Author Topic: One month, two failures.  (Read 1215 times)

Offline VandalX

One month, two failures.
« on: January 30, 2018, 12:20:11 AM »
Well, it was bound to happen. I read all the reviews that indicated a less-than-stellar build quality from Alesis. But I couldn't swing $5000 for a similarly outfitted Roland/Yamaha kit. So I crossed my fingers and picked up a DM10 MKII Pro. Mesh heads. It has four toms, which is more than I use on an acoustic set, but in the end it was useful, since my snare began to fail about a week ago (two is one and one is none). It got very muted, like it had a pillow stuffed into it. I took the head off and saw that two of the foam cones had fallen off, but nothing else was apparently wrong. The whole drum had significant dead zones, and only hitting right in the middle of the head-exactly- would produce any sound. Ghost notes were all but impossible.

So, I moved the second floor tom to the snare position. It worked fine. For about four days. I took that head off and all the cones, save for one outer cone, had become stuck on one side of the shell. Odd, and indicative of really shitty adhesive, but that wasn't the problem. The center trigger is totally unresponsive. Dead. The outer trigger (for rim shots) still fires, but that's not totally useful. I have every confidence that this fate will eventually move to the other drums, as I can't see how they are broken, or what I did to hasten their demise. I'd never play these live with this kind of uncertainty. I have contacted Alesis with a warranty issue, and will report back with the results. I have included a picture of the second snare with the cones gathered, like sheep hiding from the rain, on the side of the shell. Top notch build quality (not). At least super glue is cheap. Oh, and the other picture shows the thin plastic strip that is broken, connecting the large plastic rings that are attached to the foam rings. I assume this decreases the ability of the trigger to pick up nuanced hits.

Also, I'm no John Bonham. I do NOT hit these things all that hard. You'd think that a company that makes things that people hit with sticks would be slightly more robust. Or maybe I just have a faulty set.
Alesis DM 10 MKII Pro (with Tama Iron Cobra double). Pearl Export acoustic. Fostex VF160EX Digital multitrack (16). Fostex monitors. Roland TR-626 drum machine. Roland Juno 106 Poly synth. Aria Knight Warrior. Peavy Fury. Digitech GNX3000. Digitech RP360. Tascam Porta 05 four track. MacBook Air.

Offline korakios

Re: One month, two failures.
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2018, 04:28:27 AM »
It seems easy fix with superglue,but too bad it happened on a new kit .

These problems haunt Alesis reputation, how much more would the kit cost with better plastic and glue ?

PS . The design looks almost ready for positional sensing  :D

Offline VandalX

Re: One month, two failures.
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2018, 09:13:41 AM »
Yeah, it's too bad they have such quality control issues. I really like most of what the kit can do. I know the module is a bit limited, but for now it's just fine. Eventually I'll move to a VST (providing anything on the kit still works in another month).

I've also considered buying external triggers (Pintech?) to just replace the Alesis triggers. I do like the feel of the drums, and they're super quiet. The upside to the whole exercise is that I've gotten back into playing drums after a decade, and I'm enjoying that aspect of it all. I just figured I would give out before the equipment!
Alesis DM 10 MKII Pro (with Tama Iron Cobra double). Pearl Export acoustic. Fostex VF160EX Digital multitrack (16). Fostex monitors. Roland TR-626 drum machine. Roland Juno 106 Poly synth. Aria Knight Warrior. Peavy Fury. Digitech GNX3000. Digitech RP360. Tascam Porta 05 four track. MacBook Air.

Offline Purpledc

Re: One month, two failures.
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2018, 03:09:47 PM »
Well this is why i always buy from a place with an extended warranty.  You have to remember, alesis really doesnt make any of their kits.  At least nothing below the strike.  Its all made by medeli.  Its the reason why many of alesis parts are almost identical to that of simmons.  Most kits that arent made by roland or yamaha are medeli made.  As such they all seem to have similar failure rates.  The good thing is their designs are simple enough to fix relatively easily.

Offline VandalX

Re: One month, two failures.
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2018, 05:21:31 PM »
UPDATE! Wow, so buying directly from Amazon was definitely the way to go. I contacted their customer support just to see what they had to say. They're shipping me a whole new drumkit. All of it. Free. I have 30 days to send back the defective kit. Took me 20 minutes of chatting with the customer service folks. Talk about service! Now, I have no illusions that I won't encounter this problem again, due to the finicky nature of the Alesis electronics. But at least I know what's going on and feel some satisfaction that the original problem will be resolved. I didn't even have to deal with Alesis directly! It's a good day.
Alesis DM 10 MKII Pro (with Tama Iron Cobra double). Pearl Export acoustic. Fostex VF160EX Digital multitrack (16). Fostex monitors. Roland TR-626 drum machine. Roland Juno 106 Poly synth. Aria Knight Warrior. Peavy Fury. Digitech GNX3000. Digitech RP360. Tascam Porta 05 four track. MacBook Air.

Offline Purpledc

Re: One month, two failures.
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2018, 06:06:02 PM »
That is excellent news.  Amazon is really great to deal with. Especially if you are a prime member.  Glad to see it worked out for you.   It really seems like its just luck of the draw.   You could very likely get the new one and never have an issue.  I'm not saying you wont.  But I seem to think the alesis being cheaply made thing is greatly exaggerated.  The way I see it is if you are a brand that sells 100 times more sets than the competition (and lets face it alesis sells more than anyone in this market) you will have more defective products.  This is the law of averages.   I'm just glad to see you are being taken care of.   Do let us know again how it all goes.  And congrats!

Offline VandalX

Re: One month, two failures.
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2018, 06:24:36 PM »
Thanks, Purple. I am hopeful that it was a hiccup but at least I know what the weak links might be down the line. Plus, with Amazon I guess I can just make another claim. Despite my recent issues, I really do like the kit and its playability. I'll post more once I have the new one set up.
Alesis DM 10 MKII Pro (with Tama Iron Cobra double). Pearl Export acoustic. Fostex VF160EX Digital multitrack (16). Fostex monitors. Roland TR-626 drum machine. Roland Juno 106 Poly synth. Aria Knight Warrior. Peavy Fury. Digitech GNX3000. Digitech RP360. Tascam Porta 05 four track. MacBook Air.