Roland TD-30KV Ride Cymbal Modification DO and DON'TS

[Night Spirit]

So for the longest time I have had the issue with the Roland ride cymbal. I don't get accurate bell hits at all, unless I side stick it, and even then its not a guarantee you will get a ride bell sound unless you are sooo dam precise with your hits. I saw the videos on how to mod you cymbal, and the other where you put washers in to increase pressure to the triggers. Now I have tried the washer method, that did not work. And I was apprehensive with the mod until I talked to roland at Namm.

Well I finally got to have my chat with them, and of course they highly advised against the mod. But their reason for not doing the mod seamed legit. So under the cymbal is the pad sensor, which is a circular sensor, that when you cut out a same style shape place it on top of the sensor. It increases the sensitivity, allowing you to get the rolls on your bell which you cant get anything from the bell at stock unless ya side stick.

Now roland said yes if you do that, it will increase sensitivity, but you also now increase the sensitivity on the entire cymbal, which can lead to issues and mis fires. Now it made sense to me, because as current my Edge and ride function perfectly, except for the bell. So if I do these mods I am not messing up the rest of the cymbal just to fix the bell.

So I wanted to get your guys take on this, maybe from someone who has done the mod, and can be able to say they are full of it it works perfect now. Or they have a point best not to mess with it. I just realllly want to get a proper working bell, and if left as is it just won't do. So discuss away on modding, not modding the ride I would like to hear all sides on this subject.

[MisterMR]

I've done the mod on my CY15 and CY12RC's. It was totally necessary - especially when I had the TD-9 - as I really had to thump the bell with the shoulder of the stick to get anything out of it. Now it can be delicately triggered with the tip of the stick. On the TD-30 I use now, I find it's much easier to set up the sensitivities, masking, etc. so you fine tune an overly sensitive cymbal pad.

Two things I'd advise...

One... get used to stripping and reassembling a cymbal pad. It seems scary at first but it really isn't that bad. There's not a lot that can go wrong if you follow good available instruction on here.

An two... I would say it's probably worth experimenting with the shims that you plan to use. Try different materials and thicknesses to get it to respond in the way that you would like. Some just use carefully cut out tape.. some use plastic film or card... they all work but some are more immediate than others.

[Night Spirit]

So with your moded CY15 you can easily do bell rolls with the tips of your stick, not needing to use the shoulder anymore? And how does the reaction of the rest of the cymbal feel and play, since the sensitivity has been increased?

[MisterMR]

It's just the bell that's more sensitive. The rest of the cymbal feels the same as before. I use Vic Firth SD2 which have a very small tip and it even picks that up.

[BWaj]

The best ride solution I've found is using a Gen 16 ride and mount a small pad that is easy to strike just over the bell of the gen 16. It took very little effort for me to tweak the Gen 16 to sound the way I want (for the ride only) and it feels like an acoustic cymbal. The bell stinks so I mount the pad above it for the bell sound. I also use it for FX's on tunes that don't require a bell.

I hate rubber cymbals so this works great for me, probably won't for others.