Snare drum budget mod

A

alderweis

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 22, 2002
Messages
126
A friend of mine who happens to be a musican (drummer foremost, amongst other instruments) needed an upgraded computer. I had parts. We planned an afternoon to rebuild his comp. Once we got going, we realized the case we had would not work (proprietary dell shiat) so we had to improvise, or spend $35 on a new case. Being skinflints, we decided that we could use our expertise and handyness, as well as our creativity to build a case. I looked around the room, spotted a stack of drums an said "Hey, you got any extra drums?" the rest is history.

Please note, the entirety of our planning is documented in the first picture:

1160400648-MVC-020S.JPG

planning

1160400870-MVC-017S.JPG

parts an props

1160400941-MVC-018S.JPG

mockup

1160400984-MVC-019S.JPG

testing, installing OS


1160401057-MVC-023S.JPG

finished product (back)

1160401100-MVC-022S.JPG

finished product (front)



-pps. this entire project, from conception to reality took 8 hours. FTW.
 
nothing fancy..

AMD 1600+, Asus mobo, 2x256 PC2700, 160GB Maxtor, Rage 128 Pro...

its basically an email/screenwriting machine.

But its a step up from his old machine, p3-900, 256mb, 15GB.
 
system 32c, proc peaks at 48c...

200w PSU, solid copper heatsink on the CPU... its cool enough.


-edit the back holes work for exhaust.
 
Haha, great project and I love the gateway power button! At least, that's what it looks like. :D
 
yep, psu was ripped from a gateway donor..

we will be mounting it in the drums origional vent hole, on the top/side. We did not have time/willpower to do it right when we put it together, so we are gonna do it right next time we have some free minutes.
 
From the pics, it looks like the hard drive is at about a 45 degree angle. This is frowned upon, since the hdd may die if it is not flat or at a 90 degree angle... I haven't tested it, but I have heard people talk about it before, so just to be safe, try to get it as level as possible.
 
interesting thoughts about keeping the HDD level... never heard of that, but it makes sense as there would be less stress either flat or 90 degrees. Call it a design flaw ;)

This is gonna sound like your typical inter-net forum lie, but heres why we are not concerned about the life of this PC. 1) its all cast-off parts that were free and 2) he is writing the script to a James Cameron film. So hes not worried about the long run, as by that point he can hire me to build another comp that is actually modern :)
 
The drive will be ok. It's just a common myth that hard drives at an angle fail faster.
 
yep.. we are gonna take a few hours and re-do the power switch (mount it on the side, use a drum stick for the actual button)... may also redo all the wires, and eliminate the ones we don't/won't use.
 
Psh. Tell him it needs Evans heads on it. n00b :p
(Actually, I use Evans on the snare, Remo on the toms, and Aquarian on kick, so I can't say anything :D)
 
Cool mod, but that looks more like a tom than a snare to me.

(I have a Remo head on my banjolin.)
 
Lethal said:
Cool mod, but that looks more like a tom than a snare to me.

(I have a Remo head on my banjolin.)
Click to expand...
Hmm... I think you're right. Neither of the hoops have a snare bed cut, and there's no strainer or butt for the snare wires. Must be a tom.
 
Nice job...very original!


Lethal said:
Cool mod, but that looks more like a tom than a snare to me.
Click to expand...
It's definately a tom. There's no snare or snare tensioner on the actual drum. Plus it's too thick to be a snare anyway.
 
The title is incomplete (im the techie, not the musician). For the record, its a Slingerland 1953 marching snare, the snare tensioner has been removed.


The heads are fairly old, from the first year Remo made synthetic heads. We used them for obvious continuity reasons ;)
 
I'm crying inside that you killed a cool and old snare drum. (I also thought it was a tom, but marching snare works)

That being said...haha awesome mod, last place I would look for a computer.
 
Oops...my bad. From the pics it looked like a tom to me. ;)


A 1953 marching snare...even better! It gives the mod a nice vintage feel. :)
 
looks nice. I think one thing to make it a little bit better for be getting a new head. I know you would just be cutting a whole in it but atleast you won't have dirt on it... The heads look like the heads on my tenors after i fell marching a show one night.
 
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