bandaddy
01-08-2008, 05:27 PM
Post here your results / satisfaction of any drum mods you have tried.
My own experience:
Started stock. Then in an effort to quiet the drums down:
Tried the foam / felt silencers - These provided what I would estimate to be a 20% reduction in sound. Did not appear to affect sensitivity. Rebound about same as original.
Then started dropping some hits, so:
Foam spacers (aka penny mod) under center of drums - somewhat improved dropped hits, but made the drums louder again, due to less absorbing movement? Rebound also seemed deadened somewhat.
Once again in the pursuit of quieter drums:
Decided to test a couple different materials, in varying thickness.
Returned the drums back to stock condition, plus the spacers, added Mouse pad cutouts / gum rubber cutouts (two of each to compare).
I then dropped a steel bearing (1/4" size) from varying heights onto each one, starting at 12" using a short piece of pvc pipe for "aiming".
I found the mouse pad cutouts to be the champion of quieting the set down BUT, I had to drop from much higher from the drums to get hits to register. Definite sensitivity issue for me, since I am a "soft" drummer. Oh, one mouse pad was the 3/16" and one was 1/8", and same for the gum rubbers. The 1/8" was only slightly more responsive, but noisier.
Rebound for the mouse pad pieces was superior to stock drums by quite a bit, and better than the foam / felt, as judged by the height of bounce of the bearing.
The gum rubber yielded almost identical results as the mouse pad cutouts, though the thinner piece had the best sensitivity - but again was louder.
Rebound was actually less than the mouse pads - which surprised me a bit.
I'm convinced the answer lies in the thick mouse pad, but with some more work on the switch underneath to make it more sensitive. It was really pretty quiet, and felt "right" to hit, but it just cut out too much sensitivity.
I'm going to try some more sound / bounce / and response tests and try to have some actual measurements of bounce, decibels, and response force (need to "borrow" some equipment from work to do this), but I really think the results will only confirm my less formal tests.
My own experience:
Started stock. Then in an effort to quiet the drums down:
Tried the foam / felt silencers - These provided what I would estimate to be a 20% reduction in sound. Did not appear to affect sensitivity. Rebound about same as original.
Then started dropping some hits, so:
Foam spacers (aka penny mod) under center of drums - somewhat improved dropped hits, but made the drums louder again, due to less absorbing movement? Rebound also seemed deadened somewhat.
Once again in the pursuit of quieter drums:
Decided to test a couple different materials, in varying thickness.
Returned the drums back to stock condition, plus the spacers, added Mouse pad cutouts / gum rubber cutouts (two of each to compare).
I then dropped a steel bearing (1/4" size) from varying heights onto each one, starting at 12" using a short piece of pvc pipe for "aiming".
I found the mouse pad cutouts to be the champion of quieting the set down BUT, I had to drop from much higher from the drums to get hits to register. Definite sensitivity issue for me, since I am a "soft" drummer. Oh, one mouse pad was the 3/16" and one was 1/8", and same for the gum rubbers. The 1/8" was only slightly more responsive, but noisier.
Rebound for the mouse pad pieces was superior to stock drums by quite a bit, and better than the foam / felt, as judged by the height of bounce of the bearing.
The gum rubber yielded almost identical results as the mouse pad cutouts, though the thinner piece had the best sensitivity - but again was louder.
Rebound was actually less than the mouse pads - which surprised me a bit.
I'm convinced the answer lies in the thick mouse pad, but with some more work on the switch underneath to make it more sensitive. It was really pretty quiet, and felt "right" to hit, but it just cut out too much sensitivity.
I'm going to try some more sound / bounce / and response tests and try to have some actual measurements of bounce, decibels, and response force (need to "borrow" some equipment from work to do this), but I really think the results will only confirm my less formal tests.
