Acoustic/Electronic Combo Kick?

[thebaron]

If I had a DIY conversion acoustic kick drum could I put an acoustic head on it and play it acoustically while still plugging it into the TD20? I was thinking I'd use my acoustic set at gigs but have the kick plugged in and triggered instead of micing it.
Will it track ok through a real head? Are there any other issues to consider?

For that matter, if it works well I may do this even if I'm playing mostly electronic to get that extra stage umph from the kick.

[ige87]

Yeah, thst should work. Be aware that the trigger mechanism may damp the sound quite a bit, and you may have fun getting the right trigger settings to avoid re-triggering from the extra resonance a real head has compared to a mesh.

[thebaron]

Thanks. Yea should be interesting. I could offset the damping by using a more resonant head but then I'll increase the fun factor of dialing in the correct triggering. We'll see.
This would be with an 18" kick so the trigger will also be making it "bigger".

Ironically it sounds like it might work better for an Electronic set up live. With the dampening I can probably get the majority of the sound from the pa but have the extra stage punch of an acoustic kick.

[pchanning]

... I can probably get the majority of the sound from the pa but have the extra stage punch of an acoustic kick.

That'll help keep the band tight too, unless they all have good monitoring.
I trigger the bass drum on my acoustic kit live - but I use ekits on Axis pedals, which is a little easier to handle. It might take some playing with but you should sort it.
HTH