Struggling to get Roland kit laid out on MDS-20BK

[Stingo RAH]

I'm struggling to get my Roland kit laid out using the standard td20 MDS-20BK arced kit rack and would appre any suggestions.
The basic layout i'm after is left to right & excluding snare & kicks. Td20, PD85, cy12rc, VH12, pd85, cy14c, pd105, pd105, cy14c, pd125, cyr15, pd125, cy14c. But everything feels cramped on the left hand side and the rack and/or MDH-10U do a poor job of getting the pd85's up high enough and the ain't enough room for the 1st pd85 I was hoping to hang another 7 pads off of this rack but the ain't no chance lol I don't wanna change racks and i just realised these MDS-20BK's sell for over £700. Did i really pay that for this bit of tubing? anyway if you've any idea's please send 'em my way
Cheers

[Michael Render]

I use Gibraltar arms and clamps. You can get decent height and positioning with those.
With a little trial and error and some luck, you will be amazed how much stuff you can get on those racks.

[Hercules]

Hi Stingo RAH,

Could you post a picture of your setup so we can see what the issues are?

You may need to mount some of the MDH-10Us with the angle bracket on top and some below. You also may need to mount some behind and some in front......

[stickinthemud]

Also check out the 18" arms at Dauz.com. I use them for positioning my auxilliary pads.

[Guest_User_DA]

On Thomas Lang's V-Drums kit, we mount 8 pads - 4 PD-125 and 4 PD-105 (not including another PD-125 on a snare stand), and 10 cymbal pads- 6 CY-14C, 2 CY-5, 1 CY-12R/C , and 1 CY-15R on a MDS-20BK stand.

Thomas doesn't use a VH-12 (or a hi-hat stand for that matter) in this setup, and the only modifications we have made to his stand(s) is adding an extra rack tube section to accommodate 2 TD-20 modules and an fifth leg assembly (under the extra rack tube) for support.

Could you post a picture of your setup so we can see what the issues are?

I agree...post some pictures!

[PumaPhreak]

Those pics of Lang's kit are awesome. Got any more?

[Guest_User_DA]

Those pics of Lang's kit are awesome. Got any more?

No!

http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showpost...0&postcount=21

http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showpost...9&postcount=29

http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showpost...1&postcount=31

http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showpost...1&postcount=35

There are many many more.. here's a few.

[The Source]

Wow, those are some great pics Drew, cheers! I noticed from the "Lang custom snake" pic that the great man has 3 -repeat- 3 (well 2 if you wanna get technical ) spare inputs??!! What's going on there?? Come on Mr Lang, do it properly- fill em up will ya!!

[Stingo RAH]

Here's a pic i just took. I've managed to get a bit more space to the left of my hats by shifting the td20 out a bit since my first post but the still isn't really the room i need to get the 1st pd85 in (left of hats) that's why it's not mounted on the rack yet lol. I wanna get it up just above the height of the hats and the 2nd pd85 (right of hats) about the same level as the hats but these little Roland clamp arms are way to short. I have a selection of clamps but none fit round the rack tubes. I also have a few 10" arms with a swivel mounted grooved spindal on it that would be perfect for mounting the 2 pd85's but the arm tube size is just alittle to large to get into a roland cymbal/tom mount.

[Stingo RAH]

As you can see the clamp arms are way to short for the job. I would have thought Roland would have come up with something as i can't be the only drummer likes this kinda layout. I guess they figure you'll just buy some non Roland clamp arms.

[Guest_User_DA]

You clearly have at least 5-6" (12-15 cm) of tubing to the right of your second PD-105. Although it won't increase the height of the PD-85 (without changing the mounting hardware as Michael Render and stickinthemud suggested), it certainly will gain you some space if you shift the tom pad clamps even a couple of inches/cm to your right.

[Stingo RAH]

You clearly have at least 5-6" (12-15 cm) of tubing to the right of your second PD-105. Although it won't increase the height of the PD-85 (without changing the mounting hardware as Michael Render and stickinthemud suggested), it certainly will gain you some space if you shift the tom pad clamps even a couple of inches/cm to your right.

If i do that it'll push the 2nd pd105 under the 2nd cy14c which i don't want, also the may be 5" of space on the tube but the is less than 2" of space between that 2nd pd105 and the 1st pd125. I'm thinking of stripping the rack down and rebuilding it with that left arm up above the 2 centre arms instead of between them but then the 2 pd105's may end up to low.I'm sure i'll get there in the end, just alittle suprised that Roland hasn't already covered this problem of height.

[Michael Render]

A gibraltar tom arm just to the right of the module will get you where you want to be.
My one module kit has a very similar setup to yours, but I put the 2nd PD-85 between the two PD-125 toms.

[Drumzilla]

MDS-20 Rack

Another option would be to use another stand for the PD-85 and some of the cymbals. The 2007 Roland catalog shows a setup with 6 toms like this. I have a setup like this because I'm using two modules and separating some of the parts was easier than dealing with the crosstalk between modules.

Some pictures of my setup are here:

http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showthre...=15356&page=57

[Stingo RAH]

I dug out some old Gibraltar tom arms & Universal adjustable Grabber Clamps that i had modified at one end to take larger diamiter tubes. It may not look so pretty but it works So i now i just need another 7 of each if i'm gonna try hook up all the other pads to the rack lol
Thanks for your input guys, much appre