Mounting 2box drums without a rack - including kick! Solution!

[joeysculla]

Hi forumers, 

Just thought I'd share a solution to using the 2box without using a rack - including a heretofore elusive solution for the kick mount.

As much as I love the 2box brain and drum/cym triggers I really dislike the stock rack that ships with the 2box mkII. It's ungainly, has fiddly clampls and fittings and not at all road-ready. I know a lot of people say that it is sturdy and it is - if you are happy to set it up once and never move it. Like ever!

I've been gigging with the 2box for over 2 years now and it has been great. But at New Years Eve 14/15 I took my 2box fully packed down in road cases on a ferry across to an island and played a midnight New Year set in the middle of a forest and in the dark. The rack was heavy to carry and a nightmare to assemble and packdown in the dark for all the above reasons. I saw in the New Year doing up lugs on the interminable kick mount. Gah! NEVER AGAIN!! 

So this was a turning point. I considered buying a pro Gibraltar rack so there were less fiddly parts, but I didn't want to lugging around the weight of all that hardware particularly for interstate trips. So I experimented using regular acoustic drum hardware. But the problem was the kick - what to do? A lot of 2box forumers have complained about the movement you get with the kick trigger on the rack, so how was I going to remedy this without the rack?

The solution: I butchered the bottom part of a heavy duty Gibraltar snare stand to make it shorter (used an angle grinder) and keeping the black metal kick mount I managed to figure out the right height. Then foldeded the snare basket forward and the - voila - a 2box kick mount. The kick is pretty solid even with double pedal playing. Still bounces around a bit, but no more than the stock rack setup. When used on a mat it doesn't move an inch even with hard playing.

As for the rest of the kit I've used snare stands for floor toms and cymbal stands with cowbell mounts. For rack toms I used a standard dual mount stand that is usually used for toms or other percussion. I replaced the ball-and-mount with the hexagonal 2box ball-and-mounts. Fitted perfectly.

The whole kit packs down into 2 small 14" snare cases and a compact traps case. About to take it on an interstate gig on the weekend.

All packs down much more neatly, is MUCH lighter and way quicker to set up from scratch. Like 5 mins verses 45 mins.

Pics below and comments welcome.

[InTheBox]

Yup.. been down that road myself. With a slightly different twist to the kick-pad mounting.

http://www.2box-forum.com/index.php/topic,2524.0.html

I feel the kit plays much better on stands, never liked the rack.

How sturdy is your kick mount? I would imagine it would rotate a bit during playing, or are you able to tighten it down enough  so it doesn't?

[joeysculla]

Nice work on your version!

No the kick doesn't rotate during playing it's all pretty tight. I think the biggest advantage is having a heavy kick pedal - the Iron Cobra is a beast and so it helps to hold the whole thing down. Not getting any slippiage either as long as I'm playing on a mat.

Only compaint it that the pad still wobbles a bit. But no more than it did on the stock rack.

[Jman]

You guys have come up with some pretty cool kick mount ideas! ........... but stop using my name, calling them jerry-rigs!

[joeysculla]

You guys have come up with some pretty cool kick mount ideas! ........... but stop using my name, calling them jerry-rigs!

Ha ha h!