I've never posted on ebay before, but I imagine that's where I would have to put it...unless of course someone on here wanted it first. I'm going to mess around with the floor tom a bit, but I'm not sure it is practical to use considering the other Toms are 12" and 13".. it's a heavy SOB too!

Man what a great score! The info on the Pearl forum is pretty good. I would suggest starting by getting your batter head to produce the lowest pitch possible before it starts to become "flappy". I start with the batter as it is often a two ply head and they seem to require a bit more tension to begin to speak. In your case you may have a single ply batter from the looks of things, but it is hard to tell. Once you get the batter to the lowest possible pitch, make a note of that, flip the drum over (careful, it's huge!) and tune the resonant head to match.

As wavelengths get longer (lower pitches) they become more difficult to discern by ear and therefore it is more difficult to be precise. The good news is that the lower the pitch, the more forgiving so don't fret too much over hyper accuracy.

Once both heads are in tune play it and see what you think. From there you can experiment with raising the pitch of both heads in unison and see what you think. Also try raising just the resonant side head (try a minor third higher than the batter as a starting point) and see what you think. This often decreases sustain and increases punch. You can also try raising the batter head above te reso.

Once you do that, you will have pretty much discovered everything that drum will do with that head combination. Odds are, once you get it tuned to the initial lowest pitch you'll say "to heck with it, I am just going to play this seriously cool drum!"

Good info tnsquint! I like your style!

Those old heads on it sound like paper. I'm going to try some different heads on it and see if that makes it better.

Don't know why, but clear is my fav vistalite color (?). What a friggin' steal! I'll give you $350.00. D A M N IT!! That's good shopping.

B

PS - Why would you tune a 20" floor tom? If anything, get a candle for it. It's an end table!

That's an idea! To my wife: "Honey I was thinking of you! I bought you some new furniture!"

Really nice score on the drums there! I would think twice before selling the 20" floor tom with it being so rare and all. And Im like you, ebay is a pain and I dont sell on it either. But then again, I have this problem with selling any of my stuff so I guess its time to stop buying.

Again, nice find!

Jeff C

thanks Jeff!

Yea, i have bought things off of ebay but never sold. I may just hold onto it for a bit and see what I think later. I may start looking for a 16x16 in the meantime. Ive got time to be patient for the right drum. The drums came in cases so for the time being, I'm going to find a place to stack in the room.

You've got an "Ace in the Hole", so to speak here.....

A great bargaining chip/asset to have on hand for a future deal.

Since you have the time and patience (a real luxury), I'd wait, too, as you have said for the right drum for you to appear and see what you could work out at that time.

Christmas is a very low-end period of time, price-wise, to sell drums on eBay. Great time to buy; crappy time to sell.

I'd call your attention to a very nice antique child's drum set from one of our members that sold for a glaringly low price just a few days ago...... a real shame, really.

And regardless of the season, eBay and PayPal will clip you of 10 to 15%, give or take, of your selling price plus shipping charge depending on how you list it and how you get paid.

Just my two cents here....... :)

Ha, haaaa!! You think she'll appreciate it? Happy Wife = Happy Life!

B

Justin,

Good tuning advice from tnsquint. I approached tuning my 20" Rogers FT as if it were a 20" bass drum... batter head pitched about a third above the reso head. Nice tone using a pinstrip on the batter with a clear reso head.

It may be tempting to sell that big boy for big bucks, but you'll regret it... maybe not today or tomorrow, but someday soon. You'll forever be telling the tale of when, "I use to have one of those super rare, 20" clear vistalite floor toms that matched my set". You'll probably never stumble on one again.

Mike C.