Author Topic: Cheapest 682Drums-like mesh conversion  (Read 2341 times)

Cheapest 682Drums-like mesh conversion
« on: January 24, 2018, 11:08:00 PM »
This is my first post here, so a bit of history first. I'm not a drummer, but I have a progressive rock band with my son, the drummer. I play keyboards. Since last year, we were looking for options for rehearsing at home, and not driving my wife nuts in the process, so paying for a practice studio couple times a month, for a band that is just starting, and not making any money yet, was not a good investment. So I decided to rehearse at home, but for achieving that we will need to be completely silent, or close to silent. So, we invested in an in-ear system, and an electronic drum kit. We used to have a very old Roland TD-6, but sold it years ago. We were on a very tight budget, so we got the cheapest there was, a Nitro kit, and it has served us very well for the past year. We had to modify it, adding some PVC extensions to the rack, since my son is very large (He is 25 years old, so he is an adult really).
So, fast forward to a couple weeks ago, we got our hands on a used, but very well cared for DM8 Pro kit, so we can retire our Nitro kit, and practice with a proper drum set. It was love at first sight, but when we started hitting the pads, we realized it wasn't what we were expecting to be. It was, very loud. My wife gave me the looks, so I thought that I must do a mesh head conversion pronto.
So after too much research, I found out that the 682Drums solution was ideal, and not too expensive, but looking at the videos, I realized that almost half of the cost was cardboard, double sided foam stickies and foam cones. So I thought, I can do this!

Well, this is the final results. We got a set of Remo Silentstroke heads, which play and look awesome, a bit on the bouncy side, but my Son can manage it. And is whisper silent, which at least don't bother my wife as much. Still she prefers to be on her room when we are rehearsing, since you can still hear the cymbals, and the pads if my son really hits them very hard, but is like 20% the amount of noise when we assembled the drumkit for the first time.

And as for the cost, well comparing 119 + shipping for 682Drums, I calculated a total of around $150
vs Remo Silenstroke 2x12, 2x8 1x10 heads: $77.50, shipping included
+ dishwasher sponges: 0.99 cts
+ double sided tape: $3.95

I added a can of matte black paint, which I already had at home, so no cost for a few squirts of paint.

Total: $150 vs $81.85
Big difference. And I can use the money I saved for the Goedrum hihat controller

A few photos of the conversion:

1. Whole thing ready for assembly. Note that I didn't put a cardboard to cover the clear disc, cables and the rest of the tom, instead I simply painted it black. That cover is not really necessary, is only for the looks. But I did tried putting it, and turned out that my son has hitting it, and making a very nasty noise. So off it went.

2. Note that the disc is floating over the rim trigger.

3. This is what I did to make the disc float and not trigger the rim. At first I put a couple of double side tape together, but it was too rigid, and I was triggering the rim with every hit of the head. With this solution is completely isolated.

4. And this is how it looks. Note that you don't see the orange (or yellow in my case) cone, since I painted it.

Photos are for the shallow 12 inch pads, for the thicker pads, I followed the same procedure as the 682Drums, just merely removing the black foam, inverting the metal plate, so the trigger is facing the top, and glued the cone with silicone glue. I also painted it black, so it will look better with the white mesh.

Important to note that the height of the cone is crucial for a good triggering, at least on the pad that you'll use as snare. Too low, and it will retriger a lot, too high and it will feel weird. A couple millimeter over the edge of the shell is the sweet spot.


Hope you like it.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2018, 11:23:15 PM by martinocando »

Re: Cheapest 682Drums-like mesh conversion
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2018, 10:51:25 PM »
I did nearly the same project on my dm8 pro kit with a Pearl Redbox module and it works well.

Offline ironman187

Re: Cheapest 682Drums-like mesh conversion
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2018, 12:13:33 AM »
The cheapest really is a few sheets of craft foam and mesh heads. You re-arrange the foam in the pad, add a layer of craft foam, put mesh head on and enjoy.

Re: Cheapest 682Drums-like mesh conversion
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2019, 12:30:41 PM »
This is an awesome method! I already had done the mesh head conversion on my DM8 Pro using the Hellfire method but this one works a lot better (at least for me). I do have to open it up again because the disc ended up too high inside the drum so I actually hit it all the time when playing. I need to use smaller pieces of sponge there.

So far I've only done it on the two big drums but I'll do it on the smaller ones also. My only concern is with the kick drum because I remember it was a little different from the rest of the drums. Has anybody used this method on the kick drum? Is it all the same or are there any differences?