Author Topic: DIY mesh head  (Read 2869 times)

Offline Dobly

DIY mesh head
« on: October 06, 2017, 02:03:59 AM »
Last night I broke my 12" mesh snare head.  T'was the rim shots. The mesh and its glue came out of the rim.

With a gig tomorrow night and only two music shops near here, neither of which sell mesh heads, I had no option by to make my own.

Luckily I had all the bits left over from the last time I did this a few years ago for my sons kit.

First I removed the mesh from the broken head..



And cut a square of fly screen mesh. This is the pet safe one that is tough enough for pets to scratch at and not get through.



Next I needed something in the middle to make some slack in the head. Without this the head could be so tight that you would not be able to get it on.



With a keen eye I cut a medically accurate and perfect circle.  :o



Than I pegged it in 4 places to help hold the mesh in place. The thread I am using is the type they use for peg lines on construction site. Very very tough stuff..



And sewed the mesh on, removing the 4 anchor threads as I went around. Then trimmed the excess mesh...



Here it is complete



Here is it so you can see how much slack there is..



Finally here it is installed.



EDIT: I don't know how it performs. Feels ok to play on but I have not plugged it in to test it. I'll not get a chance to do that before the gig tomorrow night. If it's not good I'll just use one of the tom pads (one great advantage of using edrums eh? )

I'll also color in the pink string to be black. Not that important but important enough. I'll not bother coloring it in if it does not perform as expected.

« Last Edit: October 06, 2017, 03:11:34 AM by Dobly »

Offline Dobly

Re: DIY mesh head
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2017, 06:14:47 AM »
One thing I didn't mention is that when threading don't push the needle in tight against the inside of the rim. Leave a little gap there. That allows you to have the head at the top of the rim where it belongs.. This is another thing that will make the head hard / impossible to put on if too tight.

Offline Dobly

Re: DIY mesh head
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2017, 09:57:10 PM »
I tested this head today and sorry to report it does not work on my pads. Not the way I have modded them anyway. It is just so thick and heavy. The Remo Silent Stroke was just right as would some other regular heads i reckon. Just not a head this solid. When I tighten it up it resonates so much. The entire pad vibrates. Double triggers or No triggering at all depending how hard or soft I play. Seems the harder i hit it the less chance I'd get any sound at all.

 Might work on the other types of edrums but not mine.. 

Re: DIY mesh head
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2017, 10:02:56 AM »
I tested this head today and sorry to report it does not work on my pads. Not the way I have modded them anyway. It is just so thick and heavy. The new HGH-X2 was just right as would some other regular heads i reckon. Just not a head this solid. When I tighten it up it resonates so much. The entire pad vibrates. Double triggers or No triggering at all depending how hard or soft I play. Seems the harder i hit it the less chance I'd get any sound at all.

 Might work on the other types of edrums but not mine..

Awesome step-by-step guide Dobly. Thanks for sharing this with the community.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2022, 07:49:23 AM by EarnestB »

Offline Dobly

Re: DIY mesh head
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2017, 08:54:15 PM »
Thanks Earnest.

Didn't work for me but I can't see why this would not work on the metal plate type setups.

Offline Dobly

Re: DIY mesh head
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2017, 05:42:06 AM »
Seems I was hasty in my assessment of this DIY head..

I tried it again tonight and like before it just did not trigger right. Seems it was took heavy when tight or something.

But as I was taking it off I got to that point were the lugs were only just holding the rim tight. The head was super loose. I plugged it in an voila, it worked.

The head is very loose. It's on Tom 4 so it feels more than ever like an big acoustic floor tom. And it is triggering perfectly.

Not sure i could make a snare head out of this stuff. It does not seem to like being tight on my modified pads. But it works great for the 4th tom...