DIY Stomp Box / Foot Drum... NEW version 4.1!

A few years ago I made a stompbox / porchboard / foot percussion thingy. It worked but I kept tweaking and I think I'm ready to show off the new version (fourth version) since I've been pretty happy with it.
If you want to make something like this yourself, most of the components can be found easily on Amazon, but here's a link to the specific Electret Mic module I used:
HiLetgo 2pcs Electret Microphone Amplifier MAX4466 Module; smile.amazon.c...
None of the components are expensive, but if this is your first electrical engineering rodeo, then the cost of tools, etc. can add up.
0:22 Backstory
2:20 Stomp Box v2
3:20 Stomp Box v3
3:53 Stomp Box v4
5:43 Mic Module (v4.1)
6:13 Testing
8:05 Test with Music!
10:05 Circuit Diagrams?

[@migrantfamily]

Super neat stuff! You could make the electret switch on when you connect the cable the same way it’s been done with guitar effects since the dawn of time, using a stereo jack and a mono plug that completes the circuit.

[@lazersloth3103]

Very clever. It all sounds great together.

[@LisaKnobel]

My first project is a full size tambourine setup. I saw a video with a pretty complex but sturdy tambourine holder. Then I saw one made by a well known German percussion instrument manufacturer. So, instead of making one, which seemed like too much bother, I purchased the setup. Turns out it was junk that was broken when it arrived and even if it wasn't it would surely fall apart quickly. I ended up making a super simple holder with just a stick of wood and a few rubberbands. Used it tonight and I am extremely happy with the result. While looking into that I came across DIY stomp boxes. Which reminded me that I had an old bottlecap acoustic guitar pickup. Now, I'm experimenting with an elegant solution to make a stompbox. It has to be simple and use what I have around the house. So far, I found a piece of wood that has a tone I like. Now it's a matter of getting this old pickup to capture it. One thing I'm finding is that elevating the board slightly gets me better quality of sound. I just hope I don't end down your rabbit hole of circuitry. When I studied engineering, I only ever had one EE course. And, it never covered any of this. lol.

[@keithrowe7617]

Cry Love by John Hyatt! Very cool stuff. I've always thought it's ridiculous no one manufactures a square box that you stand on. One side gives you thump, with a lo pass filter, the other side gives you a 'snare' sound with a hi pass, the whole thing is powered like a guitar piezo, and has a tiny onboard reverb. Boom. Done. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard. I think maybe the only potential issue - which you mentioned - is that electret feeding back if you have monitors. Cool beans.

[@ClosetHymnologist]

Yeah, I know right?! Onboard reverb would be cool, but I can add that further down the signal flow (a pedal or the mixer). I briefly considered using a piezo for a snare sound, but I found it was at best like a rim tap, and it didn't help capture any other foot percussion, like the tambourine. Thankfully, the sounds being picked up by the electret mic are so naturally loud that I can keep the gain relatively low. Also, since I can hear the right foot acoustically, and the left foot is low frequency (usually through the main subs) I don't have to put much of it in the floor monitor. I haven't had any feedback issues... yet! Thanks for watching!

[@christopherhuntermusic]

This is so cool. As a slide player and as a total nerd…this is amazing.

[@danielmhodges]

This is great. At my church I regularly lead with acoustic and a kick drum. I’ve been looking for alternatives. Thanks for the video.

[@schulteis]

Thanks for sharing this! I do see one thing in your electret schematic that looks suspect. You have the wiper of each potentiometer (the terminal with the arrow) connected to ground. I'd expect that to be swapped with the output terminal in both cases. As long as you're staying safe, it doesn't really matter if you're not an electrical engineer. If it works, it works. You're getting the results you want, and that's what matters.

[@stephpicher]

It turns out sounding awesome I think. A thing you could do if you need, and I personally don't think you do, is putting a high pass filter to the "electret box" so you don't pick up (so much of) the bass drum sound.

[@azalea_moon-kee]

Outstanding job with the solution. Very nice sounding with lots of potential.

[@TheAudioDabbler]

That is cool. Drummers always seem to be a bit dodgy. Been thinking about something I could use at my feet instead of constantly switching from guitar to djembe and back depending on the song. Have not experimented much but do you think that the preamp in the original design helped? Thought about snagging one off of amazon to tinker with. Also thought about making it more like a pedal with a hinge that can rock back and forth. Maybe have that strike the plate. You have given me loads to think about.

