DIY-Converting Hi-hat cymbals and floor tom

– DIY

My Franken’s current status

Franken is from Frankenstein. That’s my custom drum’s nickname.

Dissecting the old e-drum pads

What mostly bothers me about the old e-drum kit (Medeli series made before 2010) is the small size of each pad and the narrow area dimension of the trigger.

Before transforming Cymbals, Tom, and Snare, I first needed to understand how my e-drum kit works.

So, I opened the trigger parts up.

I previously wrote about the transformation journey of my Franken here. These articles show how I transformed the drum kit, more likely, the snare drum.

EN-DIY-Converting the acoustic drumkit to e-kit-pt1 2022-08-14-hallyucon-astro-kai-oh-my-girl-soldiering-megadrum

Working on Hi-Hat

For Hi-hat, I do not worry about the sensitivities for now. For me, Hi-hat is more of the speed, and subdivisional speed is the essential matter. The dynamics are perhaps more required for gospel or jazz - however, my primary drumming beat roots are K-pop, Alternative Rock, and Electronica. Creating a more complex and sensitive trigger system on hi-hat is over-engineering to me.

Cymbals

All cymbals were mono-inputs except for the crash. However, the crash did not sense the mute after the crash chop.

For this specific crash cymbal, I can see that there is some circuit setup that connects to the FSR. Although it has never worked before, I am still determining how to deliver the exact mechanism of this cymbal onto the converted version.

How it looks now.

2022-08-22

Hihat

Floor Tom

2022-08-23

The megadrum plan that I aligned at 2022-08-24

Converting Drums - Plans detailed

2022-08-24

Building Megadrum module

  • [☑️ ] Testing if my soldiering work did not short the PCB
  • [☑️ ] Having it checked by James
  • Once it’s checked, ask James what to buy for the case

Upgrading my drumset

  • Fixing snare drum head

    • Folding flyscreen into multiple layers and attaching to the inner rim
    • Stitch them after fixing screens and inner rim together with staplers
      • You may not need the strong thread which I have failed to get. Try with the standard thread first
    • Ring frame assemble

  • Converting Hihat Cymbal

    • Covering gaffer tape under the top hihat
    • Making the mono TS jack to the bell small piezo and bow big piezo.
    • Cutting gaffer tape off from where jack and piezo attached
    • Cover the top of the cymbal with EVA foam
    • Possibly replace with a felt placemat from the spotlight.

  • Converting Hihat Pedal

    • Install panel under the hi-hat pedal for having the switch touched between pedal and ground plate
    • On/Off simple switch linked to the jack
    • Meanwhile, use the sustain pedal as temporary
    • And also see if I only can use the cymbal part from the Hihat

  • Converting Ride Cymbal

    • This is a tricky one. First, do the gaffer tape and muffling first.
      • Try with FSR with bow and bell (bell can be ignored on the first run for simplicity) on TRS jack first.
      • If that is not working, then go to Keith’s switch transformer route.
      • Muffling can be an issue. If EVA/felt/sponge option does not work, go buy lVC from AliExpress.

  • Making double base drumset

    • Try to be simple first. Install a piezo on my d-Tronics pedal first.
    • In the meantime, give it a try to set a piezo system on another bass pedal that I currently do have.