Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

Hi Darren,

Notwithstanding the gentle ministrations of UPS, the KP60 was 
definitely the weak link in the DTXpress chain. Just put on your 
reading glasses and run a search for it, or for kick drum problems, 
in the archives. To make a long story short, double triggers, 
dropouts, and complete silence were not uncommon. First, spray a 
little WD40 on the cable jack. Then, when that fails, if you're 
adventurous--and, as I've had occasion to say before--optimistic, 
you can pull out the circuit board and check for anything loose. 
Then re-solder every connection, whether it seems suspect or not. If 
that doesn't work, you can always buy another piezo at Radio Shack. 
In one of those more recent archived posts, someone gives the part 
number; they're cheap. 

If none of these strategies works, or appeals to you, you could try 
the KP65, which, judging from the lack of complaints about it on 
this board, seems to be far more reliable. Pintech also has a couple 
of options that have proven popular, the Vertikick and the Ergokik 
(which is the less expensive of the two and features an inverted 
beater; see the Pintech site). Ebay is always worth a try. You can 
spend a lot of money for some of the other kicks made by Yamaha, 
Pintech, Roland, etc., but that kind of expense with the DTXpress 
would seem penny foolish. 

Ed

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, Darren Lo <lo@m...> wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I'm a complete newbie (both to e-drums and to drums in general) who
> bought a used first-generation DTXpress off eBay in the spirit of 
fun
> and experimentation. Everything seems to work great, except for 
the kick
> tower, which is completely dead. The cause of death may have been 
the 
> "tender" ministrations of UPS. In any case, I'm now in the market 
for a
> new kick trigger (preferably cheap), and was looking at the KP65. 
I have
> a few questions, to wit:
> 
> 1) Will the KP65 work with the old DTXpress module?
> 2) How is the noise level compared to the KP60, which seems quite
> loud and clangy?
> 3) Are there any other good options in a similar price range? 
(Seems
> unlikely.)
> 4) What does the KP65 actually look like? Is it a large circular 
rubber
> pad atop two "buttresses", or does it look kind of like the KP60? 
I've
> seen pictures of both called the KP65, so at least one of them 
must be
> wrong.
> 5) Not really related to the previous four, but some kick towers 
are
> labeled as stereo. What advantage would a stereo kick tower have? 
Double
> bass?
> 
> Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer me.
> 
> Darren Lo
> lo@m...