DIY Stompbox (Foot Bass Drum)
 

Hey folks new here, but just starting a new DIY project so will be posting stuff over the coming months. As an extra to my main project I really want to build a bass footdrum or stompbox as they are called.

I have a friend who is a carpenter and will build the wooden box itself, I am just having trouble finding info on best pickups for bass response of this type. I know there are hundreds of videos and tutorials around the web of people putting a piezo transducer into a box of somekind and getting a signal from it, but they all sound horrible and tinny, and quite frankly nothing like a bass drum. It sounds just like someone hitting a thin piece of wood and amplifying it.

I am basically trying to achieve the sound of the Logarhythm or Puck n' Stompa. They have really nice round bassy sound from just a pickup and I want to achieve something similar. I can get my woodworking friend to build it to any size/wood thickness so its about the internals really.

Any help anyone can give would be great and here is videos of the 2 boxes I mentioned above:

(how to play a stomp box) logarhythm tuition video - YouTube

peterman Puck'n Stompa acoustic stompbox demo - YouTube

There's no magic pickup that will make a crappy box sound good.

Take a look at the logarhythm you link to. It's a shaped and hollowed out piece of good quality hardwood, by the look of it, possibly a couple of pieces. Not just a box - if you ask a carpenter to make a box, that's probably what you'll get, and that's what it will sound like..

Once you've got a decent sounding resonator, then think about what pickups and circuits to use, and what EQ to apply to shape the sound.

You guys didn't watch the second video very closely, did you ?

Regards

Charles