Hello,

Other than to keep costs down, does anyone know why Custom Classic/Sigler would choose to utilize those God awful Pearl style 7/8" tom mounts, with no suspension mounts? Those kits look sooooo nice, and then you've got a big ol' hole and ugly bracket mounted right on the shell. The hybrids and the PBJ's have suspension mounts. Again, I'm sure it's to keep costs down, but if you are going to mount a bracket directly to the shell, why not an "L-arm" type bracket, that would only leave two small holes if you ever wanted to add a suspension mount in the future? You could obviously cover the old holes with the plate part of the suspension mount, but you've still got about a 1" hole (and three smaller ones) on the drum. I would think, especially on smaller toms, that would have to affect the sound.

Just curious if anyone knows why they chose to do it that way? Everything on all the Custom Classic drums seems very polished and "pro", except these Pearl style arms and mounts, which just scream "cheap", "low budget" and "generic".

Yeah, I agree. I would expect to see that mounting style on beginning level drum sets. Maybe that's what they did at first then received some feedback, or the designers decided that that was a mistake and realized that suspension mounts are the better design. Cause they look just like the Hybrids except for the tom mounting design. The price difference suggests the difference, although it's not much of a difference. I wonder what the sales figures are for those kits. Maybe they were created to fill a nitsch that didn't really materialize.

As to the reasoning for the CC designers to choose this style mount that is arguably one of the worst in the history of drum manufacturing.. I am not sure. I don't think that they were released to create a "nitsch". I think that maybe CC's production facility in China had some 6 ply birch shells in stock in standard depths that were being offered at a discount. CC scooped them up, picked out the turret lugs, finishes and edge cuts and packed them up. I have spoken to Steve (Lane) on this and they are in agreement that this was not the wisest of moves for the brand. They are currently sitting on a full array of colors with a healthy inventory. The 7 pc. offering of these kits sold out FAST and folks were raving at the quality and tone from these kits. I think there is more to the perceived inadequacy of this design than actual inefficacy.

I agree that there are better designs, but back in the late 1970s ~ early 1980s when Pearl intro'd this mounting, it became a sort of standard. I owned a Pearl World series kit from 1986 and an "M" series kit from 1983 that had these mounts.. let me tell you those kits sounded phenomenal! That said. It is 2010 - 2011 for crum sake! At the very least, CC should have gone with the "L" rod style if the now status quo suspension mount was intentionally omitted.

Have no fear though. New for 2011 the pro Birch kits will be outfitted with suspension mounts ala PBJ / PBH.
There is no word on when this will happen, but it will. We may also be seeing some additional finish options as well.

Thanks for the info, pearly. You da man!

I like everything else about those Pro Birch 5/7 piece kits. I like the Camco style lugs (notice I didn't say DW! ha ha......).

Hey pearly, do you know if they plan on using the same bass drum mount as the PBJ, except have a dual L-arm instead of a single? To me that would make sense, less differnt items to produce/buy. Also, with the Hybrids, they come with two single L-arms and multi-clamps. They could use these same clamps and L-arm mounts for the 7 piece to mount the 8" tom. Again, it makes business sense, with less to produce/buy.

I'm looking forward to seeing the new Hybrid Sparkle fade finishes! I've always been a sucker for sparkle finishes, and to have them be lacquered (as opposed to wrapped) is pretty freakin' sweet!