Drum triggers

[Campy]

Has anyone made triggers using piezos? I wonder is it as simple as it looks, piezo connected to jack using two wires.

[Luijo]

Drum triggers either on pads or the ones you attach to real drums are all piezos, just in a different packaging.
And yes, almost always is just a wire to a jack or a plug. You can get fancier than that if you want to.
The ones that attach to real drums do so at the shell so they don't alter the vibrations of the skin and pick up some coloring from the shell itself.

[Regis]

In the past I've built piezo drum triggers. Here is a source for cheap piezo elements.:

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi..._Elements.html

You might still be able to get them at Radio Shaft too.

Here is a guy that added piezos to a practice pad kit to make it an electronic kit:

http://members.cox.net/ampage/triggers.htm

[Enzo]

Yes, plain old piezos work fine.

Long time ago I needed a peizo for some electronic drum pad, and the guy was in a hurry. Took apart one of the Motorola piezo tweeters and used the piezo from that.

[Sweetfinger]

For years I've been trying...

I've always wanted to have a drummer play a kit made from Rubbermaid garbage cans and wastebaskets set up with triggers - and Frisbees for cymbals! Apparently, I am much too progressive in my thinking for most folks.

[Enzo]

Stupid drummers, they always seem to care what they are banging on.

[Regis]

I've always wanted to have a drummer play a kit made from Rubbermaid garbage cans and wastebaskets set up with triggers - and Frisbees for cymbals! Apparently, I am much too progressive in my thinking for most folks.

Ha Ha, I agree completely. I find it cool to see a guy playing the crappiest looking gear and getting the best tone. Tonight I went to a blues jam here in Atlanta and took my cheepie Stellar Les Paul knockoff and my beat up Kay 720 which I had refurbished. Guys were coming up to me and going.. "Dude holy shit... how do you get that kind of tone with that kind of gear?"

Something I intend to do is find some worthless old Teisco or Alamo guitar amp and replace the guts with a 5E3 Deluxe circuit driving a Weber speaker. It would look like shit but sound awesome.

[Luijo]

Replacing amp guts?
That's how Mesa Boogie started...maybe you a have a bright future ahead of you!

[Sweetfinger]

Be kind to the old amps!

IMO the old tiescos and alamos are cool just as they are, I'd leave them alone (unless they have the heaters in series- in which case, hack away). A real cool platform would be an old early 80's or late 70's Peavey! The tube models would already have the iron,just need rewiring, or the ultimate 'in your face' --redo a Line 6! I'm sure that dead ones are starting to pile up at service centers.

[JohnnyDMonic]

Check out this guys site - http://tomscarff.tripod.com/8way_drm2/8way_drm2_1.htm

A simple but effective midi trigger circuit using a PIC microcontroller.