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I have finally started my A-to-E conversion project and wanted to start documenting here. I ditched the Remo practice pad conversion (the pads are for sale right now over on Ebay if anyone is interested). Anyways, I would first like to give a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone here who has come before me. Everyone who has tried these things and has the balls to show their stuff here should be commended. It is inspiring even if one doesn’t use their exact designs. In my case, I deviated from the traditional cross-bar design and went with an all foam design, and a particularly HUGE thank you goes to Chris Jude (http://www.edrumming.com)for coming up with such a cool design. It really works and there is no sympathetic triggering.
Ok, so the details of the build…
My main goals when starting the A-to-E conversion were
(1.) A set that played (size and feel) and looked (ie. had bottom heads) as close to an acoustic set as possible. I was unsatisfied with the Remo set for these reasons.
(2.) A completely reversible set. Since I could only have one set, I really wanted to make a quiet practice set for home practice with the possibility of playing acoustically when jamming with others.
(3.) Something that was fairly easy to construct. I didn’t want to mess around with cutting metal and bolting stuff to the inside of my drums.
After reading practically every design and searching, I ran across Chris Jude’s design details over on the http://www.edrumming.com forum. (http://edrumming.com/forum/viewtopic...cb605ea6c6b81c)
His design really fulfilled all of my requirements and he claimed to have eliminated all sympathetic triggering as well (and by the way, his design really does, I can whack the crap out of the rim and side of the drum as well as other drums and no cross-talk what-so-ever.) I went with his basic design but used a few different elements as noted below.
Materials:
Drums: Source: www.ebay.com
Foam: Source: http://www.foamonline.com
Trigger Platform: Source: Walton Company (cork) and Home Depot (metal)
Sensor: Source: http://www.digikey.com
Sensor Coupling: Source: http://www.mcmaster.com
Heads: Source: http://www.music123.com
Hart Dynamics Magnum Kontrol Screen for the top, Evans acoustic for the bottom.
Filler Foam: Source: Michaels
To fill the void between the trigger platform and the top head and reduce some of the acoustic noise more and provide a more realistic feel, Chris’ design using poly-fil foam. For my build, I couldn’t find the stuff he used so I used Fairfield Soft Touch Poly-fil Supreme. It worked great.
I put everything together pretty much the same as Chris. I used foam glue to attach the Supreem foam trigger platform support to the base foam and then ran a bead of hot glue around the edge. I attached the trigger platform (cork coaster) to the foam using foam glue and hot glue around the edge. Instead of using epoxy to attach the blank cover, I just used Krazy Glue. I deviated slightly when attaching the piezo to the trigger platform. I wanted to be able to remove it when my crappy solder joints failed so I used a single disc of double sided foam tape just like in the cross-bar designed triggers. The DIY foam column (turd) was attached on top of the piezo using the adhesive already on the bottom of the foam sheet. I cut a small notch to allow the wires to come out. I put a small disc of the polyurethane foam on top of the column (as suggested in Chris’ design) which does two things: (1.) reduces the hot spot a lot and (2.) hides the dark spot a bit – in fact, just as Chris suggests, it kind-of gives the drum that used look. Finally, I filled the cavity with the poly-fil and closed it all off with a mesh head.
Oh yeah, I forgot, I made a little ¼” female jack pigtail to connect the electronics and used a terminal block inside the drum to connect to the piezo. (Actually, since it is a female jack shouldn’t it be called a jill instead?)
I have only completed the 12” tom so far but the results are amazing! I couldn’t be happier. I only had to make a few module adjustments to get it working to my satisfaction. A big thank you to Chris for showing me this design. I’ll post more pictures once I complete the other drums.
lidrummer
Ok, so the details of the build…
My main goals when starting the A-to-E conversion were
(1.) A set that played (size and feel) and looked (ie. had bottom heads) as close to an acoustic set as possible. I was unsatisfied with the Remo set for these reasons.
(2.) A completely reversible set. Since I could only have one set, I really wanted to make a quiet practice set for home practice with the possibility of playing acoustically when jamming with others.
