Dobly's 12 inch Alesis pad fix : Part 1

[Dobly]

I am sorry to report that since I got the DM10X kit around the start of the year (end of last year), I have spent more time trying to fix these 12" heads than actually PLAYING THE DRUMS.   

The problem as many of you know is they are so shallow. So when I got mesh heads and tried to move the metal piezo plate down I had nothing but bad luck.

I tried Gerdy's http://www.dmdrummer.com/index.php?topic=2442.0 method. But after weeks of trying different foam, rubber and whatever else I could think of, nothing worked. Dead patches, hot spots. The pads were unplayable.

I then saw Ahayden82 excellent post on his upgrade with embroidery hoops making the shells taller and knew this was the answer. Make the shells taller. However, I looked a few shops but could not fine hoops 'exactly' the right size. The solution. Make my own hoops to put under the existing shells.

I did this and more as you will see.

My first idea was to cut hoops out of wood using a router and a circle jig. But I am not experience with a router. At that time I had a brain wave. Make the hoops out of layers of laminate!

Here goes.. 20 images to follow. (a picture tells a 1000 words so you've got 20,000 virtual words coming your way) 

First I taped a 12" shell to a board and marked around it.



Next I assembled some of the tools.. (yes. Lego)



With the Lego I made a small jig to keep my nails upright.



I put in nails on the line every 30mm or so.



I then went to Central Coast Laminate in Coffs Harbour on the east coast of Australia. There a very friendly chap cut my 13mm wide strips of laminate. My 'hoops' are going to be 13mm high.

This next shot shows the strips of laminate at the back. 32 of them, each 3 meters long.



Let the gluing begin. I used contact adhesive.

 

The joining ends did not over lap. In this shot you can see how I joined them. First of 8 rows done.



While waiting for the glue to be ready to contact I got to work removing the black laminate.



This was easy to remove but left sticky glue all over. I got the worst of it off with goo remover.



And scrubbed.


By the time I was done I had 3 x 13mm high hoops very close to exactly the same size as the 12" shell. . They didn't look great but you are not going to see them by the time I am done.


Next I glued the first shell to one of the new hoops. I used that rubber silicon sealant stuff you put in gaps. Reason being the tops of the hoops were not perfectly flat and I thought that contact glue would be too hard to get in the right spot once you bring the 2 sides together. Anyway, they just needed to be held in place. Not like they are going anywhere once the drum is assembled.



Once in place I put a some weight on it hold it down while it dried.



Now the fun part. The original black laminate was 27mm high. I just added 13mm to the height of the shell. So when i got the hoop laminate above, I also got some 40mm high laminate to finish each shell.

First the contact cement is applied and given 10 minutes or so to become tacky..



And.. Drum roll here please. Behold my new 12" shell



In this next shot you can get some idea how much space i have now.



And here is a shot with the rim and stuff sitting in place so you can get an idea of the final look.

 

Just one problem here.. The tension rods not longer fit (you may have seen my post on this matter elsewhere on this site. )

Here you can see how short they are.



The existing tension rods are 50mm high. I just ordered some 65mm rods that I should get next week.

Part 2 will up in the next week or two.






























 

[adrian97c]

I'm dropping $100+ on either the 682 cone conversion for my dm10X (shallow toms), or BBII w/ Gerdy conversion (need to hunt dwn the Adam hall type foam)
Sucks that the DM10 pro kit is not sold in the US. Owell.

Goodluck with your extremely difficult & drawn out process! Hope you finally get to start playing (realhead mylar isn't that bad IMO)

[Dobly]

I'm dropping $160 on the 682 cone conversion for my dm10X (shallow toms), seems like less drama & if I'm not satisfied I'll go back to Mylar, done.

Sucks that the DM10 pro kit is not sold in the US. Owell.

Goodluck with your extremely difficult & drawn out process! Hope you finally get to start playing (realhead mylar isn't that bad IMO)

Thanks Adrian.. I got all the shells done and ready and I was just waiting on the longer tension rods and I could finally put it all back together. They arrived today.

But....



Sigh.. 

Sending them back.
 

[Dobly]

The replacement tension rods have not arrived yet. Despite that I was able to find a bag that had a bunch of spares for my old Artstar kit. In there enough long tension rod for 1 of the 12" pads. The snare of course.

I measured from the metal plate up to the edge of the shell. 16mm.

I made a mark on a cutting board 19mm in from the edge. I planned to have the rubber disks 3mm above the edge of the shell.

Next lined up the end my length of rubber tube and stuck a small screwdriver in it to help keep in in form while cut it, by eye with a sharp knife.



By the time I was done I had 8 cut. Cutting them was hard. Hard to get them all exact.  These were not exact. They varied from 19mm to 22mm. In scheme of things, this does not matter.



Here they are in position waiting for the mesh head.



It was a major success!!!

It took no time to dial in the sensitivity. No dead patches. No hot spots.

However I didn't get that much time on it before I was removed from the throne.



This method worked so well I am going to mod the 10 pads the same way.

Thank AHayden62 for this post that gave me the info I needed for this mod. http://www.dmdrummer.com/index.php?topic=5023.0

 

[adrian97c]

What are those 8 rubber cylinder cut outs for?

[Dobly]

They sit between the metal plate with the piezo and the mesh head. Have a look at AHayden's post that i linked above.

[adrian97c]

Cool, make sure you explain the diff process you will use on your 10"s,(since they are deeper), when you do those. I know Joann's hobby has hoops.

[Dobly]

Adrian.. I just noticed i missed one of my photos in my post above. The one were I show the rubber tube bits ready for the mesh head.  I just added it.