[@songsforworship1517]

This is really cool, I need one of these. Great work!

[@jamesobrien5782]

Would be nice if someone could play the Cajón. I’m 66. Recently been playing in our church. A full drum kit, is hard to manage with all the sound issues. For a local church set up (200) a cajon is ideal. Also for small groups. Also easy to learn to play.

[@rohitvarun170]

Commendable efforts and research gone into this project. In your trial and error, did you come across a situation where a certain type of wood sounded better than the other.. I'm from India. We do have couple of wood types like Rosewood..Teak Wood..Plywood board..Composite wood.. etc.. Also, does a hollow box add to the fat bass sound ? Or does a flat surface do the job equally well? I built one but finding it difficult from a playability perspective because the feet are not at one level.

[@ClosetHymnologist]

Sorry for a long-overdue reply... I would recommend plywood, for durability. I don't think the type of wood matters much, but what you wear on your feet matters, or anything else that affects the surface. I now have a small piece of felt that I put on mine. I did a little experimenting with hollow boxes early on and I don't think it really matters... unless it was a LARGE hollow box (like, at least 1 cubic ft), but then you'd probably also want to rethink all the positions of the piezo transducers. Something that big was not what I wanted, so I never built one. I actually have a slightly newer design (sounds about the same) that I'm using now. Maybe one of these days I'll get around to making another video about it.

[@jeffevansmusic]

Very interesting. I play cajon in a band and use a stomper as well. I made mine but it also has a very small sweet spot. What pickups are you are actually using and how do you connect say all three together. eg are they in parallel? Do you glue them on or use Bluetak etc.. I also use my heel not my toe. So I would have to build the stomp box the other way around. And it has to be flat eg not wedged in any way either. Piezo devices also like being fed into a very high impedance preamp too. I have got that already. I use a Roland keyboard amp with a 12" driver in it which I actually sit on. I need the click on the stomp sound for some tunes as well so a LPF is not a good option for me. But I can change that on the preamp I feed mine into. It has gain and tone controls on it. I get the best sound by far with piezo pickups and not a speaker. Speakers will feedback too and don't give the best tone. Does the actual stomp box need to be hollow or will a solid piece of wood do the trick too? The ones you buy are way too expensive as well for what they do. I am convinced you can make them. Also are larger diameter piezo's better? Sorry for all the questions! You have inspired me to make one again. I sort of gave up and was going to buy one.

[@JasonSilverMusic]

It sounds great, brother! Would you make me one? How much?

[@nick_o_pinel]

The cutoff frequency of the low-pass RC filter alone is given by fc = 1/(2*pi*R*C), which is equal here to about 154 Hz. But this does not take into account the equivalent resistor of the piezo. So I guess this is why you write about 120Hz. How did you get this value?

[@dwilmot]

I'm surprised you didn't try the peazo hot glued to a bourd and plugged straight into an amp then Mic the amp. Great video. Keep them coming.

[@Mick-Dempsey]

Then he'd have to carry an extra amp a microphone around while with this he doesn't.

[@seanfielder2708]

ii have followed you since the first video' I love it all.

[@attilasipeki1418]

Great video! Okay, but we have plug the jack to another amp or what if i have only one input in my amp?

[@Tema2075]

Thank you man!!!

[@ksteak27]

Does playing the bass / snare with your feet come pretty naturally to you or do you have to think about it... or change up what you might otherwise naturally do with your feet while playing guitar?? Also tell your brother that a real-live drummer is always preferable. Please and thank you. :)

[@ClosetHymnologist]

Haha! I found that one foot knows what to do pretty well on its own, but once I introduced two feet, it required a lot more thinking and practice.

[@andrewdronovoy2252]

Great work, dude! Respect! Could you pls list what thickness and type of wood you used, and what diameter of the piezo?

[@ClosetHymnologist]

The wood is about 1/4" thick. This was solid poplar, I believe, but I would actually recommend using plywood. The type of wood doesn't really matter that much, but the surface (what your shoe is made of, and if you put anything between it and the wood) does matter quite a bit.

