14 6 ply Birch?). Maybe try to find a cheap 16x16 with thin Luan construction. It would be easy to find and very inexpensive (think entry level kit). Luan can give a very deep & full tone. Maybe you could tune your Tama up higher and the new one lower and get a nice seperation. You may also be able to find a shallower and thicker shell....or one that has an interior coating, and tune it higher than your Tama. Just trying to think outside the box.
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I agree with Rick, I would get 2 different sized floor toms instead of 2 the same.
Have you looked into the Mydentity line? I do not know if they sell only 1 drum but if they do I know they have brushed metal colors with black hardware that will come pretty close to your color plus you can order pretty much whatever size you want. I know they have a 15x15 that I would love to try out and you can get it in Birch or maple.
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I don't use them myself, but I don't see a real problem with it. You can still get the desired pitch differences through tuning if that's your goal. Or don't. :D
I have a yamaha kit with two 16's tuned different and you'd swear the one was an 18 it's so deep compared to the other.
I got a 14 a long time ago to get a 1 up 1 down (12,14,16)... I have found more recently that the 14 just isn't low enough for me, especially if I am 'riding' the floor.
As always it depends on the sound you wanna get and the music you play, but it's not my thing. I have since installed an old strainer on it and turned into an obnoxiously deep snare drum.
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Well, I found a tom on a popular online auction site, and decided to bite. I just won tonight. It's a Tama Superstar 14 X 11 suspended tom. I got it for a pretty decent price. It's brand new in the box, still has the factory tags and original stock heads. So it's the same make and model as the rest of my kit, but it isn't the same finish, it's a mahogany fade. So I'm going to look into the different drum wrap companies out there, and try to get a wrap that is close to mine.
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I've tried the left side right side 16" floor tom pair, I thought it came in quite handy at times(I was needing similar sounds on both sides). I needed to roll from the 16" to the snare quickly for more tribal sounds, so it was set up that way for a good reason. I think there's a lot you can do with side drums, just gotta know what to use them for.
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14" floor tom (snare side) & 16" floor tom. love this set up!
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Buddy Rich used two 16"x16" floor toms. And yes he did play both sometimes. You can tune them at different pitches and be fine. I have 14" 16" and 18" floor toms. And use them in different combinations. Two 16" with my Silver Sparkle Ludwig's. They look and sound great.
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I have two 16' on my Sonor. One to my left and one to my right.
I've encountered the same challenge. My Mapex Saturn kit that I bought in 2011 and which now is discontinued has one 16" floor tom. I've been on the hunt for a 14" for quite some time now. Just can't find one in the right finish and with the right hardware. I have been able to find a 16" though.
Last edited by inthpktplayer; 06-13-2015 at 07:12 AM.
Get another 16" and tune it differently
all the best...
Don't forget, too, that if you have two 16X16 floor toms and have trouble tuning a good interval between them, you could simply shorten one of the 16s and have a 14" depth. So you end up with 14X16 and 16X16 toms (depth/diameter).
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Interesting concept of using 2 drums of the same size but to me it seems like more work to have to tune it differently.
I use 2 FT but one is 15 the other is 16 and I tune them t o the same timp pressure. Like everything else drum-related......it's about personal preference.
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Different heads. I use a 13" floor with a pinstripe, and a 16" floor with an emperor. The pinstripe allows me to tune the 13" lower without it losing resonance. It's a very controlled sound. We use different snare and kick heads, so why not tom heads?
Last edited by FlyByNight; 06-15-2015 at 11:55 PM.
Two of my sets have double 13" up toms and I just tune one up higher than the other. No problem. Sounds great. 16" floors should be no different.
Ludwig Classic Maple vintage 1980 Silver Sparkle
Ludwig Classic Maple vintage 1960 Gold Sparkle
Ludwig Classic Maple vintage 1968 Champagne Sparkle
Premier Resonators vintage 70's Polychromatic Red
Slingerland 60's Vintage. Vintage Sky Blue Pearl
Slingerland 1972 "Avante" Red
Camco Chanute vintage. 1973 Silver Sparkle
Gretsch Catalina Jazz. Blue Pearl
Sonor Safari. Black Galaxy
Rogers Londoner V vintage. 1977 Silver Mist
Rogers Script Badge 9/72 1972 Black Nitro
Beverley of England 4 piece vintage. Red
Stewart 1966 Black Diamond Pearl MIJ
Vintage Paiste 2002
Vintage Avedis Zildjian
^two 13's seems odd to me. Especially in the same area. I could see one up and using one on your left as a side tom.
Im just guessing here that they didnt make an 18" FT for that series?
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