Vintage Simmons Drums (UK) Users Group

OK, now. Few are qualified to answer this riddle. I've left all the SDS-III 
queries to Jesper because he knows the most about them. My turn.... 
    The original Simmons cymbal "pad" was made of some super dense injection 
molded polystyrene. What a clangorous pad it is! If you thought the 
clickity-click of the "V" pads was annoying......... Anyway, the cymbal is somewhat of 
an oblong hexagon running 13.5 inches from front to back (viewed from the 
played position as it is hung on a stand) and 11.5 inches from left to right. As 
for triggering, there are in fact two piezos wired to the same XLR connector. 
The pad is basically three pieces of plastic screwed together. The first piezo 
is hot-glued to the camber or first piece beneath the bell assembly. This gives 
you the basic cymbal sound that some of us who own the cymbal module have 
come to know. The second piezo is hot-glued to the bell assembly, under the dome 
and appears to have additional electronic components wired and glued in place 
on top of the positive element. I believe this is a capacitor but don't quote 
me. I can't make out what it is without cutting into the glue. The reason I 
think it's a capacitor is because when you play the bell the attack of the 
cymbal sound becomes sharper and more aggressive and has more of a ping to it. Like 
the bell of a real cymbal. As real as they could get with an 8 bit sample 
recorded onto a 32k EPROM in 1981. Now this effect is achievable when you whack a 
regular hard top SDS-V pad and you have the sensitivity cranked but the 
cymbal pad allows more natural dynamics and more realistic playing. It's rather 
simple in design but a remarkable tribute to the genius of Dave Simmons and his 
design team. And lastly, I believe they were only made in white. But again, 
don't quote me. I vaguely remember seeing one in yellow when I was a kid but that 
could be selective memory.
    How do I know all this? I own four, dead mint, three of which were never 
played with a drumstick, factory stock, in the original boxes and plastic 
bags. The XLR cables haven't even been untied.


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