Gotta disagree with you on this one, Sig. Spider is right - and that's why they are called "memory locks." You've been around long enough to remember that when Rogers ("Memri-Loc") and other companies first introduced advanced locking features, the advertising emphasis was on the "set it, forget it" advantages - even though the Rogers system would not function at all without the lock in place on the tube. You can go back to the original advertising of Pearl, Ludwig, Tama - in fact, all the majors - and see that the purpose of the memory locks was to speed set up. In fact, most mounting systems, then and now, function just fine without the memory locks in place.
Now, in addition to the aforementioned Rogers system (which emphasized in the 1983 catalog not only the memory advantage, but that the clamp "eliminates slippage"), a number of companies have made the memory locks an actual part of the tom/leg receiver so that the memory lock
does partially function as a stabilizing element. The beautifully-designed Tama Starclassic design comes immediately to mind.
But even on this design, along with most of the memory lock "ring" systems, the tom or leg receiver alone is typically sufficient to keep fixtures snugly in place, with the memory lock in place or not. I've been using my PDP tom brackets without memory locks since 2000, the year I bought them, and have yet to experience a single slippage. My experience with other drums have been the same.
The fact that the OP's Gretsch bracket refuses to lock his tom(s) in place on the L-rod indicates yet another deficiency in the design. If this bracket was working properly, he should be able to toss the memory lock altogether and still expect his toms to keep their setting. If I were the OP, I'd be contacting Gretsch again.
GeeDeeEmm
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