Percussive Stompbox

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samspike

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I made a stomp box (the kind that you stamp you feet on to make a percussive thud, not a guitar pedal). Pics to follow.

Looks and works great, but

1. it's not a deep enough thud. Any suggestions? Should I add more wood - since it's a light box?

2. I'm also looking for some suitable rubber matting to glue to the bottom to stop it sliding. Suggestions?

Amusing aside: You can make it feedback by carefully positioning in front of the amp.
 
I'd think you'd want to remove wood if anything; to the best of my knowledge, thinner, floppier pieces of wood have lower resonant frequencies. I don't know much about these boxes, though. How big is this thing? What kind of pickup system goes in it? I'd be interested to see the pictures.
 
My box is pretty big for a stompbox - I got a ready-made wooden box from the charity shop. Haven't measured it, but maybe 7" by 12".

I've decided to stick a rubber-back doormat to the base to make it non-slip.

Inside it's just a piezo wired to a jack socket.

Suggestions that I've had from elsewhere include a possible tone control, and maybe adding a think rubber strip between the piezo and wood (this sounds like it could work)
 
Thanks for the info; those do sound like good ideas. If you find anything that works well, post it here.
 
I've made a few of these things over the years, using all kinds of parts - from old headphones to little electret mics and piezo elements for the mic and everything from old shoes to artful pieces of decorated wood for the enclosure. To be honest, the headphone idea gave me the best thump of them all. I couldn't tell you why but it did. What are you using in yours to amplify the sound?

I'm in the middle of trying to build a snare stomp box right now... this initial design in basically just two hinged pieces of wood with springs to pop it back open again and little pieces of dowling to give some snap. I don't think it'll sound like a proper snare but hopefully I'm headed in the right direction.

As for the rubber bit on the bottom, I'm sure that any kind of cheap rubber that you can buy in a craft store will do. I used some little furniture feet that I found in a dollar store on the bottom of one of my stomp boxes and they worked pretty well. Alternatively, you could just duct tape the sucker down!
 
Update:

I didn't bother with a tone control. I figured I could just EQ it necessary.

Adding weight (two hunks of spare chipboard) inside helped.

I used rubber from one of those cheap non-slip mats for your car dashboard (their to put glasses etc on) round the piezo also helped.

For the bottom, I found some super-cheap doormats on sale in the local supermarket. One of them had a rubber back with a coarse weaved layer of bristles on top. I cut a piece of the right size, and was able to pull all the bristle bits off in one go, and then glued the rubber to the bottom. Very non-slip.
 
"Fender" make a "porchboard" maybe you could look at the things schematic and get a few ideas.
I know that they use a hummbucker pick up.
 
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