Hardware DIY/Mods/Repairs Thread

[cooldrummer95]

well.....i bought a rectangle of 16 gauge steel at "tractor supply", but i brought my slave pedal base with me so i could easily tell how big of a piece i would need. when i got home i pulled out my trusty sharpie and marked off a rectangle using the slave pedal base as a template for the rough width and length, and then i marked where the holes would go by poking the sharpie through the bolt holes. my dad then went outside and cut the sheet metal with a jig-saw fitted with a metal cutting blade. it was just two quick cuts because we used the corner of the small sheet and he just followed the lines. we slid the rough edges on concrete to smooth them out because we didn't have a flat file. after that, he went to our drill press and, using the correct size metal cutting bit, drilled the holes where i put the dots.

the only real challenge to the whole project was finding the right size bolts that had the right thread pattern to fit my pedal. we took a bolt from my pedal to use as a template.

after everything, i just bolted it on, hooked it to my bass drum and slave pedal, and started playing.

 

[big_wes]

Hey everyone, i was invited to post here when some people saw my "home made ata flight hardware case" thread in the your gear section to make a long story short, i wanted a new hardware case that would stand up to the road.... after getting several quotes from companies here in dallas i thought i must have been getting overcharged. so i went to home depot and 1 or 2 online suppliers and bigady bam here's the result.....this was the result of 2 other failed attempts lol.

if your interested in details just le me know and i'll give you specs.

 

[bobdadruma]

I have a Tama kit with a bass drum mounted double tom holder.
It has a 1 inch diameter down tube.

I wanted to find a stand base for the tom holder so that I could floor stand my two toms.

A double tom stand costs about $150.
I didn't want to spend that much on a stand.
I only paid about $200 for the drum kit.

Many hi-hat stands will accept a 1 inch down tube.
I found an old Tama hi-hat stand for free and I hack sawed the stirrup and pedal off of it and I gutted the stand and kept the stand base.

I now have my floor stand for my toms.
It cost me nothing to make it!

 

[JohnnyG]

Way to go Bob. Love the ingenuity.

 

[Zickosdrummer]

Bo, you should have been able to just disassemble the hh stand rather than cut it I would think. That seems like a good idea, though and I may try it myself. BTW, did you change your avitar for me?

 

[JohnnyG]

On second thought you should have left the pedal and designed the mount so that you could adjust the toms like tympani.

 

[bobdadruma]

The hi-hat stand was missing parts and it hadn't worked in years.
The stirrup casting was part of the stand that held cross members together. The legs would have no support without the triangle piece. I had to cut it off.
It was a butt ugly thing from the 1980s.
I did the right thing by gutting and cutting it.

Trust me, It's not like I cut an Iron Cobra lever glide or anything like that.

I like the Tympani idea but we have Paul from Drumtone.com if I ever need drums that change pitch! LOL!

 

[JohnnyG]

lol..........................

 

[nikole95.7]

Really cool idea and execution.

If you really wanted to add a nice touch - and since you solder - make it so you can plug in your drums in the same way a guitarist plugs in his acoustic guitar. It will blow some minds (at least among people who pay attention to such things).

For each drum, get a quarter-inch male stereo plug and a quarter-inch female stereo socket. As you may know, quarter-inch stereo (also called Tip-Ring-Sleeve or TRS) is the exact same wiring as XLR, except it won't carry phantom power, but that is not a concern since you are using dynamic mics. People plug dynamic mics into quarter-inch stereo all the time.

Install the quarter-inch stereo socket in the vent hole of the drum; it will fit perfectly in the vent hole. Cut the mic cable a foot or so from the mic end and solder the end to the female socket inside the drum. Next solder the male plug to the end of the outside mic cable. I recommend 90-degree male plugs so you don't have to worry about accidentally hitting the plug and damaging a connection. Not many audio stores will carry these so you may need to order them, about four bucks each.

This way, you will be left with no cables dangling from the drums. When you want to mic up your set, you simply "plug in" your drums! You will need to carry these cables with you as most sound guys won't have them, but the XLR end will connect to any XLR cables if you need a longer run. You will need to Google search some wiring diagrams to make the correct connections between XLR and TRS. This project and some more beer will keep you busy for an afternoon!

See this thread entry of 02-14-07 for an explanation with photos of how I did this, as well as my set thread below.

Here's the mounting bracket that I fabbed earlier, painted and installed. Also, the bulge on the wire is simply a band of electrical tape wrapped around the cable larger than the port hole so the cable won't pull back out. I also used a "hi-tech bonding strap" (bread package twist tie) to keep the cable up and away from making contact with the drum head.

 

[Deathmetalconga]

Was there supposed to be a photo?

