Home made minimalist kit with cajon kick (finally)

Toolate

Platinum Member
So if anyone has noticed I have posted all kinds of questions about small kicks, cymbals and setups over the years and it all has led me to this little thing. I am in my 40's and really just an intermediate drummer who occasionally plays with friends who are usually playing acoustic guitar.

Like most drummers I am tired of dragging a kit around and it's just too much setup and noise for the occasional bit of playing I get to do so I have been working to build something like this for a few years and after maybe 5 variations I am somewhat happy with this one.

6" one head snare. I cut out a 6" circle out of another drum head to help quiet the snare down when needed. Play it mostly with hot rods too.
Low volume 13" hats
10" XS splash that I drilled holes in- crash ride use mostly crash
Triangle to use as ride and for little accents
Wood block for rim click sound
LP plastic block for cowbell feel (has a little ring to it)

Pedal is made from a double pedal and is removable so it fits in the box as does everything else so transport is easy. Kick makes a great, deep, punchy thud (LP cajon beater inside) so it is satisfying to play and still feel like you are on a kit rather than playing cajon between your legs (like a gimp- I hate that feeling).

Anyway, hope you like it. If I was playing in the streets, a subway, college quad or just about anywhere I didn't "need" a full volume kit/cymbals I would want this for the convenience and combination of sounds (plus the kick sounds really good). I have a 12 year old son who is a great player and hope he will get this kind of use out of it as well in the future.
 
Pics finally. Forgot about size requirements. Hope you like it!

Of course all comments and criticism are welcomed and encouraged.

Ben
 

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I absolutely love this. The triangle is a very nice touch. I would love to hear it.

I have a low-volume gig coming up in a month (for my wife's b-day), but have decided to play my Sonor Player kit with rods. I have a cajon that I'm learning to play, a 10" Wuhan splash that sounds pretty good with a hand stroke, and an ankle shaker on the way. But due to the required posture to play cajon, I can no longer play and sing. Not that anyone would miss my singing at all.
 
I absolutely love this. The triangle is a very nice touch. I would love to hear it.

I have a low-volume gig coming up in a month (for my wife's b-day), but have decided to play my Sonor Player kit with rods. I have a cajon that I'm learning to play, a 10" Wuhan splash that sounds pretty good with a hand stroke, and an ankle shaker on the way. But due to the required posture to play cajon, I can no longer play and sing. Not that anyone would miss my singing at all.

The posture is terrible not to mention how bad your fingertips hurt after an hour never mind a few hours. Thank you for the compliment! If you play the triangle gently with the rods it sounds great when riding and you can lay into it a little more for an accented pattern/feel. Perfect for acoustic guitar volume

In order to build this I had to disassemble a double bass drum pedal and hi hat stand so there's actually quite a bit of money tied up in this thing (snare, cymbal, triangle etc) . A friend of mine was asking me how much I would have to sell them for to make money at it. I didn't really work that out but between the hardware and labor to build and finish it, it gets quite expensive! The rack for the triangle is custom made/welded by me. Would be a fun side job I guess.
 
wow, amazing effort. great engineering to pull that off. My only question, do you get the desired sound out of such a small snare? I know with popcorn snares, the sound is very annoying after a while so a whole gig with a small snare might not be ideal. is it an issue?
 
wow, amazing effort. great engineering to pull that off. My only question, do you get the desired sound out of such a small snare? I know with popcorn snares, the sound is very annoying after a while so a whole gig with a small snare might not be ideal. is it an issue?

I'm curious about this too. I actually love this idea, the snare is the only thing I'm not totally sure about.
 
I'm curious about this too. I actually love this idea, the snare is the only thing I'm not totally sure about.

I know what you mean but I think this is a pretty decent sound given the size and lack of reso head. I play it with rods (and usually have a circle cut from another head on it to quiet it down a little more even) again to keep quiet so the sound is less defined than your normal snare but the tone is at least correct- I mean it's tuned to a high sounding snare pop.

This page (https://www.steveweissmusic.com/product/lp-6-micro-snare/metal-snare-drums) has a "watch/listen" button with a sound clip of the snare and I think it's right on although when playing with rods or with my other little dampening pad the snare wire sound is less defined- more of a pop than a pop with rattling snares under it if you follow.

No one seems to complain as it gets so much more feel into the music to have a real set of hi hats, ride, rim click , snare sound, and great kicks tone tho. Best part is that the overall volume is such that if say 3 acoustic guitars really get going, you have to lay into this thing a little to up your volume to compete which is exactly what I wanted it to be. The opposite of what you usually have to do which is to tap tap all night even when the acoustic band gets cranking otherwise you are too loud.

Thanks for the interest!
 
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