E-Drum Cowbell DIY

This video is about making an electronic cowbell out of an acoustic one.
It will become a single zone mono cowbell.
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You need a piezo, a mono jack plug, a rubber mouse pad or something similar made out of rubber and an old damaged rim noise eliminator. Actually you only need a piece of it.
Besides you need some foam, to damp the cowbell. It should be big enough to fill out the inside of the cowbell. Foam is often used as packing material. Sponges are made out of foam too.
Better remove the holding screw before starting.
It is important to find a flat plane spot for the jack plug. This spot is perfect, as the jack plug will not be in the way of the mount.
Mark it and drill a hole. Use a real power drill and not such a high-speed rotary tool, if you can. Make sure the hole has the right size.
Solder the black cable onto the ground connector of the jack and the red one onto the tip connector. Don’t get confused if the jack has 3 pins although it is a mono jack. The 3rd one is for the switch inside which gives the signal if something is plugged in.
Take a thick piece of double layered adhesive tape to attach the piezo to the cowbell.
The inner part has to be clean.
Remove the jack nut and the sticky tape protection layer and build in the jack plug first. Do not apply the piezo yet.
Tighten the nut after applying the washer.
Now paste the piezo onto the inner upper part of the cowbell. It should be in the middle and the cables shouldn’t be stretched.
Tape the cables to the surface, in case they have too much slag.
The cowbell is actually working, but still too noisy.
Now we’ll need the foam.
It is easier to make 2 foam pieces instead of one.
Mark it in form of the cowbell.
Cut out the foam piece and remove to corner where the jack plug is.
Try out if it fits inside the cowbell.
Build the second piece for the front part.
Cut out a matching piece rim noise eliminator for the upper edge.
Create a pattern for the rubber piece, which is covering the top surface of the bell.
It is enough to cover up half of the cowbell top.
Use this pattern on the rubber mouse pad and cut it out.
Place it together with the rim noise eliminator at the correct position to check if the relations are ok.
Sand and clean the surface at the position where you want to glue on the rubber parts.
Use a sort of glue that is made for both, rubber and metal when applying the parts.
You can take an old credit card or a piece of cardboard to evenly spread the glue.
Secure the parts at their place with sticky tape, until the glue has hardened.
If you want you can attach the mounting screw now.
Remove the tape after the recommended waiting time written on the glue. We waited for 24 hours.
It looks good so far.
You still need to stuff in the 2nd foam piece inside the bell.
Mount the cowbell on a spot you prefer. We will use it next to the hihat. The cowbell makes still some noise, but it’s not too noisy.