Yep.This is my trainwreck. Kids... Do NOT try this at home. If you do, you'll be kicking puppies and punching yourself in the face in no time. Nothing is ever made to fit anything ever. Nothing. If something looks like it will fit... It wont. But you will do whatever it takes to fit a square peg into a round peg. Sometimes you will succeed. Sometimes you will check your little box o' crap and find something that will work for you. But looks can and will be deceiving. And this time, your frustration causes over-aggressive manipulation that, after a couple hours, renders that part that caused you to drive a flat head screwdriver into the palm of your hand, useless.
And the little purple ring never goes away.
But here's my thing. It started off as a used 5 piece I accidentally won on ebay. And then another. The second one helped me to replace the n/o switches I used to trigger the bass drum and crash triggers on my now retired Kawai drum machines. I bought misc pads and stuff here and there (if they were really cheap), and found a grown-up kit with a larger frame that does not connect or play well with the 3/4 inch frame I got with the first two kits. And vice versa. They do not play well together. But... I refused to let it kick my ass. And I refused to let it tap into my wallet.
I am victorious!
And believe it or not... This thing is as solid as a rock.
In the picture above, you might notice that the throne is indeed, not a throne at all. It is a modified office chair with the back removed. I also took the seat off the "main frame" thing and added a 4 inch box made from only the finest scrap 2X4's to bolt between the frame and seat to give it the lift I need to keep my knees below my waste. You will also see an old Tascam multitrack unit (30 bucks at the local pawn shop) that I use to mix the 3-4 modules and auxiliary input from my CD or computer. The outputs are sent to a little 12 track mixer that also handles strings and keys. The Gibralter double pedal and 12 track mixers were also good pawn shop finds.
In the picture below, the only thing that isn't totally effed is the silver frame and connectors. Oh. The drum on the lower left isn't unnaturally manipulated as well. I think everything else you see is somewhat modified to fit. That Roland pad is mounted on a boom intended for a regular cymbal. The base of that boom is now a keyboard stand. And in the last picture, you will see that it is fixed to the chrome boom next to it that is sleeved into another piece that is mounted to the leg of the 1 1/2 inch frame. That sleeve allows me raise or lower the pad by loosening the wing nuts in the tee connected to the end of the 3/4 inch frame. When it is secure, the kits are then locked together. Theres more, but I decided that it would take longer than I had expected to explain them all tonight.
This next picture is just an example of the random pads that make up this kit. Maybe I just posted this picture to show off my DIY Taurus Pedals that are back there lurking in the shadows.
All in all, the thing is pretty compact. It covers an area of about 6ft by 5ft. That's equivalent to two fat chicks, if anyone's keeping score. And since my space very limited, I cut an inch by inch piece of a Miller Lite can to add girth to the rod on my music stand so I would be able to clamp it to the cymbal clamp that clamps to the 3/4 inch frame. It makes it reachable and keeps me from kicking it over every time I walk past until I eventually end up harpooning someone with it. And, yes. That IS a Rickenbacker 4001 hanging back there. Thanks for noticing. And thanks for lookin at my stuff. Really. I appreciate it.