Slo's Centered Snare Mod...Pics are up!

**SloRacer1080** · Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 361 Location: Madison, NJ

Hey guys. i've seen a few people mention that they want to move their red pad more towards the center, and flatter like a real set. Well i actually did that about 2 months ago while i was stuck on RttH. 1st try after this mod i passed it.
Basically i was waiting to make sure that my design did hold up before i posted it, i consider myself a pretty aggressive drummer

so seeing as its still solid, its gonna hold up just fine.
Now i know it's a big leap of faith to cut your red pad clean off your set

but its worth it.

Some benefits i've noticed are...
- increased rebound on the red pad
- much easier to do the rtth, everlong, type of songs
- less arm movement - less fatigue

Some detrimental effects...
- having to re-learn where the red pad is (took a week or 2)
- the angle orientation of your body to the set (slightly tweaked to the left, makes your head turn to the right a touch, can annoy your neck muscles - solution, angle the set to the right a bit, problem solved)
- its now a bit tricky to remove the red pad head (it kinda sticks under the yellow a bit)
- once set up, very limited height adjustment

The way i set it up, its permanently fixed. I'm going to try to think of a way to do it with an adjustable height. Otherwise its a very custom one-off.

This is a cheap mod, just takes some ingenuity, and patience. I spent maybe 10-15 bux on the whole project.

Sorry i'm at work right now, so i cant post pics at the moment. Just had to kill some time so i figured i would post the topic and update later. I have tomorrow off and will take some pics and upload them so you guys can see what i mean, and try it yourselves.

I use a RB1 EL set btw. I am one of the few lucky ones who have a perfect EL set. I just picked up another RB1 set for parts since they now sell for 40 bux, luckily the only set in stock at best buy was an EL.
So with that i plan to also move the green pad, or make an another green pad above the existing pad to go for a cymbal type set up. I'm also looking into using the pedal i got with the new set to switch the yellow and blue pads when released for the closed/open hi-hat hits. I've got an idea in mind, just need to work out the kinks of switching signal paths. Most likely gonna need a double relay setup.

***Edit***
vvvvvvvvv

Materials used...

1 - 1"x1/8"x3' aluminum bar. (avail at homedepot...3-4 bux)
1 - Aluminum rivets. 1/8" round x 1/2" long. (4-5 bux for box/100)
1 - Copper pipe plumbing insulation foam. (2 bux)
2 - 1"x1/4" bolts w nuts and 2 washers (maybe 1 dollar)
2 - 3/4" self tapping screws (also maybe 1 dollar)

Just a straight on view. (focus!!)

Side view, I used copper pipe foam insulation to cover up the aluminum.

There's a shot without the foam covering.
The foam is attached with zip-ties on either end, so i couldn't pull it completely off. It's just another bar of aluminum. I curved it to give me leg clearance. At the base of it, it rests on top of the black plastic on the stand. I also rounded out the back to snug it up against the pole. A simple zip-tie over the foam holds it very tightly.

Uncovered close up of the bracket.
Here you can see the bracket is secured by the 2 self tappers to the mount under the yellow pad. Also the bar coming off the bracket is the one to go under the snare. It is secured with 1 rivet in the center of the bracket. After about 2 weeks, that rivet loosened up. Not going to fall of, but the snare can move left and right a touch. I recommend using a small nut/bolt combo instead. The bracket does wrap around both sides of the mount, like a U shape with a flat spot on the bottom. And you can also see the easy routing of the wire. Only thing tricky there, was the little pcb board where the connector is for the sensor, it wont reach its original location. So i moved it to a safe flat spot inside the pad case, held down with black fun-tack basically.

Underneath the red pad.
I used 3 rivets to attach the 2 strips of aluminum, and 2 nut/bolt to attach them to the pad. This is extremely solid. I lined up the 2 bolt heads under the foam inside the pad.

And here's what it looks like sitting at them. Turned slightly to the left to center the snare between your legs.
Yes, I know there are 2 blue pads, no green. I broke all but my blue pad on my last set of pads. So I'm just using my extra blue.
Also I purposely removed all the plastic rims. I like the look better, and instead of possibly hitting a rim.. you hit the pad.
You can also see I play on a hard floor. So I use a bath towel as a base to put everything on. And I use the front leg of my throne to hold the bass pedal. Works great for me.

My DIY metal/JB Weld pedal.

Just to show the difference between the sticks RB comes with versus the Pro-Mark Juniors I use.

Now you really don't need anything fancy here. Only tools I used were.. Dremel (or a hacksaw)
Hammer
Drill
Rivet gun (could substitute for all screws tho)
Small Vise
My Hands

All the bars i bent by hand with the exception of the 90* angles. That's what the hammer is for.

Let me know what you guys think. Thanks.

**SloRacer1080** · Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 361 Location: Madison, NJ

pics are live

**pheonix** · Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Posts: 225 Location: Sydney Australia

**SloRacer1080** · Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 361 Location: Madison, NJ

I find it easier because the red pad is now slightly tucked under the yellow pad. The difference is between reaching your whole arm from say the distance of green and blue, to just a slight wrist angle change i do on the up stroke. Personally for me it is easier to do the constant roll songs.

**rpeet687** · Joined: 25 May 2008 Posts: 557

Nice mod, does the red pad ever get loose? lol, are those two blue pads

**SloRacer1080** · Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 361 Location: Madison, NJ

The red pad is already loose because i used a rivet to connect the bracket to the support that goes under the pad (pic 4), if i'd used a nut/bolt that wouldn't be an issue. But on the upside, it's not getting any looser, but it can move left and right about 1/2" either way if you push it with your hand. It doesn't do it on its own.

And yea, those are 2 blue pads. The one thats supposed to be there is from the bundle kit. The others are all replacements. I got a new rb1 set, I already had the blue off and ready to be swapped, but not the green, so i was lazy and just used the blue to replace the broken green. You can tell by the faded blue.

**Miller316** · Joined: 17 Sep 2008 Posts: 40

dude, what an awesome mod. one thing i would recommend to you or the people who do this, is use locking nuts cause of the vibration.
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**azelauskas** · Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Burlington, NJ

you should post a video up, i wanna see what it's like in action :O

**boredathome** · Joined: 21 Nov 2007 Posts: 635 Location: Hyrum, Ut

since sloracer1080 is my friend and i refered him here, i'll chime in and say that, he's sat down in front of his set and explaned it to me, showed mme and it looks soooo much easier to do Rtth type songs. i think it's genius!!! and it's sturdy!
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**The0ldMan** · Joined: 04 Jul 2006 Posts: 898 Location: Philly, PA

That's fuckin' awesome dude. Nice work! I have my ion pads arranged almost exactly the same way, but that's easy for me to do. I don't think I could do waht you did, and I consider myself to be very handy.
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**SloRacer1080** · Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 361 Location: Madison, NJ

Ill see what I can do about getting a vid up tomorrow. I gotta see if i have a decent enough cam in the house to do it.
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