[@ClosetHymnologist]

Oh, and the piezos are 25mm

[@didier3496]

Hello ,i search a travel guitar to worship the Lord when i am out of home, what’s the brand of your guitar pls ? From france

[@Crosshatch1212]

I want it louder

[@fedbyravens]

Do you have any schematics for this build that you would share?

[@marekhalmo2813]

Hm.. what tuning is your guitar in? I tried to replicate the demo song but had zero luck :D

[@ClosetHymnologist]

I’m pretty sure this was standard tuning. There’s another demo song (different video) where the whole guitar is tuned down a whole step, and there’s a capo on the 2nd fret, but just the bottom 4 strings.

[@zguy6648]

What was your total cost, not including the "pretty" finish work?

[@ClosetHymnologist]

It's a little hard to estimate because so many of the components have to be purchased in larger supplies. If you were to break it down, I think it would probably be about $10-15. That said, I probably spent over $50, but now I have enough components to make half a dozen stop boxes. Sorry I can't be more specific.

[@shaydglenn]

Hey, want to sell me your old one? I can put my own transducer in it, if you’ve pulled it out.

[@dougschuch4328]

I tried duplicating your efforts, and it did not really work - I got a little sound if I actually tapped a piezo, but nothing tapping the board. So I pulled out the low-pass circuit - and got a good, solid sound rapping the board, but as I would expect more small tom-tom than bass drum. So I looked into low-pass circuits - and I could be wrong - I am also a rank beginner at electrical circuits - but your pass shows the resister in parallel going from + to ground. I think they need to be hooked up in series - i.e., + from the pickups to resister in, then resister out, then to the capacitor. Your positive comes off the connection between resister and capacitor. Other side of capacitor goes to ground, as you diagram shows. I will try again and see how it works. But maybe someone better at this stuff could confirm?

[@ClosetHymnologist]

Thanks Doug. I'm pretty amateur at electronics myself. There's a good chance I drew the diagram wrong... let's look at that again...

[@ClosetHymnologist]

Hmm. Well, I'm no expert, but I just checked and I think I got it right. It's a passive RC low-pass filter... sim.okawa-denshi.jp/en/CRtool.php

[@johneeadbl5876]

Can you say "Pie"? Can you pronounce the letter 'e' (like cheese)? Can you say "Oh" like the long vowel sound of 'o'? If you can, then if you can add them together you can correctly pronounce "piezo": pie+ee+zoh.

[@ClosetHymnologist]

seriously? Pie-EE-zoh? I had no idea (clearly). I always wondered if it was "PEE-ay-zoh" or "PIE-ay-zoh" but in a million years, I never would have guessed "Pie-EE-zoh". Well, thanks! I'm really glad that got sorted out. I must have heard it wrong somewhere else on KZbin. Keeping up the good work. Thanks to you, I now have hope that KZbin will one day be free of mispronunciations.

[@johneeadbl5876]

@@ClosetHymnologist Yep. Like many usages of abbreviations that people use online because other people online use them without really knowing why, just imitating, "piezo" is short for "piezoelectric crystal". When all else fails, get offline and find a good, widely accepted hard-copy dictionary from the late '80s to late '90s. I was given the proper pronunciation back in the early '80s while taking a CIE electronics course. There's also "piezoelectric effect" which describes how warping the crystals causes them to generate an electrical potential or voltage, used to make buzzers, microphones, and various other transducers. :-D have a good one

[@50centwithamustache86]

you are being obnoxious and also spewing nonsense. that's definitely not how to pronounce it. show me a scan of one of your "80s dictionaries" LMAO

[@50centwithamustache86]

@@ClosetHymnologist that guy doesn't know wtf he is saying. you pronounced it correctly.

[@frankfarklesberry]

or ... just plunk down the ridiculous sounding price of $360 for a wild dog silverback stompbox, and save yourself a lot of personal time. It really comes back to how much you value your time and needs. :D

[@tebbalreda8874]

I was happy to find that comment because i really want to have the thing he is playing on video 😁 So i went to check up the wild dog silverback stompbox, i'am sorry man but it sounds no way near what we can hear in this video... plus the snare and kick are on same push while here he can push the kick alone and the snare alone..

[@Crosshatch1212]

Cost to yourself is about 6 quid

[@IDontKnowIJustDo]

Or, since OP obviously likes to tinker, and many other people do to, WTH is it to you that some people have more time than money?