Mounting your rack toms: What to know before your kit arrives

Dialtune kits are shipping

And before yours lands at your door, there's one decision worth thinking through: how are you planning to mount your rack toms?

Both the 10" and 12" toms come pre-fitted with a receiving mount on the drum shell. That mount is designed to accept any standard post-style L-arm bracket, or you can go the basket carry route using a conventional snare/tom stand. Either works. It really comes down to the hardware you already have and how you prefer your kit positioned.

But here's where Dialtune is a little different from what you're used to.

On a traditional drum, lug placement is fixed around the shell and tuning happens from wherever the tension rods happen to land. You don't think much about where your hardware sits relative to your playing position. With Dialtune, that changes. Because both the top and bottom head tuning dials on your rack toms sit side by side. That means where your mount is positioned directly determines where your dials end up facing.

If your 12" tom is sitting in rack position 1, the dials may be angled away from you. Move it to rack position 2, and they're right in front of you. That's the kind of access that makes dialing in your sound mid-session actually practical — but only if you've thought about it ahead of time.

The good news: you're not locked in. On both the 10" and 12", the tom mount and badge are fully swappable; you can move the mount to the opposite side of the drum to put your dials exactly where you want them.

To do that, you'll need:

• A 4mm Allen key for the bolts on the tom mount
• A 3mm Allen key for the badge bolt
• A small adjustable wrench to hold the nut steady while you turn the badge bolt

It's a straightforward swap once you have the right tools on hand.

And if you'd rather basket mount your toms entirely, we've got you covered there too. Each kit includes an additional badge and the hardware needed to replace the tom mount, tucked into the poly bag that ships with your kit.

However you choose to set up, we want you ready to play the moment your kit is in your hands. Think through your mounting preference now, grab the right tools, and you'll be dialed in before the first note.