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I'm onto experimenting with my cymbals. Nothing has been screwed down and I'm only using 3M foam tape for now so I can easily undo whatever I've done. My cymbals in general work well using this method. However, my hihat is having some serious issues.
The hat is a cheap 14" Groove Percussions set on a cheap Groove Percussions 3 legged double-braced hihat stand. Pretty basic and not a lot to adjust. Bottom hat just sits on the stand with nothing to hold it down and nothing to adust. Top hat has a threaded insert that screws on and sandwiches the hat between two felt washers, and of course has the set screw to position the hat on the actuating rod. Excuse my lack of proper drum terms if I'm missing any.
Both the top and bottom hat currently (and forever more) have Killer Red and PVC sheeting. This dampens the audible cymbal noise but apparently not the top hat vibrations enough.
To support a 2-zone bell and bow I have two 40mm eBay piezos adherered to the bottom side of the top hat with 2 layers of 1" 3M foam tape stuck to the brass side of the piezo with the ceramic facing away from the struck surface. Small piece of velcro to hold the wiring still. And hard wired to a TRS jack which is drilled and mounted to the bottom hat. Hard wired was just quick-and-dirty but is certainly annoying as you have to remove both hats at the same time less you yank the wires. Wouldn't be so bad if I used longer wires so I could remove just the top without having to also remove the bottom. Anyway...
* When the hat is fully closed, I get a single trigger with a single hit.
* When the hat is open I get a nice single trigger with a single hit followed by continued lighter triggers as the hat vibrates. I'd describe it as "shimmering".
Things that rectify the issue:
* If I lightly hold (very lightly choke) the top hat at all it works perfectly.
* If I lightly press on the ceramic part of the piezo it all works perfectly.
* Of course I can tweak the module (Alesis D4 for now) out to remove this but that kills the entire cymbal playability. But I'm just noting that it's possible.
So I'm assuming I simply need to adhere the piezo to the cymbal "better" so it isn't so sensitive, or to dampen the vibrations more.
Suggestions as to what that would be? Bigger tape so the brass doesn't hang over so much? Don't use foam tape and Killer Red the entire piezo surface to the cymbal? The latter isn't easily tested as I'll never get the tape off again. Foam tape ceramic side to the cymbal? Just glue the damn thing on and don't use tape at all? Just move the piezo further from the edge (which I stupidly haven't tried before writing this big ass post)?
Pictures, as usual. Note the top hat is upside down, which is done simply to facilitate me poking and prodding and exploring during this troubleshooting phase. Since I didn't use long enough wiring I had to undo the wires from the velcro in order for the wire to go around the top hat and down the to TRS on the bottom hat.
The hat is a cheap 14" Groove Percussions set on a cheap Groove Percussions 3 legged double-braced hihat stand. Pretty basic and not a lot to adjust. Bottom hat just sits on the stand with nothing to hold it down and nothing to adust. Top hat has a threaded insert that screws on and sandwiches the hat between two felt washers, and of course has the set screw to position the hat on the actuating rod. Excuse my lack of proper drum terms if I'm missing any.
Both the top and bottom hat currently (and forever more) have Killer Red and PVC sheeting. This dampens the audible cymbal noise but apparently not the top hat vibrations enough.
To support a 2-zone bell and bow I have two 40mm eBay piezos adherered to the bottom side of the top hat with 2 layers of 1" 3M foam tape stuck to the brass side of the piezo with the ceramic facing away from the struck surface. Small piece of velcro to hold the wiring still. And hard wired to a TRS jack which is drilled and mounted to the bottom hat. Hard wired was just quick-and-dirty but is certainly annoying as you have to remove both hats at the same time less you yank the wires. Wouldn't be so bad if I used longer wires so I could remove just the top without having to also remove the bottom. Anyway...
* When the hat is fully closed, I get a single trigger with a single hit.
* When the hat is open I get a nice single trigger with a single hit followed by continued lighter triggers as the hat vibrates. I'd describe it as "shimmering".
Things that rectify the issue:
* If I lightly hold (very lightly choke) the top hat at all it works perfectly.
* If I lightly press on the ceramic part of the piezo it all works perfectly.
* Of course I can tweak the module (Alesis D4 for now) out to remove this but that kills the entire cymbal playability. But I'm just noting that it's possible.
So I'm assuming I simply need to adhere the piezo to the cymbal "better" so it isn't so sensitive, or to dampen the vibrations more.
Suggestions as to what that would be? Bigger tape so the brass doesn't hang over so much? Don't use foam tape and Killer Red the entire piezo surface to the cymbal? The latter isn't easily tested as I'll never get the tape off again.
Foam tape ceramic side to the cymbal? Just glue the damn thing on and don't use tape at all? Just move the piezo further from the edge (which I stupidly haven't tried before writing this big ass post)?Pictures, as usual. Note the top hat is upside down, which is done simply to facilitate me poking and prodding and exploring during this troubleshooting phase. Since I didn't use long enough wiring I had to undo the wires from the velcro in order for the wire to go around the top hat and down the to TRS on the bottom hat.
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