S-Hoops

[YamahaPlayer]

I've been using S-Hoops on the tops and bottoms of my toms for a couple of months now. I went to these from die cast hoops and they opened up the sound of the drums about a country mile.

That's simply because die-cast hoops weigh a TON. Not sure why you put them on the bottoms (or even on toms for that matter?), you could have got even lighter flanged rims of some kind for half the price, and would experience even more openness.

That's partly why I never understood the use of die-cast rims in the first place, why would you(the manufacturers) use isolation mounting on a tom, then weigh it down with literally pounds of steel. Seems like contradictory effects to me.

[perksworks]

I've been using S-Hoops on the tops and bottoms of my toms for a couple of months now. I went to these from die cast hoops and they opened up the sound of the drums about a country mile.

That's simply because die-cast hoops weigh a TON. Not sure why you put them on the bottoms (or even on toms for that matter?), you could have got even lighter flanged rims of some kind for half the price, and would experience even more openness.

That's partly why I never understood the use of die-cast rims in the first place, why would you(the manufacturers) use isolation mounting on a tom, then weigh it down with literally pounds of steel. Seems like contradictory effects to me.

I put them on the toms because die-cast hoops were choking the drums and these were lighter than die cast and in my experience much stronger than triple flanged. I compared these to triple flange on my tour kit and the S-hoops opened up the drums considerably more. Also, one thing I don't think has been mentioned is that these things hold tunings very very well. They are quite strong and one is much less likely to play something out of tune with them. (At least for me.) I'll knock a set of triple flanged hoops out of tune after the first 5 songs of the show, and I am very meticulous about tuning. I was actually searching for yamaha's aluminum die cast hoops when I came across these. I couldn't source a full set of the yammy's so I gave these a try and very happy with them.

Price should not be an issue in the pursuit of a sound that you love. Or I should say, it would be nice if this type of price differential was not an issue for any of us in the pursuit of a sound.

[YamahaPlayer]

True enough!

I'll knock a set of triple flanged hoops out of tune after the first 5 songs of the show, and I am very meticulous about tuning.

I've got so used to that, have drum keys all around and have to tweak (the batter) heads constantly. No matter what rim I've tried.

The lug closest to me tends to loosen up, I don't rimshot toms, though my technique has gone through many changes and I'm putting a lot of energy into the sticks now. I believe it's the heads simply pulling from a combination of the tom angle and attack angle.
The bottoms stay fine, which makes me think it's a impact issue.

But I get comments on my drum sound at almost every gig, so it's something I've learned to live with. I've looked into various lug lock devices but haven't gotten around to trying them, as I would rather play or practice... or buy another K.