Here are my instructions for creating your own e-drums.
Any suggestions and or additions to these designs
would be appreciated.
These are two basic designs. One is more similar
to the early e-drum design
and the other uses Remo practice pads. They both
have pros and cons and I
will explain those after the design instructions.
the disc...
ingredients:
disc of gum rubber
10" or 12" wooden fir
piezo (Radio Shack model #273-073)
female 1/4" mono jack
two lead wire
solder & solder iron
rubber cement
hot glue gun
electrical tape
Now I know you are probably asking two things......
Where am I going to get a disc of gum rubber and what in
the hell is a Fir?
For the gum rubber i just looked up a rubber company when
i was living in Corpus Christi and they let me choose the thickness/density
and they cut the disc out for me. Now onto the Fir. It is nothing
more than a disc of wood that you can find at any giant hardware
store. I found them at Home Depot but just about anyone should
have them.
onto the process.......
First attach the the gum rubber to the fir with the rubber
cement. I haven't tried tack spray so i don't know how well that
works. Remember to let the rubber cement get tacky before you
attach the two pieces together.
Now we are going to attach the piezo to the wood. The piezo
comes inside of a small black plastic housing. We need to remove
the housing from the piezo. This can be tough since you don't
want to bend the piezo and you don't want to break the two little
wire leads. I just carefully wack the top of the casing until
it cracks and then just break it off from the piezo. Once the
piezo is free attach it to the bottom center of the fir with
the hot glue gun. Just place the piezo right onto the wood with
two wire leads facing you and cover it in the glue.
Next, solder the wire to the piezo. You can use any kind
of two lead wire you can find. I have even used speaker wire
that i bought from Radio Shack. There are two little wires that
are attached to the piezo. One is black and one is red. Cut a
8" to 10" piece of your two lead wire and strip the
ends. Twist each one to a wire on the piezo. You can solder them
and then cover them with the electrical tape. Now take your Female
1/4" jack and solder it to the two lead wire. Remember black
is ground and red is hot. You will want to attach the wire to
the fir with either a staple gun for cables, hot glue it down,
or just tape it on really well with duct tape. You don't want
anything pulling on the two little leads coming from the piezo.
You now have a round e-drum.
As far as mounting it with hardware I would like to hear
what people have to say. The ones I built were 12" for some
studio work and I just placed them on a snare stand. You can
cover the bottom with whatever you want.
PROS: VERY quiet, durable, precise trigger response, fits
on a snare stand.
CONS: mounting it on a kit takes some extra work.....
the REMO practice pad...
ingredients:
Remo practice pad
piezo (Radio Shack model #273-073)
Phillips screwdriver
female 1/4" mono jack
two lead wire
solder & solder iron
hot glue gun
electrical tape
First disassemble the practice pad.
Now take the bottom shell and bore a hole through it with
the screwdriver. The hole should be 4" to 5" from the
center. now take the piezo like we did in the first design and
remove it's shell. Hot glue the piezo inside of the bottom shell.
DO NOT glue it directly to the center. Glue near the edge of
the well opposite the hole you bored. This is done because if
you struck really hard the head will give a lot and the piezo
could take a direct impact from the stick. NOT GOOD! You could
crack or smash the piezo and have to do this all over again.
Attach a 12" or 14" piece of two lead wire to the
piezo as before and feed it down through the hole you bored.
Be sure and hot glue down some the wire inside the shell. That
way if some thing were to tug on the wire it won't rip it from
the piezo. Next attach the female 1/4" jack and re-assemble
the pad.
You now have a REMO practice pad e-drum!!!!!!!!
PROS: has built in screw threading on the bottom so you can
mount it on a little cymbal stand, the head can be "tuned"
for the feel that you want
CONS: very noisy, not as precise triggering sometimes as
the Disc e-drum