 

[hingeman]

I have some ideas for retro fixes on DW pedals, Hihat to left kick pedals etc, and other problems we face with rigging gear. If you have some machining needs or ideas, I do one off stuff. Feel free to hit me up.

 

[Masheanhed]

This is my drum riser I made from a Pearl ISS mount someone gave me, a piece of recycled plastic landscape timber, and an old door threshold. Total cost: $0.

You may have seen this one before on another thread but this is my floor cradle I built for a 16" floor tom/bass drum set up.

 

[Deathmetalconga]

This is my drum riser I made from a Pearl ISS mount someone gave me, a piece of recycled plastic landscape timber, and an old door threshold. Total cost: $0.

Wow, what nice looking risers. The wooden one especially shows a high level of craftsmanship. Do you have a thread for your set in the My Kit thread?

 

[Masheanhed]

Wow, what nice looking risers. The wooden one especially shows a high level of craftsmanship. Do you have a thread for your set in the My Kit thread?

Thanks for the compliments but I assure you no "high level" here...I just got lucky this time around!

I don't have a thread that I can remember but I have posted them on some other threads.

 

[Les Ismore]

Nice job guys, which got me thinking... what about the bass drum pedal being its own anchor?

The bass drum pedal doesn't need to be attached to the bass drum per say.

The bass drum could then have rear spurs and easily adjusted to fit the beater height/pedal.

With BD mounted toms, stability shouldn't be an issue, and even so if unstable (forward motion) easily remedied.

The feel would be fantastic, no vibration in the foot.

 

[Chopestake!]

Literally made this today! I saw the various internal mic mounts that are available to buy and didn't understand why something like the 'KellyShu' holder was so expensive, so my friend and I decided to make one ourselves. Here's the result;

All it cost was £1 (Already had the bass drum mic- it's a Studiospare D112 rip off and it's actually quite good!) and that was for the elastic.

 

[Deathmetalconga]

Literally made this today! I saw the various internal mic mounts that are available to buy and didn't understand why something like the 'KellyShu' holder was so expensive, so my friend and I decided to make one ourselves. Here's the result;

All it cost was £1 (Already had the bass drum mic- it's a Studiospare D112 rip off and it's actually quite good!) and that was for the elastic.

Great job! I would personally use a coated front head so it's not visible. The solid nature of the wood mount might create an extra reflection inside the bass drum, like a sonic baffle. Do you notice a difference in the sound either way?

 

[Chopestake!]

Great job! I would personally use a coated front head so it's not visible. The solid nature of the wood mount might create an extra reflection inside the bass drum, like a sonic baffle. Do you notice a difference in the sound either way?

Thanks very much! I thought about this before hand and do use a coated front head, with a small port hole which gets rid of most reflections. There's also a small travel pillow on the inside to keep everything under control which works really well. I did a quick recording of it yesterday http://soundcloud.com/ed-copestake/internal-microphone-test. It sounds better than I expected, nice "click" with a nice low "boof" as well. I'll get a recording of the whole kit soon and put it up

 

[RMS]

I made my own remote hi-hat a few months ago. I had an extra hihat stand laying around, so I decided to chop it up!

It was a Yamaha stand with the spring mounted externally. You can see where the spring used to be in the last picture. I just removed that portion of the stand and moved it onto a rig I made from the top portion of the hihat stand and various hardware I had laying around (nuts, bolts, washers, spacers, memory locks, a little flag pole mount and a cable from a broken lawnmower).

You'll notice the duct tape; I firmly believe that no project is complete without it!
Sorry for the crappy pictures and my filthy drum set, but if you have a stand like this and want to modify it, then I can explain some things if you need to pm me.

The mini hi hats are 8" in size. It's an Istanbul Agop Sultan Splash over an Alchemy Bell Cymbal. They sound like tiny K/Z's, I guess.

 

[Deathmetalconga]

I made my own remote hi-hat a few months ago. I had an extra hihat stand laying around, so I decided to chop it up!

It was a Yamaha stand with the spring mounted externally. You can see where the spring used to be in the last picture. I just removed that portion of the stand and moved it onto a rig I made from the top portion of the hihat stand and various hardware I had laying around (nuts, bolts, washers, spacers, memory locks, a little flag pole mount and a cable from a broken lawnmower).

You'll notice the duct tape; I firmly believe that no project is complete without it!
Sorry for the crappy pictures and my filthy drum set, but if you have a stand like this and want to modify it, then I can explain some things if you need to pm me.

The mini hi hats are 8" in size. It's an Istanbul Agop Sultan Splash over an Alchemy Bell Cymbal. They sound like tiny K/Z's, I guess.

Wow, that is a great mod! I always wondered if someone could make their own remote hihat stand.