DIY Foot Drum

[jugglindan]

It doesn't need to be a bass pickup. There's nothing inherently different between a guitar and a bass pickup except the number of coils and the coil spacing. Same magnets, same typical 42AWG wire. So a guitar pickup will pick up just as much bass end. Just use whatever's handy/spare/cheapest. Single coils will probably be better as they have less mid-range emphasis.

No need for a preamp or high impedance input then.

Most piezo-style kick blocks I believe are pretty solid as you really just want the 'thump' of the wood as your foot hits it. But a pickup style unit will need a thinnish top that can resonate - at least a bit. You don't want a long sustain and you don't want it so resonant that you get acoustic feedback when you apply a bit of volume.

Interesting. I do have a few spare pickups around. And I have an LM386 headphone amp that I built a few years ago that could maybe drive a speaker or the headphone input on my amp, at least for experimenting. And I found some piezo transducers for under $10 on eBay, so experiments seem likely.

Given my lack of a bass amp, I have a new idea. Make the wooden box large enough to house a small 386-based amp (like a noisy cricket or something modded for bass) and a speaker. A self-contained stomp box sub-woofer thingy.

[FrankenWashie]

Hmmm, I’ve all sorts of pallet wood, iron wood, blue gum, mahogany and ash scraps lying around the lab....if someone was to send me some dimensions for a box like thingy, Igor might be able to stitch, I mean, thtitch, something together....

[jugglindan]

Hmmm, I’ve all sorts of pallet wood, iron wood, blue gum, mahogany and ash scraps lying around the lab....if someone was to send me some dimensions for a box like thingy, Igor might be able to stitch, I mean, thtitch, something together....

I like the cut of Igor's jib, or whatever that hump is called. Give me time to move this project beyond the embryonic stage and I might well take you up on that offer!

[Ig0r]

I like the cut of Igor's jib, or whatever that hump is called. Give me time to move this project beyond the embryonic stage and I might well take you up on that offer!

Very kind of you to thay tho Marthter Dan, but it’th not my Jib. It belonged to my Couthin Igor and wath repurpothed after an unfortunate mithunderthtanding with an angry mob.

[jugglindan]

Very kind of you to thay tho Marthter Dan, but it’th not my Jib. It belonged to my Couthin Igor and wath repurpothed after an unfortunate mithunderthtanding with an angry mob.

Can't .... reply ... too busy .... la la laughing...

[McCreed]

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.

[Simon Barden]

Piezo trigger playing back a sampled kick sound maybe?

[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?

[Simon Barden]

Lots of old drum machines with a trigger input out there!