DIY Stompbox (Foot Bass Drum)

[Kvetch]

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

[Simon B]

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.

[phase_accurate]

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

Regards

Charles