Custom Trigger: Cheap and easy!

[LooseSends]

So, if you go to Pintech's website you can order replacement piezo boxes (single zone cymbal trigger replacement) with 1/4" input for their cymbals. They only cost $20 and effectively you can just plug it in and voila! You have a working trigger you can use for anything.

Of course, smacking the little plastic box isn't a great idea, and I wanted it for a cowbell trigger, so I came up with this:

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Aluminum Composite panel is rigid, can be easily scored, and snapped or bent, using a box cutter/blade, so is very easy to design something up. In this case I just needed something small that could mount to an Alesis pad mount.

To keep the 90deg scored parts from snapping off entirely, I reinforced the resulting gap, as well as the back-side, with a glue gun and it is very solid. It mounts easily and securely with a bolt as seen in pic 2. This might've taken me a half-hour.

As I want to keep the tapping down a bit and provide a bit of cushioning to the strike, I scrounged up some "foot pads" that came with some other device which had a peel-off adhesive side and that worked out perfect for feel when hitting it. Kinda feels just like a cowbell really!

At that point all you need is to split off one of the inputs from your hihat (assuming you don't care about bell hits) by using a stereo to dual mono splitter to share the input on your ED and assign them in your software.

I'm very pleased with this build. Even if you don't really need a separate trigger for anything, it's good to have in your kit just in case you're gigging and one of your pads/cymbals dies, for peace of mind. Did I mention it was only $20? The ACP might be harder for you to attain (I'm a sign maker so I always have offcuts kept around for projects) but try a local signmaker and ask if they have any ACP offcuts you can have, or buy.

I bought two of these trigger boxes so the next build will be something that mounts to my snare for sidestick triggering since my Crimson II pad is only dual zone and the second zone is used for rimshot.

[LooseSends]

So this evening I put something together for the snare mounted sidestick trigger with my remaining Pintech box.

Worked out great and is super sturdy. I just used a silicone glue-stick as the hit pad which protects the sticks and the ACP structure, which is doubled-up for rigidity. Great thing about the silicone is it shores up angled pieces strongly so there's nothing flimsy about this thing, yet it was easy to fabricate on the fly.

Needs some finishing to look nicer maybe, but this is kind of an on-the-fly prototype.

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[dsteinschneider]

Good ideas for extra pads, I've been building the exact equivalent of a Pintech sensor by purchasing the same little project boxes from polycase.com and using 27mm piezos from goedrums on Amazon. For $19 the Pintech units are a better deal considering the time but I like building things.....

I've only used them for cymbals, making trigger pads is a great idea. I especially like the snare one.