I did both of the 10 drums last night too with the same rubber tube bits. I'll post some more photos later. These turned out great too. They had Hellfire's mod on them before I changed them. That was great too. But now my 10" and 12" feel the same. I'm loving the feeling of not hitting anything when I strike the drums.

[adrian97c]

How are your 10s layered?

[Dobly]

How are your 10s layered?

Like Hellfire's method I have a thin (3mm or so) sheet of craft foam at the bottom. On top of that the white foam. The craft foam is to support the soft white foam so it does not get to squished into the plastic base.

On top of the white plastic is the metal piezo plate. I removed the rubber from the top of this and left the piezo facing down.

On top of the metal place I put 5 of these rubber pipe bits. I could have put 6 but decided to try 5 first. I put them evenly spaced around the outside of the metal plate. Out as far as they could go without overlapping the edge.  The rubber pipe bits are sitting between 4 and 6mm above the shell edge. I think this is a bit of moot point for these rubber pipes. There are really so few of them and so much LESS contact than a solid piece of foam.

In summary:

- Mesh head
- Rubber pipe bits
- Metal plate (rubber removed, piezo down)
- Original white form
- 3mm craft foam (might be called crazy foam in craft shops)



 
 

[Dobly]

One problem  I will add with this whole exercise is those 682 mesh heads and how tight they are. The original black covering on the dm10 pads is not a laminate. It is a very very thin black plastic.

The laminate I added is maybe 2mm think. The 12 inch I did was not a problem but on the 10" the 682 heads are so tight they catch on the top of the new laminate if I am not careful putting them on. First time I hit the problem I got some sandpaper and very carefully took the edge off the top of the laminate. This made it possible to get the heads on as long as i take my time and keep the tension even as i tighten it up.

The original mylar head go on with room to spare (was would any 'normal' drum head. The problem is the to with these, my LAST set of these cursed 682 heads.

[adrian97c]

You glued embroidery hoops & laminated on the 10s also?

I'm glad I ended up ordering BBII vs 682

[Dobly]

You glued embroidery hoops & laminated on the 10s also?

I'm glad I ended up ordering BBII vs 682

Sorry I should have been more clear. The 10" drum had enough space anyway. No hoops or glue on these. I just change the mostly solid (bar a hole in the middle) piece of foam, to 5 of these rubber pipe bits.

The difference now is 2 fold.

1. The pad feels a little bouncier now. That said it is more responsive. It picks up even the most gentle strokes. (not that I play many of them) 

2. The pad is quieter now. Not that it was loud before, But when I had one converted I compared it to the other one that still had the dark foam in the top. I made a video of this but it is such a minor point there is no point putting it up.

Yes, I'll never buy 682 heads again. The 12" heads are so tight they slipped inside the 12" rim when you tightened the head up. They sent these thick rubber tape strips that I have to stick to the metal around the 12" mesh head. This stops the slipping through the rim. Dodgy as. I hate it.  Does the trick but I hate having that crap on my drums.

[Dobly]

Still waiting for my replacement tension rods here after they sent me the wrong ones and I had to send them back. So my 12" drum remain unplayable. 

In the mean time here is a shot showing a nice before and after. The original shallow 12" with my new, improved (and much over worked) version.

[Dobly]

I ended up waiting over 2 weeks for the longer tension rods. And in the end the ones I got were TOO long and had to be cut with a hacksaw. (can this mod get any more complex?) 

While waiting I got busy with a marking pen, trying to remove the 682 logo from the heads. (Their heads are too small by a couple of mm and on the 12" heads slip inside the rim when you tighten them on)


Sorry this shot is upside down. You get the idea.


It didn't work that well.



Need something 'blacker'.

Here is a shot of the kit while I was waiting for the longer rods..



Shows the arrangement I am going to try first with the black rubber tubing.

[Dobly]

And after weeks of planning, the job is done!

 

The verdict? Brilliant. The taller 12" inch shells play perfectly. No dead spots. Not hot spots. Just even and predicable response. What I wanted all along.

Next for this kit?

1. Redo all the trigger setting and crosstalk and such

2. Cable management.

3. If 1. fails, put foam in all the rack pieces.

4. PLAY

Once I get the kit setup right with the DM10 module, I'll do a video showing how well they are responding.

[adrian97c]

Cool glad it's working... I ended up just slapping 1 layer of 1/4" speaker foam on top of plate & adding Remo mesh on entire kit... Works perfect for me !

[Dobly]

Cool glad it's working... I ended up just slapping 1 layer of 1/4" speaker foam on top of plate & adding Remo mesh on entire kit... Works perfect for me !

Of course. Everyone has an easier mod than this one.

How well do the remo head fit? These 682 head are super tight. Like I said above, on the 12" head they slip out of the rim. 682 sent me thick rubber sticky strips to put around the heads so they don't slip out. I despise having to have them on my kit.

 When I was doing this mod the laminate I used was about  1mm thicker than the black plastic covering that I took off. I thought for a minute I would not be able to get the heads on at all the 682 heads were so tight. By comparison the original mylar heads it perfectly on these rim.

My next heads will NOT be 682.

[adrian97c]

You will love the perfect fit of the Remo silentstroke mesh heads. Fit perfect. I had to return my BBII for the same slipping reason.

[Dobly]

You will love the perfect fit of the Remo silentstroke mesh heads. Fit perfect. I had to return my BBII for the same slipping reason.

Took almost 2 months but I got my Remo Silentstrokes yesterday. You are spot on Adrian. They are a perfect fit.  I put them all on late last night.

[adrian97c]

You will love the perfect fit of the Remo silentstroke mesh heads. Fit perfect. I had to return my BBII for the same slipping reason.

Took almost 2 months but I got my Remo Silentstrokes yesterday. You are spot on Adrian. They are a perfect fit.  I put them all on late last night.

Sweet! Extremely durable so far!