Mesh kick - plus cowbells

[allanjohn]

I picked up a used Gibraltar practice kick pad and after some thought, liberated the base plate to use with a 13" DIY drum - and now I have a new kick.
What I used:
13" tom, cut in half
DIY mesh head - fine irrigation pipe with two layers of insect mesh
Crossbar with 27mm piezo and a circular foam column, about the height of a Roland cone - mounted off-centre
Two bass drum spurs
A bit of curtain rod mounted on the Gib base plate through the original tom block
and it all seems to work...

Also thought I'd show off the latest e-cowbells. One is a pastic LP tone block, wrapped in gaffer tape to deaden the stick noise, the squarish one is a moist-towel container, also decked in gaffer tape. I'm now on my fourth generation. Tried paint-roller, sapling punnet and various canisters. The tone block is great because it comes with a mount, but it's very hard to work out where to drill for the jack - so mine has some extra ventilation!!! The next one will be perfect!!!

[M_C_M]

Nice work Allan. The kick is almost the same as the 13" one I built. I fabricated my own base out of flat bar, as I am a welder, and bent some round bar for legs using floor tom mounts to attach them. Are you going to put a patch on the head? I started to wear through mine pretty quickly so I sewed a piece of felt type material to it...

[allanjohn]

Thanks for that. I'd love to see your handiwork - especially the base and the patch. I've seen some comments about the mesh wearing - and I should probably do something about it!
I wish I had some metalwork skills as my mounting solution was not ideal - but I made the most of what I had at hand.
I'm probably going to put the other head on - once I've found a cheap substitute for lugs - probably some small L brackets.

[SuperPuss]

Nice work AJ.

I think my kit is in need of a decent sized kick too. The KD8 looks a little small now that the rest has somewhat expanded.

[M_C_M]

Here's a few pics of my kick, very similar to yours. It started life as a 13" pearl export tom. The mesh head came from ufo drums in the US (safe to buy from) along with a few Roland style cones. I used a 27mm piezo and mounted it off center to the top, you can sort of see it, and its stuck to a piece of broom handle which I cut as a spacer to give the right height off the cross member. You can see how I made the base its bolted straight through the shell and tilts the drum back so the beaters hit the head at a comfortable angle. The patch was cut from a sheet of thick cotton packing material. I tried sticking it on but it made a flappy sound so I sewed it to the head and its very quiet. I've been looking for some white wrap to cover it to match the rest of the kit...