more DIY questions

[vdrummer20]

Anyone ever use an acoustic trigger like this on a DIY? Instead of a cone and a bar running inside the DIY drum, could you simply place this on the head? No rim shot, and I am not sure if it is as effective. ...

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Pintech-Acoustic-Drum-Trigger-100103045-i1138287.gc

Also, anyone have experience with this:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Pintech-Trigger-Cymbal-444886-i1138284.gc

They seem cheap enough for a cymbal if choke capability is a non issue.

THX

[vjboc]

Anyone ever use an acoustic trigger like this on a DIY? Instead of a cone and a bar running inside the DIY drum, could you simply place this on the head? No rim shot, and I am not sure if it is as effective. ...

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Pintech-Acoustic-Drum-Trigger-100103045-i1138287.gc

Also, anyone have experience with this:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Pintech-Trigger-Cymbal-444886-i1138284.gc

They seem cheap enough for a cymbal if choke capability is a non issue.

THX

I never tried the trigger. Are you using mesh or acoustic heads? For mesh I would still consider doing the crossbar. Even if you spent the $16 on the roland cone you could still build them as cheap as that trigger. And cross bar works great.

I used the pintech practice cymbals , But I installed my own triggers.

For a few dollars more you could get the Roland cy 8 (I believe are 2 zone and has choke)

Let us know what end up doing

Vinny

[vdrummer20]

I did not know you could buy the cone from them. I was thinking about that ... Looking at this page

http://www.electronicdrums.com/pads/pads2.htm

They don't use a cone. I saw some DIY cones and it looks beyond my skill level (a peanut butter sandwich seems beyond my skill level at times). I was thinking of using mesh heads on acoustic drums, but placing the piezo on a thin metal plate below some rubber and the mesh head. I don't know why the cone is critical or how well I would be able to place this against the head.

[lidrummer]

vdrummer20,

I was thinking of using mesh heads on acoustic drums, but placing the piezo on a thin metal plate below some rubber and the mesh head. I don't know why the cone is critical or how well I would be able to place this against the head.

The platform/cone design is not critical. It is just one of many different designs out there and happens to be the most popular (at least on this forum) since it mimics the Roland design very closely and a lot of people on here are using Roland modules.

However, there are other (and possibly easier to construct) options. I built a design very similar to Chris Jude's design which uses a mesh head and mostly foam and a rigid platform. You can see my post here: http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40653

and Chris' here: http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38888

It was a little harder than constructing a peanut butter sandwich...but not much. By the way, it works fantastically with a Roland module (I have the TD-3)...no crossbar, no cone, no bolts, etc.

Hope this helps,
Dan

[John F]

I was thinking of using mesh heads on acoustic drums, but placing the piezo on a thin metal plate below some rubber and the mesh head. I don't know why the cone is critical or how well I would be able to place this against the head.

As a couple others have said, the crossbar/cone seems to be real popular on this forum. I recently completed an A to E conversion using reflection plate triggers and I'm happy with how the drums trigger, even my 16" floor tom works very well. I basically made a "sandwich on a plate". The top layer is 1" foam, the middle is an aluminum disk, 0.025" thick with a 35 mm DigiKey piezo epoxied to it (brass side glued to the aluminum), and the bottom is 2" foam. Kinda looks like a hamburger with a pickle sandwiched between the top and bottom of the bun. It sits on a "plate" cut from 5/16" plywood. The top of the sandwich sticks up maybe 1/8" - 1/4" above the bearing edge of the drum so that the mesh head compresses it just a bit. Like I said, I'm pleased with it, good sensitivity, buzz rolls are not a problem. I'm attaching a top view of my kit showing the snare and 3 toms and a mechanical drawing I made of the trigger and foam assembly.

[uglybassplayer]

As a couple others have said, the crossbar/cone seems to be real popular on this forum. I recently completed an A to E conversion using reflection plate triggers and I'm happy with how the drums trigger, even my 16" floor tom works very well. I basically made a "sandwich on a plate". The top layer is 1" foam, the middle is an aluminum disk, 0.025" thick with a 35 mm DigiKey piezo epoxied to it (brass side glued to the aluminum), and the bottom is 2" foam. Kinda looks like a hamburger with a pickle sandwiched between the top and bottom of the bun. It sits on a "plate" cut from 5/16" plywood. The top of the sandwich sticks up maybe 1/8" - 1/4" above the bearing edge of the drum so that the mesh head compresses it just a bit. Like I said, I'm pleased with it, good sensitivity, buzz rolls are not a problem. I'm attaching a top view of my kit showing the snare and 3 toms and a mechanical drawing I made of the trigger and foam assembly.

Great job John! Can you give some insight as to why you went with the reflection plate method as opposed to the crossbar/cone or crossbar/cylinder? It looks like it took at least as much work and materials.

- Ugly.

[John F]

Great job John! Can you give some insight as to why you went with the reflection plate method as opposed to the crossbar/cone or crossbar/cylinder? It looks like it took at least as much work and materials.

- Ugly.

I guess I just march to the beat of a differnt drummer (sorry). I had read a lot of posts about hot spots, trigger problems, making the cone/crossbar work on large (16") drums, etc., so decided that I could make a trigger that would have minimal issues with hot spots and trigger well over a large daimeter by using a reflection plate. It wasn't really that much trouble after I figured out what I was going to do, just involved cutting lots of circles!

[vdrummer20]

Thanks guys. What kind of foam?

[vdrummer20]

lidrummer - great , nice job. Thank you for the info.

[vjboc]

You did a nice job on them. How does the foam under the mesh head feel? How is the playability?

Vinny

[Guest]

That looks great and I like how you didn't use the standard cross bar and cone. It reminds me a lot of the Yamaha RHP eDrums. Here's a link I found that shows you the inside of the RHP. (It is a lot like yours).

http://www.wastingwebspace.com/Html%...aDrumsPage.htm

[John F]

You did a nice job on them. How does the foam under the mesh head feel? How is the playability?

Vinny

Thanks for the kind feedback. It feels a lot more like a real head than the mesh head alone. I think the mesh head by itself has excessive rebound and plays very "fast" compared to a real head, if you know what I mean. The foam takes away a lot of that really fast rebound and feels much better to me. Playability is very good. Rolls are easy and very controllable. Buzz rolls are no problem. So far I'm happy.

[John F]

That looks great and I like how you didn't use the standard cross bar and cone. It reminds me a lot of the Yamaha RHP eDrums. Here's a link I found that shows you the inside of the RHP. (It is a lot like yours).

http://www.wastingwebspace.com/Html%...aDrumsPage.htm

Thanks for sharing that link. Yes, that looks very much like what I've got. The only real difference is the thickness of my foam (I bought sizes to fill the space I had), and both my top foam and bottom foam are the same material because that's all the upholstery shop had.

[John F]

Thanks guys. What kind of foam?

I don't have any technical specs on it. It's foam used for re-upholstering furniture. It's white. Sorry I can't describe it any better. I bought one piece each of 1" thickness and 2" thickness about 2' x 4' in size, the total came to about $14.