Author Topic: Guitar Hero drums = useful  (Read 4394 times)

Guitar Hero drums = useful
« on: May 02, 2012, 05:07:23 PM »
I live across the street from a thrift store, and at one point they were leaving a Guitar Hero drum controller out in the street to be thrown away; it hadn't been bought.
I grabbed it. It's a Redoctane World Tour drum kit: pic attached.

This kit is velocity sensitive for some reason.

I brought it home and took the two conical cymbal things off, and after unscrewing the bottom plate, found a tidy little piezo mounted in a sturdy rubber housing. The plug is a 1/8in headphone-type plug. I scrounged around in my gadget box and found two 1/8in to 1/4in adapters and some guitar cords. I plugged the GHWT cymbals into the brain via pulling a tom jack and plugging in, and lo and behold! velocity sensitive pad!!! The mounting is the only hurdle after that, and I mounted mine on a piece of 2x2 with holes drilled in it.

I'm planning on building a foot drum with the other 4 pads, a board, and some pool noodle foam. I'll plug the kick, snare, hi hat and crash and see what I end up with.



Offline gorgatron

Re: Guitar Hero drums = useful
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2012, 06:50:50 PM »
lol

awesome!!! you could easily switch the 1/8" plug for a 1/4" plug, unless the 1/8" is stereo and your module will only read the one ring of a TRS. those on my DM10 are all TS mono, so i assume the same for the DM8. still if you can accomplish what you need with adapters and with no lossyness in the signal, why not just go that route.

as i was reading your post i got to thinking about claiming the Rock Band drum kit my cousin's have once thy no longer use it to strip it for parts.

thanks for sharing the info! :)
Alesis DM10 Studio - modified Trondster dampened rack, Hellfire mesh head conversion on toms and kick, converted 1971 14" Ludwig 303 snare w/ aluminum shell - cone + rim piezo conversion; alternate between Stock and Blue Jay Roms, BFD2, Reaper, Reason 6.5

Offline Jermdog

Re: Guitar Hero drums = useful
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2012, 02:56:01 PM »
Stripped a RB set for parts a while back.  The piezos are small, so you should probably only use them for smaller drums, or combine them for larger ones.  I've been using a couple of RB cymbals for a year or so.  I removed all of the innards (board and jack) and hardwired a signal cable to the piezo.  The housing is just right to keep the cable tight coming out.
Strike Pro, Dm10, Zildjian Gen 16 hats, xhats and garbage cymbals, Kit Toys chinas, crash and splashes, jam dock, mixer, custom 13" tom, alesis, drum workshop and various hardware.

Re: Guitar Hero drums = useful
« Reply #3 on: May 25, 2012, 03:36:47 PM »
It really depends on the conversion that you are going to use for mesh.  I find that many people do it different ways.  Plain and simple there are really two ways of doing.  Fliping the plate over where the piezo is facing up or leaving it facing down.  If you are going to leave it facing down, just go to your local craft store like joanns or micheals and pick up a couple sheets of the 2mm foam. 

Now if you are going to flip the reflection plate up where the piezo is facing upward, which personally I like better, because it makes the drum a little more sensitive and responsive.  If you are going to do it this way, you can use any low to mediam density foam.  The best way I have found to fo it is get your self a 3/4 in sheet of the dense green foam from joanns and cut yourself a few cones out of it.  Place some thin double sided tape around the pieze and put your foam cone on it. 

Also when it comes to mesh heads there are a lot of different mesh heads out there.  By far the most expensive mesh heads are the roland and hart mesh heads.  The mid range price is going to be billyblast mesh heads or pintech mesh heads and by far the cheapest are the pearl muffle heads.  If you hit your drums harder than the average person then i would suggest the rolands, but remember they do cost almost 40 bucks per head.  Honestly I love the pearl single ply muffle heads.  They only run about 7 buck each.  I keep my snare head really tight because it offers really good rebound that way.  I have had my pearl mesh heads for like 6 months and they are steel going strong.  I even use the pearl muffle head on my bass drum.  With these heads, just make sure you use nylon tiped sticks, because wood tipped stick chip and can shread the heads.  Also if you are going to use them on your bass drum, use a wood, rubber, or plastic beater.  The felt beaters tend to start pulling on the mesh head after a while weakend and end up making a hole in it. 

Billyblast heads are fantastic.  They come in three ply which can hold up to the abuse of really heavy hitters.  The only down side to 3 ply heads that I see is they arent really good for tensioning them really tight, so the rebound isnt that good.  Besides that billyblast heads are just as good as rolands and are half the price at 15 to 25 each.  The one thing I do love about billyblast heads and roland mesh heads is that they are white and you cant really see through them, but personally i prefer the feel of the single ply pearl heads, but you can see straight through them. 

Just remember a lot of people choose to buy the expensive roland heads, because lets face it, they are roland and most people know roland.  Roland makes really great product, but I find most of their stuff to be way over priced.    Most of the money you spend on roland products is just for the name.  Ive tried all of it because Im a  big DIYer and I enjoyt the pearl heads over all.  Honestly its going to come down to really what look and feel you like. 

Re: Guitar Hero drums = useful
« Reply #4 on: December 31, 2012, 03:15:40 AM »
This is good to know. My buddy just asked me if i wanted his gh drums cause he never plays the game anymore. Maybe i will just pull the cymbals off and use one for a hihat and the other for a splash or something. Im using a dm5 and will be converting my daughters acoustic set for her over the next week or two and being that shes only 4 i dont want to put too much $ into it.

Re: Guitar Hero drums = useful
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2017, 04:40:31 AM »
I had the same idea and I have now installed the two cymbal pads from the Guitar Hero drums onto my Crimson kit, I just glued the yellow and orange inserts in place so they would stay in the pads and then slid them through the two crimson cymbal stand polls (bottom half of the bendy pole) they fit nice and snug and can be easily played with a little adjustment to the cymbal hights. I just use them for things like cowbells or shakers which they work perfectly for. I love upcycling. :)

Offline Dobly

Re: Guitar Hero drums = useful
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2017, 07:42:48 AM »
Very cool. I am always on the look out for drums and other instruments when driving about. Amazing what some people throw out.

Re: Guitar Hero drums = useful
« Reply #7 on: August 20, 2017, 09:34:42 AM »
Just ran across this thread. I grabbed the 2 cymbal pads off of an old GH kit just as you did to use as splash cymbals on my A2E. Haven't hooked them up yet but glad to know they will work. For a cheap little trigger they seem to be fairly well constructed. And with some semi-vigorous soap-washing with a Magic Eraser sponge the rubber smooths out to like-new condition. As they say, One man's trash...