I Need Advice About Drum Triggers

Poleaux

Active Member
I’m relatively new to using drum triggers on my acoustic kit. I bought some internal triggers about a year ago, from a small company that I found online. Great customer service and the prices were fair. Well, since I bought those internal triggers, one by one, three of them just quit working all of a sudden, without anything damaging them. They were under warranty and the company sent me new ones without question. Now they are all out of warranty and another one just quit working on me last night and also my bass drum trigger bracket broke, so that one is no good anymore unless I find a way to replace the bracket. What I’m wondering, is, is it unusual for internal triggers to quit working like that? Are most drum triggers fragile and are expected to quit working? Or did I buy some crappy triggers? I’m shopping around for new ones and I’m reading reviews from customers and I see that many other people have triggers that just suddenly quit working as well. Based on the reviews I’ve read, it does not seem unusual, but I do see that some people have triggers for many years without a problem. What are some good name brands and models that I can look into?
 
I bought some internal triggers about a year ago, from a small company that I found online.
What company did you get them from? I've been looking to get internal triggers and curious about your experience. I've had Roland RT series triggers for 5 years, and although they haven't failed, I've had trouble with them producing consistent levels, especially when needing to change heads and remount them. So thinking internal triggers would produce better consistency.
 
I've been using the same 2 Ddrum pro triggers (the ones with the XLR connector) on my bass drums since 1999, and they've never had any issues after countless numbers of shows and thousands of hours of playing. Unfortunately, I think you may have gotten what you paid for and it may be better to buy once cry once in strad of buying multiple times ultimately spending more.
 
What company did you get them from? I've been looking to get internal triggers and curious about your experience. I've had Roland RT series triggers for 5 years, and although they haven't failed, I've had trouble with them producing consistent levels, especially when needing to change heads and remount them. So thinking internal triggers would produce better consistency.
Yes, internal triggers allow constantcontact with the drum heads, so they may be a bit more consistent. But they’re not as convenient to install and replace. I bought mine from Marshall at Extreme Drums…

https://www.extremedrums.com/
 
My Roland triggers have worked flawlessly for ten years.

 
Thanks for all of your suggestions so far. I’m thinking I may as well get some Rolands, since my drums and module are Roland. But has anyone tried Goedrum? They are priced suspiciously lower than the other brands, so I’m wondering if they are prone to all of a sudden quitting. Maybe they’re disposable triggers?
 
The word “Piezoelectricity” comes from the Greek words meaning “pressure electricity”. It was discovered in 1880 by Pierre and Jacques Curie. They were investigating the well-known phenomena of generating a spark by striking certain materials such as quartz.

I used to build my own triggers. My first piezo elements came from door bell buzzers at Radio Shack. My first trigger was.....a small speaker.
 
Another tech they were trying to implement was FSR. Force Sensitive Resitors. Did not hear much about that one. What new tech is in these really good long lasting triggers fellas? Or is it old tech....like Oilers method?
 
Another tech they were trying to implement was FSR. Force Sensitive Resitors. Did not hear much about that one. What new tech is in these really good long lasting triggers fellas? Or is it old tech....like Oilers method?
Glad you brought this up- been a while since I've checked out FSR tech.

Plenty of advantages but the main drawback I see is the need for a separate trigger box in addition to your drum module (so they can "talk to each other) as to why it's not more popular.

Last time I looked into these you had to mount a battery-operated "Inbox" on EACH pad/ drum which was even more of a hassle!

 
I’m relatively new to using drum triggers on my acoustic kit. I bought some internal triggers about a year ago, from a small company that I found online. Great customer service and the prices were fair. Well, since I bought those internal triggers, one by one, three of them just quit working all of a sudden, without anything damaging them. They were under warranty and the company sent me new ones without question. Now they are all out of warranty and another one just quit working on me last night and also my bass drum trigger bracket broke, so that one is no good anymore unless I find a way to replace the bracket. What I’m wondering, is, is it unusual for internal triggers to quit working like that? Are most drum triggers fragile and are expected to quit working? Or did I buy some crappy triggers? I’m shopping around for new ones and I’m reading reviews from customers and I see that many other people have triggers that just suddenly quit working as well. Based on the reviews I’ve read, it does not seem unusual, but I do see that some people have triggers for many years without a problem. What are some good name brands and models that I can look into?
What exactly broke in them, the mounting or the piezo sensor or cables or parts? There are several companies selling internally mountable a/e triggers kits, e.g. Pintech. They just contain a mounting bracket, a piezo wired to a jack and foam. Any of those can be replaced. They can be fragile depending on quality of components and installation, but also the people who write review are often the ones who had a problem.
 
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What exactly broke in them, the mounting or the piezo sensor or cables or parts? There are several companies selling internally mountable a/e triggers kits, e.g. Pintech. They just contain a mounting bracket, a piezo wired to a jack and foam. Any of those can be replaced. They can be fragile depending on quality of components and installation, but also the people who write review are often the ones who had a problem.
A couple of them just suddenly died, the piezo pickups just quit working without apparent cause. Another one just quit working too, but we took a look at it later and found a wire that had come loose in the piezo pickup and we were able to fix it. My bass drum trigger bracket broke and the problem with that is that the piezo pickup are glued onto the brackets, so it will be difficult to pop it off and put it on a new bracket without doing damage to the pickup. I am bothered by all of this, because all of this happened during a gig and it is not a simple, quick task to fix or repair them during a gig. I’m just curious about if drum triggers suddenly quitting like that is not an uncommon thing? I’ve never seen a guitar or bass player’s pickups suddenly quit on them.
 
A couple of them just suddenly died, the piezo pickups just quit working without apparent cause. Another one just quit working too, but we took a look at it later and found a wire that had come loose in the piezo pickup and we were able to fix it. My bass drum trigger bracket broke and the problem with that is that the piezo pickup are glued onto the brackets, so it will be difficult to pop it off and put it on a new bracket without doing damage to the pickup. I am bothered by all of this, because all of this happened during a gig and it is not a simple, quick task to fix or repair them during a gig. I’m just curious about if drum triggers suddenly quitting like that is not an uncommon thing? I’ve never seen a guitar or bass player’s pickups suddenly quit on them.
I don't think it's common for them to fail one after the other, but when they do, it can be sudden. You can buy prewired piezos for a few dollars on Amazon/ebay. Most use double sided tape that can be taken off, not a strong glue. Maybe Goo Gone and some floss can help. You could also carry a clip-on trigger with you as a backup that can be put on quick if something happens. Was it a metal bracket? Not sure how that could just break, but maybe they were low quality.
 
Buy external triggers and have a spare.
I can’t use typical external triggers on my main kit, because it is an Ayotte and the hoops are all wood. It’s like bass drum hoops on all the toms. I think the hoops are too wide for triggers.
 
I can’t use typical external triggers on my main kit, because it is an Ayotte and the hoops are all wood. It’s like bass drum hoops on all the toms. I think the hoops are too wide for triggers.
I couldn't use Roland ones on my S hoop either, but this worked. You can buy the trigger only, too, and figure out a way to hold it (not sure how long the sticky tape on it would do that) if the metal piece is not tall enough.
 
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