House of Drumming.com

I searched previous threads and couldn't find much info on the topic - so if it has been discussed, my apologies.

I have a Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute Noveau kit. Sizes: 7x10, 12x8, 14x14, 22x18.

The kit was purchased in mid-2009 and I became frustrated with it for many reasons and basically was intent on selling it. Well the economy was/is in a slump and I could not get the $$$$ I wanted for a sale. So there the kit sat, in the original boxes, in my kitchen....until a few weeks ago.

In an attempt to salvage my investment and get some usage out of these beautiful instruments; I took the 10" tom out, put a fresh coated Amb on top and a clear Amb on bottom, held the drum by the rim and gave it a whack....holy shit!!! It had tone, resonance, sustain, whatever it was...it had "it."

I put the tom on the on the bass drum, via the "triple tree," or whatever it is called that allows you to mount the toms to the kick, and half of the tom's "mojo" disappeared. I tried to place it at different spots along the hex rod's length, trying to find a sweet spot that would allow the drum to resonate like it did when I held it up with my hands. Not too much luck there. Also tried to loosen the YESS mount a little, thinking perhaps the mount was so tight that it was choking off the drum. Didn't make a difference.

I know there a lot of Yamaha fellas here so I'm putting this out there....

A. Is anyone else dissatisfied with the YESS mounting system?
B. If yes, does anyone know how to make them perform better?
C. Has anyone attempted any modifications to them, i.e. rubber bushings or washers, to enhance shell isolation from the mounting hardware?
D. Did anyone just give up and use them as is or switch them out for RIMS style mounts?

Sorry for the long post, but I know I will get some good responses here.

Thanks in advance, Joe

anytime you hold a drum by the rim in the middle of space with your hand it'll sound better then on it's mounts

i've never had a problem with it on any of my yamaha kits, and comparatively they blow others out of the water, like RIMS - which are large, bulky, heavy, etc
though i do like the newer YESS system

mounting off the kick, there's some who love it, some who hate it, i personally prefer having the toms off stands or a rack and feel that they do their thing better

I tried using RIMS on a Maple Custom that had YESS mounts. The Yamaha lugs are placed at the nodal point and as a result, there's not really enough room for the RIMS mount to wiggle on the smaller rack toms. Didn't sound any better either and I went back to the YESS mounts which are now my favorite. I've never had a problem with a well tuned tom however one thing I recommend is do your final tuning *on the mount.* Don't tune it perfectly in your lap, then mount it.

good luck.

Been here. Check into this zoo if you have the popcorn:

http://www.pearldrummersforum.com/showt ... ESS-mounts

I own the pre and post YESS drums, and there's a difference, but I always lose a little when mounting one up vs holding a drum by the rim or even the mount. Some guys cut the arms so just the end passes through the mount. That was big in the pre YESS days. I didn't bother doing it because the drums usually tuned up good. I did put 13" and 14" drums on a RIMS mount to use in place of floors and they really opened up. But then the FOH guy is howling about ring ... you can't win.

I have not tried the new YESS system, but having played yamaha drums with both mounts, i can say that i really like the YESS mounts. My 10 year old Birch Vintage sound fantastic no matter what I mount them on. I will add though that when i was purchasing the Yamahas 10 years ago, it was my first foire into pro level equiptment, before that i had a Power V set. I tried both the Birch and the Maple absolutes, much to the dismay of the music store employee(gotta love those 30 day no questions asked return policies) and found that the Maple Absolutes didnt seem right to me. They never have. The older 7-ply non-Absolutes are bad-ass though.

I've had no problem with the YESS but I've experienced that whatever attaching hardware you use for it (BD mount, clamp, etc) can overly affect the sound of your toms. A rack would be a nice solution to even the tom sounds but I've been able to do it through some experimentation with hardware positions.

I have three kits, maple custom and birch custom NV that both use a center post and a PHX that uses the "virgin" system so there is no hole at all. The drum will always sing more when it is held by the hoop as the drum will resonate more freely. With just that little bit of pressure off the shell it give it alot more tone.

Rims will put a little bit more tension on the lugs and raise the pitch ever so slightly, my old Pearl BLX has RIMS mounts and I loathed them as they would let the drums resonate but cause mounting and tununf issues. YESS for me works very well and on the PHX it's a great system, might pay to look and make sure the tom mount is not hard up on the shell as well.

Hey guys!!!

I ended up taking off the memory locks, and raising the tom arm so that it wasn't "bottoming out" on the triple tree (tom holder). I raised it so that 3/4 of the arm is above the clamp. On a scale of 0 - 100, where 0 is totally choked and 100 is how the tom sounds when I strike it while holding it by the rim, I would rate the resonance/sustain somewhere around a 75. Tremendous improvement...I'm happy anyway.

Thanks for all the advice!

-Joe