I was lucky to snag a 20" Pearl Forum kick drum from the Salvation Army shop for cheap the other day. The drum was barely used, just a little dirty :)
I'm thinking to convert this into a triggered kick with a mesh head. I have little experience with how large mesh heads behave and I'm wondering what steps I should take to achieve proper triggering. I'm guessing that just side mounting an internal trigger and slapping the mesh head on would lead to a lot of false triggering and a very bouncy playing surface. Perhaps some dampening material would be in order.
I see a lot of you guys who are building stealth kits are using large mesh heads. Would any of you be so kind as to divulge a little how you handle triggering larger heads? :D
I'm thinking to make my own triggers based on the 2box style.
Yeah I'd imagine a mesh 20" would be quit "spongey" but you could always tighten it up real high, won't affect the sound because of course it doesn't make much. Or alternatively you could pad it out with a pillow or something.
I trigger 22" with a mylar head and the Trigit external triggers, after a bit of fiddling with settings it triggers fantastic.
I was using a Triggera BIX trigger (the one which is a beater) but it felt to bits after a year, a year of a LOT of heavy playing I'll add. I have a second one I was gonna use but I've got used to the Trigit one now.
Yeah.. I'm doing some brainstorming about what to do with this drum.
I'm thinking about putting in a plywood baffle at the playing end, making that end of the drum about 10 cm deep. I will fill that space with synthetic pillow fibers to hopefully deaden down most of the vibration.
Another idea I have is to use the remainder of the drum space as a travel case for the pads, practially making the playing end the lid. The idea is to cut the drum in half just behind the lugs, glue in a thin plywood lip on the inside for some stability, and mount some latches around the drum to keep it from seperating during playing or travel. It would become a heavy duty russian nesting doll of sorts 8)
Just fisnished the first "prototype" of the drum. I've shelved the idea of making it a transport case for now, perhaps later..
The drum had no legs, but I found a pair for cheap on Ali. The covering material cracked when I drilled into the drum, so I decided to remove it completely. It was an ugly maroon color , so no loss really.
I got a cheap 20" Remo Silentstroke, and I made a trigger from an old piezo and some foam I had lying around. I dampened the head with some old pillows.
I expected to have to troubleshoot a lot more. Actually the whole thing was pretty plug and play. I only had to dial in the gain a bit and choose the right pad setting. No bouncy head, no double triggering, just a sturdy natural feeling kick. Very happy. The best thing: I didn't spend that much money on this project.
The only thing left is to paint the shell orange and remove some glue from the black hoops.
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
And... I'm getting a 2box sticker from 2box to put on the front head... :)
Thank you nice swedish people
(http://i67.tinypic.com/k6hrn.jpg)
Not half bad.
Sadly the sticker didn't work out all that well on the black front head.
http://tinypic.com/r/k6hrn/9
nice looking kit !!! :patbat2box:
Notice the floor tom.. hehe.. had to use the old kick pad for something. I split the input on one of the pads to get one extra tom there.
Actually I was a bit concerned about how to split the inputs, but I found a stereo - two mono jack cable at a music shop, works perfectly. Thought I might have to learn about soldering properly, but no :)
Great looking set-up that!!!