How to Modify Yamaha DD50 to Accept Drum Triggers
- 1). Place an old sheet over the pad you have selected for modification and gently run a clothes iron over it. The heat from the iron will melt the glue attaching the vulcanized rubber drum pad to the inside of the pad assembly. Apply the heat for five minutes.
- 2). Slide a palette knife inside the small gap between the plastic housing and the rubber pad. Gently pry the pad out of the housing and place it to one side. It will still be connected to the interior wires. Snip the wires as close as possible to the drum pad. The wires connecting the pad to the processor in the DD50 are now redundant. Snip them as close the bottom of the plastic housing as possible to create space for the piezo element. You don't need to remove them completely, because the rest of the wires are concealed inside the drum machine.
- 3). Create a small hole in the top edge of the plastic pad assembly with a slotting file. It need only be large enough to feed a speaker wire through.
- 4). File down the edge of a circular coffee can lid so that it has a smaller diameter than the rubber drum pad. Score the underside of the coffee can lid with a Stanley knife. Glue a piezo element to the bottom of the coffee can lid.
- 5). Strip the end of the two piezo wires and the two speaker wires. Solder the piezo ground wire to the speaker ground wire and the positive piezo wire to the positive speaker wire. Solder the other end of the speaker ground to the panel-mount terminal of the RCA jack. Solder the positive speaker wire to the ring-mount terminal of the RCA jack.
- 6). Score the top of the coffee can lid and glue it to the bottom side of the rubber drum pad.
- 7). Slot the rubber pad back into the plastic housing. Feed the speaker wire through the groove on the top edge of the plastic housing and connect the RCA jack to the external processor.
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