Acoustic to Electric (A2E) Piezo Drum Conversion

In this Instructable, I convert a small acoustic bop kit by adding DIY drop in piezo triggers.

This project is a Broke & Tired guide where I put in as little effort as possible.

You can follow this link to a tiktok video showcasing how it sounds with & without headphones.

Main objective: Keep my volume down in a multi-unit apartment building, allowing me to practice at all hours without sacrificing the feel & versatility of owning an acoustic kit. Spend as little time, money, and energy as possible in the endeavor.

Disclaimer

HiHat + Ride Triggering: I'm still experimenting with this but I've found some success by fixing a piezo face down on the low volume cymbal and then adding a layer of kitchen shelving liner. I've found the liner reduces volume and keeps some of the rebound. I will update this guide once I lock in the design of these.

There's a lot here that can be improved upon but this is the cheapest & fastest method I could come up with to convert my kit with minimal effort. I did not measure anything and just eyeballed it all. This is a temporary & fragile setup, not for gigging. The design has good bones though and is easily modifiable and reinforceable.

Pickup Assembly Cost (If you've already got drums + cymbals + drum hardware + tools)

• Total material cost: ~$100 for 10 pickups

• Comes out to ≈ $10 per pickup

Existing Gear:

• Used PDP New Yorker shell pack: ($500) You do not need new shells for this project. Buy used whenever you can.

• Evans SilentStroke mesh heads: ($109 off sweetwater) Using them on toms and snare without resonate heads. I should not have ordered one for the kick. Using mesh on the kick removed all the punch and fun. The kick now has a regular batter head on it, stuffed to the brim with pillows, and I’ve wrapped my beater in a washcloth as well. It’s sitting on hockey pucks to decouple it from the floor. Volume is a major concern for me, living in an apartment building. You can probably save money and forgo these by simply laying a thin towel over your existing drum heads to mute them.

• Craigslist drum hardware ($75 for snare, hat, ride, and throne)

• Low-volume cymbals ($60 off Amazon)

• 1/4” cables I had these from my guitar rig

• DDrum DDti interface bought used on eBay ($139) (These units have a lot of reported issues on newer macs/pcs. I lucked out and got one already on the latest firmware. If replicating this build exactly, ensure the module serial number starts with 2021 or higher. If experiencing issues, update firmware)

• Spare Alesis DM6 Cymbals My old E-Drums are 6 years old and dying so I'm cannibalizing the parts into this new kit slowly

• Ableton 12 Lite as my software of choice. You need some sort of software to make this VST setup work!

• Laptop with a minimum of 8GB of RAM to run software

Materials List

• Small L Brackets: 2 per snare/tom $5 for two 4-packs

• Large L Brackets: 2 per floor tom/kick $3 per 4-pack

• Paint Sticks: (bridge material) 2 packs $3

• Dense Adhesive Foam: bridge to L brackets isolation $11.49

• Firm Upholstery Foam: head contact layer $20 (I bought way too much but the density is perfect.)

• 3M Double-Sided Foam Tape $5.89

• Piezo Discs: 1 per drum 15-pack for $7.99

• 1MΩ Resistors: 1 per pickup 10-pack for $4

• TRS Jacks: 10-pack for $15.17 (ts would suffice but I wanted the option to upgrade to dual zone down the road)

• Red/Black Wire $8

• Heat Shrink Tubing $6 multipack

• Duct Tape (What I had lying around.)

• Shelving Liner $5.97 (To cover the low volume cymbals)

Tools Used

• Cheap Amazon Soldering Iron Kit (~$10, no longer listed on Amazon)

• Leatherman (knife / pliers / screwdriver)

• Wire strippers ($5.79 off Amazon)

• Heat Gun (A Bic lighter would also work for the heat shrink) ($9.99 off Amazon)

Tips

• Bring your hardware with you when shopping for L brackets. Sizing in person avoids returns and frustration.

• Test the piezo with your drum module after you’ve soldered it, before mounting it onto the bridge. Test again before mounting it in the drum.

• Trying to shave off foam layers is a fools game. It’s easier to peel off a layer of 3M tape or add another paint stick layer to adjust the height of the bridge.

• When soldering wires, add heat shrink before touching the iron. Keep the shrink away from the join until you’re done so it doesn’t shrink it’s self prematurely from the heat of the iron.

• This design feeds a 1/4" through the drum port. My ports were almost too deep to accomplish this. It just barely connects to the 1/4" TRS jack. If the ports don't work for you, leave off your resonate heads, mount the jack to the bridge with tape and then run the cable out of the bottom of the drum.

1. Measure wire length

• Measure from center of drum head to closest drum port.

• Add 1 inch of slack.

2. Extend piezo wires (if needed)

• Solder additional wire to reach measured length.

• Cover joins with heat shrink.

3. Solder the resistor to the TRS jack

• 1MΩ resistor bridges Tip ↔ Sleeve. One end to tip & one end to sleeve.

4. Solder piezo leads

• Red → Tip

• Black → Sleeve

5. Test the pickup with your drum module before proceeding!

Final Mounting order (bottom → top):

1. L bracket (attached to existing lug hardware)

2. Dense foam squares (adhesive side attached to paint stick, This is what rests on the L Brackets & helps isolate the bridge from the drum)

3. Paint stick (your bridge)

4. 3M double-sided foam tape (1-2”, centered on Bridge)

5. Dense foam square (Adhesive side up. Sized slightly larger than 3M tape)

6. Piezo disc (centered on dense foam adhesive side, ceramic element facing up)

7. Upholstery foam (lightly contacting drum head, I found more surface area produced better trigger response so I added ~1" of extra border around each piezo)

Note: In earlier builds I doubled up on the dense foam — this was a mistake. Start with thinner layers and add height only if needed.

Assembly Steps

1. Cut dense foam into two 1" squares. Attach dense foam to the ends of your paint-stick bridge.

• This foam sits on the L brackets and isolates vibration.

2. Apply ~1-2" of 3M tape sqaure to center of the bridge, opposite side of paint stick from the dense foam.

3. Place dense foam square (cut slightly bigger than 3M tape from previous step, set adhesive side up) onto the 3M tape.

4. Center the piezo on the adhesive side of the dense foam

5. Place upholstery foam on top of the piezo & test with drum module.

6. Temporarily place the entire bridge assembly onto the L brackets inside the drum

7. Ensure the upholstery foam just kisses the drum head

• It should touch but NOT compress.

• Add/remove layers (paint stick or tape) to adjust height.

8. Test the pickup again with your drum module before mounting it to the L brackets in the drum!

1. Center the bridge pickup on the L brackets in the drum
2. Tape around the bridge and the L brackets to secure it in place (I originally tried zipties for this but found them to be too rigid)
3. Run your instrument cable through the nearest drum port and connect it to the piezo.
4. Connect the 1/4" to your drum module & test!

That's all there is to it!

Plug it in, dial in your settings on your module of choice, and enjoy your new E-Drums!