As stated in my last post, I ordered a set of practice cymbals to convert to eCymbals. They were on clearance as blemished items, but I couldn’t find much wrong with them. The holes on a couple seemed like maybe they were a little ragged, and the 18″ seemed slightly warped, but they will still serve their purpose.

To convert them, I simply attached the encased piezos from Radio Shack with thin double-sided tape. Right now, the piezos are permanently soldered to the cable that goes to the brain. I will eventually make some sort of housing with a quarter inch plug, but this is working for now.

I was planning on gluing the “fan” section of the cymbal mutes directly to the cymbals, but I’m not so sure now. They do work well at eliminating the “tick, tick” noise, but they reduce the sensitivity of the trigger quite a bit. So for the moment, I have them draped over the cymbals as intended, and have the flexibility to use play on the mute during softer sections, or directly on the surface when I want them to be louder. After playing with them live more, I might decide I don’t want them altogether. The stage of the auditorium where our church meets seems to really eat a lot of sound, and any sound from the cymbals might be negligible.

Here’s what things look like now. I used one of the 14″ and the 16″ cymbals. I will probably make another cymbal and use my fourth tom input for that. I need some cymbals stands now, though, which is why I have sacrificed the second tom.