Nord User Forum

I just pulled my classic ddrum4 Se kit (black frames with mesh heads, red cymbals) out of storage and set it up. Unfortunately, it appears that 12 years in a box didn't magically fix one of my tom triggers that isn't working. I don't know much about electronics, and am hoping that some of you who know more about these things than I do can help. If I recall the transducers are piezo... any suggestions for how I can go about testing/troubleshooting it (to see if the "sensor" itself is shot, if it's just a wiring issue between the transducer and the XLR jack...) and potentially fixing it? If that's a dead end, anyone have a favorite source for replacement parts?

I have taken the usual troubleshooting steps... tried that pad with a known good channel, and tried it with a known good cable (in the same channel and other channels) with no luck. I seem to recall that if I take the red cover off the mesh pad I could get it to trigger when tapping the piezo element directly, which would indicate that it's just that part that needs to be swapped out, if possible.

Hi @RhythmMachine

Seems like two possibilities; 1) Wire connection to jack has failed. 2) Transducer has a detached wire. By removing the head you can clearly see the jack to check for a broken wire there, however the wire connections to the transducer cannot be seen as they are inside the foam and it looks as if it would require destroying the transducer to expose them.

Although not a direct replacement, it looks like this replacement transducer from the ddrum Elite series would work. You might need to adjust the rubber pad that the transducer is glued to in order to maintain the proper height.

UPDATE: Also found this which appears to be a direct replacement or at least very close in form.

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers!

Ken