I believe those were made for Gretsch by W & A and I have also noticed that there are two different sized uprights but don't know if there was a particular criteria that determined which upright came on which drum. That's even assuming they were available at the same time, they might be from different time periods with one size replacing the other at some point. I suppose a logical assumption would be that larger diameter bass drums would get the shorter unit to keep the tom lower...but that's just a guess.

Most of the other manufacturers used these same consolette parts at some point before coming up with their own designs for tom mounts and they all seemed to use the taller version of the upright. I've only ever seen the short one on Gretsch sets.

So many of the rail consolettes were installed by the selling dealer that finding a definitive answer to the question is likely to be impossible. There were shorter and longer spades, short L-arms, diamond plate spade receivers or tom leg receivers for short L-arm, shorter and longer riser bars, ratchet or phone dial tilters, two or four bolt mounting plates, shorter or longer rails (the bananas), chrome or nickel plated metal, differing nuts and bolts, and probably other differences that can be found on vintage drums. It was a toss up as to what you would get if you ordered a drum set with a rail consolette.

I'm gonna take a guess here and say that the older drums with consolettes had shorter mounting arms and they got taller over time. I only say this because the ones I have on my '53 Leedy & Ludwig and on my '57 Slingerland kits are the shorter types. I had another '60's Ludwig kit and it had a taller arm. Not sure if it translates to Gretsch or not, but just my :2Cents:. As they other two fellas have pointed out...not sure you can go wrong.

I just checked all my gretsch bass drums, 8 of them sizes 18 inch to 24 inch from the early 50s up to 67, and they all have the small one. I think that 70s 4 point rails are long. But I think they're a slightly different design. Id like to know this also

Being very familiar with Slingerland drums from the mid-60's on, I also noticed the height difference with the rail clamp arm. From a Slingerland perspective, they used the longer clamp arm on 18" and 20" bass drums to get the tom at a comfortable playing height. The shorter clamp was used on bass drums 22" and larger. You can clearly see this in all Slingerland's 60's catalogs.

Mark

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! At least I know my eyes are not deceiving me, and my hunch was correct. I'm having trouble getting my tom at a comfortable height. I didn't realize how high I actually sat and positioned everything until I started using the mount. It's not awful, but the high tom is definitely a bit lower than I'd like, and my throne can't get any lower. Maybe I'll hunt for a longer spade. Are there any home-made tricks to getting a additional height?

A longer spade and a taller riser assembly can get the tom high enough off the bass drum for a very tall person. Also, if your tom holder is hoop mounted, move it up higher on the hoop. there's nothing to stop you from moving the clamp to the center of the hoop, and tilt it out to the left side (if you're a rightie).

Here's a close-up shot of Larry Bunker's longer mount. Does anyone know if this is a Gretsch factory mount--or why some were longer?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ermXZqRxaqA/UqzqruiAPOI/AAAAAAAAmfc/bP7fHixNNFs/s1600/Larry+Bunker+-+Woody+Woodward+001.jpg

Almost all Gretsch sets came with the shorter version. I've only had three kits with the taller ones, and they were all from the mid-'60s.