Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

Has anybody had any trouble with intermittent failures from the kick tower?  
A couple of months after buying my set, mine started acting up, missing 
beats every once and a while.  It kept getting worse. Results would be 
anywhere from a significant decrease in volume to no signal at all from the 
pad when striking it with equal force.  I finally took it back to the drum 
store where I bought it.  They gave me a loaner (one of those real big round 
ones) and it worked fine until they got a new one from Yamaha. The new one 
has been working fine for a few months, but now starting to act up just like 
the first one. I know it's not the cable... I tried 2 different ones.  And 
it's not the port, since plugging it into another port like a tom gives the 
same results.  Messing with the adjustments on the tower itself doesn't make 
any difference.

Thought I'd check and see if anybody else has experienced similar problems 
before I take this one back to the store too.  They're gonna start wondering 
what I'm doing with it.  I had bought a real nice Pearl pedal, which has the 
beater where you can either use the hard plastic sides, or the felt side.  I 
was using the hard plastic side on the first kick tower, and thought maybe 
it was hitting the pad too hard and causing damage to it.  So on the new one 
they gave me, I rotated the beater and am using the felt side.  Same 
results.

Am I the only out there with this problem?

Thanks!

Rolf
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

Sounds like the piezo is dying inside the tower...  but I don't believe that would happen so quickly!
No matter how hard a hitter you are these things should have been tested to destruction so that they at least last the full length of the warrenty period!
I don't know why it should degrade slowly, but it may just be bedding in the rubber surface, in which case you could up the gain to improve the sensitivity.
Or if it occasionally doesn't trigger at all, then adjust the rejection values and see if that helps.  You could also try moving the strike position of the beater ( adjust beater length, or move pedal sideways) to see if you are creating a "dead spot" in the pad.

That's about all I can think of, I realy hope it isn't a build quality issue, but they may have just "repaired" your old tower and sent it back to you! - take down any identification numbers, and maybe mark it in UV pen if you suspect this is happening.

Hope that helps a little, I hope Yamaha sort this out for you, it's a real dissappointment when things don't work right.

On a different note.
Is anyone else receiving all their mail from this board as attachments instead of text?  I am it's driving me nuts!

Catch ya later - first gig with DTXpress this Thursday 13th.
	Andy

----------

From: 	Rolf Baehr
Sent: 	11 January 2000 14:54
To: 	DTXpress@onelist.com
Subject: 	[DTXpress] Any trouble with kick pad?

<<File: ATT00000.att>>



[This message contained attachments]