DIY Foot Drum

[FrankenWashie]

I played in touring duos and trios that used a stompbox instead of a drummer. The best thing I ever heard was the Bigfoot by Wolftone. (now called Wild Dog following some lengthy legal issues)

My point is that (most) every other stompbox I heard, sounded real "clicky" with no real THUMP like you'd expect from a bass drum. The Bigfoot could sound huge and the guitar player ran it through a 10 band EQ into a 15" sub. We played pubs, theatres and festivals all around Australia and it always sounded great.
A lot of the DIY and old school stompboxes I saw were inconsistent in their performance, could be prone to feedback and as I said before, lacked big bottom.

I have no idea what the electronics were because the builder (from Byron Bay) would not tell anyone what the secret sauce was and drilled out all the screw heads after he assembled them.

I've heard the "Puck" ones and they still fell short of the Wolftone/Wild Dog brand.

They don’t miss, 200 for a smaller one up to 400 for one of the bigger ones, yikes!

[jugglindan]

I played in touring duos and trios that used a stompbox instead of a drummer. The best thing I ever heard was the Bigfoot by Wolftone. (now called Wild Dog following some lengthy legal issues)

My point is that (most) every other stompbox I heard, sounded real "clicky" with no real THUMP like you'd expect from a bass drum. The Bigfoot could sound huge and the guitar player ran it through a 10 band EQ into a 15" sub. We played pubs, theatres and festivals all around Australia and it always sounded great.
A lot of the DIY and old school stompboxes I saw were inconsistent in their performance, could be prone to feedback and as I said before, lacked big bottom.

I have no idea what the electronics were because the builder (from Byron Bay) would not tell anyone what the secret sauce was and drilled out all the screw heads after he assembled them.

I've heard the "Puck" ones and they still fell short of the Wolftone/Wild Dog brand.

Anything I build is likely to be very inconsistent. But then, so is my playing, so at least Stompy and I will have that in common

Piezo trigger playing back a sampled kick sound maybe?

Or a pressure switch? But yeah, you might be right. Maybe a lot of them don't amplify the stomp but instead just trigger a sample. Maybe if I get an old midi keyboard, program it for drums, wire one key to the stomp and hide the keyboard somewhere...nah.

They don’t miss, 200 for a smaller one up to 400 for one of the bigger ones, yikes!

Yikes indeed. It was looking at the prices that made me think DIY. That, and it sounds like a fun project to build. I can see two now. A small pedal, and something larger with the amp and speaker integrated. Maybe I could just buy an old combo amp and jump on that?