(3.) Something that was fairly easy to construct. I didn’t want to mess around with cutting metal and bolting stuff to the inside of my drums.
After reading practically every design and searching, I ran across Chris Jude’s design details over on the http://www.edrumming.com forum. (http://edrumming.com/forum/viewtopic...cb605ea6c6b81c)
His design really fulfilled all of my requirements and he claimed to have eliminated all sympathetic triggering as well (and by the way, his design really does, I can whack the crap out of the rim and side of the drum as well as other drums and no cross-talk what-so-ever.) I went with his basic design but used a few different elements as noted below.
Materials:
Drums: Source: www.ebay.com
Pacific Chameleon 10x5, 12x6, and 14x7 toms; Pacific CX 14x5 snare. No bass drum yet but I have hardware from a Pacific bass drum and will most likely build an acoustic 16x10 mini-bass to match and use it to convert.
Foam: Source: http://www.foamonline.com
Two kinds of foam are used here: Polyurethane foam (med/soft) at the bottom of the drum which fills most of the drum and provides sound isolation; and Supreem (firm) which is used to support the trigger platform. As in Chris’s build, I had them cut out the centers to provide an air column directly under the piezo.
Trigger Platform: Source: Walton Company (cork) and Home Depot (metal)
The trigger platform is made using a 4.75” diameter (#5) Protectomat composite cork plant coaster (from the Walton Company) and an electrical box blank cover (from Home Depot). The box cover is a Red Dot (Part #RSSB-S341E), 4-1/8" diameter disc.
Sensor: Source: http://www.digikey.com
The sensor is the usual 35mm piezo element. I replaced the ridiculous wires with thicker ones. I got tired of breaking them by just looking at them.
Sensor Coupling: Source: http://www.mcmaster.com
Here is where I deviated from Chris’s design a bit. I didn’t want to splurge ($9) on the Pintech foam columns so I made my own using the usual foam most of you are using for your Roland knock-off cones. It is Quick Recovery Super Resiliant Foam Adhesive Back, 1/2" Thick, 12" X12", Very Soft, Black (Part #86375K144) cut into cylinders using a 2” diameter punch and pasted 4 together to form a column.
Heads: Source: http://www.music123.com
Hart Dynamics Magnum Kontrol Screen for the top, Evans acoustic for the bottom.
Filler Foam: Source: Michaels
To fill the void between the trigger platform and the top head and reduce some of the acoustic noise more and provide a more realistic feel, Chris’ design using poly-fil foam. For my build, I couldn’t find the stuff he used so I used Fairfield Soft Touch Poly-fil Supreme. It worked great.
I put everything together pretty much the same as Chris. I used foam glue to attach the Supreem foam trigger platform support to the base foam and then ran a bead of hot glue around the edge. I attached the trigger platform (cork coaster) to the foam using foam glue and hot glue around the edge. Instead of using epoxy to attach the blank cover, I just used Krazy Glue. I deviated slightly when attaching the piezo to the trigger platform. I wanted to be able to remove it when my crappy solder joints failed so I used a single disc of double sided foam tape just like in the cross-bar designed triggers. The DIY foam column (turd) was attached on top of the piezo using the adhesive already on the bottom of the foam sheet. I cut a small notch to allow the wires to come out. I put a small disc of the polyurethane foam on top of the column (as suggested in Chris’ design) which does two things: (1.) reduces the hot spot a lot and (2.) hides the dark spot a bit – in fact, just as Chris suggests, it kind-of gives the drum that used look. Finally, I filled the cavity with the poly-fil and closed it all off with a mesh head.
Oh yeah, I forgot, I made a little ¼” female jack pigtail to connect the electronics and used a terminal block inside the drum to connect to the piezo. (Actually, since it is a female jack shouldn’t it be called a jill instead?)
I have only completed the 12” tom so far but the results are amazing! I couldn’t be happier. I only had to make a few module adjustments to get it working to my satisfaction. A big thank you to Chris for showing me this design. I’ll post more pictures once I complete the other drums.
lidrummer
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