Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Vintage Simmons Drums (UK) Users Group

Just thought I'd join up after acquiring an SDS1000M off eBay - maybe it was flagged up here, if so: hi, it was me!

There were a few problems as the internal PSU fuse had shaken loose in transit and it arrived dead. The PCB for the front panel buttons had also come loose so the buttons had gone spongey and pushed part way into the case. It looked like the PCB was held in with 2 clear plastic shims glued to the top and bottom of the case - the glue had deteriorated and both shims had come loose - very odd - looked to me like a bodge repair rather than original manufacture, but I don't see how else the PCB would have been held in. I superglued the shims back, and it seems OK now, although the buttons still seem a bit spongey.

I'm not sure it gives me what I'd consider the classic Simmons sound. It seems to have been marketed on its 'realism', and that's not what I'm after. To me, the classic sound is as used by Talk Talk. Having said that, I haven't explored the sounds much yet, and I'm hoping I can tweak the electronic kit to my liking.

At the moment I'm driving it from midi, but I'm going to try making some DIY pads from practise pads and piezo pickups. I don't have a full kit - just a Roland trigger (SPD8?), a TR909, and a Korg Wavedrum - I'm predominantly PC based, but fancy getting my performance skills brushed up - the Wavedrum is very much a performance instrument - you can't drive it from midi due to the way some of it's sounds are modelled from the skin pickups, but it does output midi. I haven't tried yet, but I think I can use the Wavedrum rim to drive the SDS1000 via its trigger inputs.

Hello!