Mark - those things are based on Bob Gatzen's original design. According to an article I read, Gatzen designed the thing with ergonomics as the central focus. I've never even seen one in-person, but I'd love to take one for a test drive. Because of the angle it is supposed to make playing easier on the hands and the feet. The angle of the unit affects the rebound of the sticks and the bass pedal on the heads. Because you're tilted back, a lot of the physical stress is minimized, spread out over a larger area. Not concentrated at the base of the spine as in a 'normal' seating situation. I think those units are fascinating and I'd love to try one out. Although, if I fell in love with it, I probably couldn't afford it! I think they retail for $5 grand.

John

Here's a link to the company page. Stripped of drums, it looks like a dentists office! lol

http://drumframe.com/index_products.html

Next time I go in for a routine dental cleaning, I'm taking some rack toms along so I can hang them and play them from the dentists chair while they work on me!

John

I looked at a kit that was complete with one of these contraptions. It looks cool, but I know it would never fit into my Versa!!! Furthermore, they look to be pretty static as far as set-ups go. I just thought the kit looked cool, but it was waaaaaay out of my price range (can't remember which Pearl kit it was, but the kit with this frame thingy was somewhere around $7K). Somewhere on the website it says you can order a left hand version, which leads me to believe my suspicions were correct as far as a static set up...

While I am certain there are people who love them, I am certain there are equal number of detractors. Considering that you could probably buy at least a couple fully pimped-out Gibraltar racks for the price of one drum frame, I am certain cost is one hugely contributing factor in why they are not popular.