Simple, Effective Mounted Tom Isolation (new or retro)
A quick test for effective tom mounting (skip ahead if you already do this). Take your properly tuned tom with NO muffling and strike the drum with a stick. Listen to the fundamental pitch, the overtones, the richness of the resonance and the length of sustain for both the fundamental pitch and the harmonic overtones.
Now remove the tom from the mount. Hold the tom with your fingers by the rim. Hold the drum in relatively the same position (relative to your ears and the bass drum or where ever it was mounted). If the resonance increases and the fundamental pitch is stronger and if the fundamental pitch sustains longer and stronger than the overtones, you might need isolation mounts. So many tuning problems (people might use moon gel to cover up the overtones when the overtones should support the fundamental pitch IMHO) arise from poor (rigid) mounting.
You may need to do the test more than once.
Good isolation mounts bring out the best in resonance because they allow the shell to vibrate independently of the mount/stand/rack. DW and a new Yamaha system are separating the mount from the shell with rubber.
So I went to my local Custom Cycle Builder and bought rubber mounts that are used in motorcycles. This is a link to the ones I purchased (about $12 for four of them). http://www.vtwinmfg.com/webapp/wcs/s...chTerm=28-0546
It is a rubber cylinder one inch in diameter and 3/4 inch thick. There is a machine screw protruding from each end, although they do not go all of the way through, hence they are "springy". (1/4" 20 thread count.) They are called ISO-Rubber Mounting Studs.
I mounted four of them to the tom shell and then connected the tom mount hardware to them. I did two toms. They sing as well mounted as they do when I hold the rim with my fingers. As good as any Gauger Rim Mount and I will have an easy time changing heads. You can add the iso studs to an old kit or a new one.
Given that this is just an experiment I can't say how they will hold up. The sheer rating for similar items is about 9 pounds (times 4). I have them in ny drum room but I will be gigging them this Saturday so I'll let you know how they sound next week.