Yamaha YESS Mount


Junior Member
Recording Customs with 14" and 16" floor toms, YESS mounted... Sound great, everything's fine, but I'm curious if anyone with Yamahas has switched to another floor tom mounting system, and what the results were. Better sustain, less wobble, etc etc? New hardware fits in standard hard cases? It just seems like alot of weight for 2 bolts in the shell of the drum over time and would legs (via something like DynaMount) be worth looking in to. Or, leave it like it is and they'll be fine?
Many thanks



Platinum Member
First off, if you ever ever get tired of your RC's, I know of a good home for them =)

I have a hanging 14" and 16" as you do; my 16" came with YESS but my 14" is older and came with the old through-the-shell mount. I converted the 16" to a floor tom more out of my desire to not have to mount it to a stand than for stability (although I think that it very positively affected the drum's resonance). In my case I just drilled for the mounts, I didn't go in for a floor tom cradle. I'm seriously considering converting the 14", but as it's only 12" deep I will need to find some pretty long legs to get the drum as high as I like.

I don't think there's any pros or cons to having them mounted one way or the other, I went the way I did for flexibility's sake, but with your tom stand that's not necessarily an issue. You won't be losing anything by putting legs on them, and you kind of get a stand back to use for other things.

Big Foot

Silver Member
I put my hanging Oak Custom 14" FT on Yamaha FT legs and the sound was dramatically improved - less wobble yes, but better resonance from the shell.
I think the reason for the improved sound is because the Oaks are much heavier than the maple and/or birch drums of equal sizes. I figure the weight of the drum is putting to much tension on those 2 screws, stressing the the wood and killing the resonance.
Initially, my reasons for putting the legs on was because I prefer the legs (easier to position & I don't like the heavy 800 or 900 series stands needed to hold the tom, as good as they are..) but I was happy to find it made the drum sound better.


I had a choice between the two mounts when it came to purchasing my Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute set of drums about four years ago. After playing both kits it didn't take me very long to decide on the floor tom legs. The YESS mounts had the large toms bouncing all over the place compared to the floor toms with legs.


Duck Tape

Platinum Member
Floor toms feel solid, better for stick rebound. I can imagine more vibration from a hit would be directed into the drum rather than absorbed by a bouncy tom arm too. I know it's a rare thing but I had a hanging Tom arm snap and since then I don't like putting all that stress on a stand/Tom arm.