Roland KD-8 no longer triggers when hit softly

[dmbkiwi]

Hi,

I've had a roland td-6 for about 8 months. Sadly, the KD-8 rubber trigger pad has stopped triggering when hit softly. If i hit it hard or even medium, it triggers fine. It's only started doing this in the last couple of days. I haven't changed any of the trigger settings. I use the plastic side of the bass pedal beater (if that makes a difference).

Is it worth opening it up to see what's going on inside? Or do these triggers just wear out over time - but should it take only 8 months?

Any help welcomed.

[Drumzilla]

Kd-8

Hi,

I've had a roland td-6 for about 8 months. Sadly, the KD-8 rubber trigger pad has stopped triggering when hit softly. If i hit it hard or even medium, it triggers fine. It's only started doing this in the last couple of days. I haven't changed any of the trigger settings. I use the plastic side of the bass pedal beater (if that makes a difference).

Is it worth opening it up to see what's going on inside? Or do these triggers just wear out over time - but should it take only 8 months?

Any help welcomed.

Before cracking it open you could try adjusting the trigger sensitivity. Also check and make sure the trigger type is set correctly. If you have the older blue TD-6 like I do, there's no setting for a KD-8. I use the setting for KD Type and then adjusted the other parameters to where I like them. There's a section in the TD-6 manual on how to do this.

[flavour]

I had this same problem in my (at that time ~8-9months old) TD-6 and KD-8, but then it fixed itself somehow..

The problem with the sensitivity etc setups was that it started to distort badly if I made regular or harder hit, but still almost hardly make any sound when hit softly..

I dont know how it started working again, maybe I fooled around with wires and something went right.. My KD-8 have been working now for about 4-5 months without any problems..

I would recommend first to check out that your beater is perfectly in center to your pad and that the beater is parallel to pads surface... <-- This could fix the problem, I dont know did I had this at that time because it fixed itself, but it might have been this problem.. I sometimes find out that if my beater is off the center, all hits starts to get weak sounding.. So check out that thing, hopefully it helps!

[Michael Render]

I have seen the internal foam nearly destroyed in a KD-8. Here's a link to my page about rebuilding one. http://www.michaelrender.com/KD8Rebuild.html

Sometimes these pads get dirt inside them, but in the case of the KD-8 I don't think that will make a big difference.

Are you a heavy footed player? I am not and have never had a KD-8 go bad. And I have owned 5. (Still own 4) The only bad one I ever got, I bought from someone else and rebuilt.