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Messier '57

Analog Electric Drum

Instrument designElectronicsProduct designMusic tech

An electric drum, with an acoustic feel, plugged right into an amp or guitar pedal.

Expanding the sonic palette of drummers while keeping the same organic feel they spent years crafting.

Exhibited at the London Design Festival as part of the Royal College of Art’s “Curious Habits” show, and tested by Kokoroko’s drummer Ayo Salawu and composer Dru Masters.

Handmade wooden electric drum on a snare stand, plugged into a small guitar amp, drumsticks poised aboveDrummer seated at the wooden electric drum, playing its black mesh head, yellow cable looping to a small ampHandmade wooden electric drum with chrome hoop displayed on a white plinthEarly drum prototype with mesh head and a taped-on guitar pickup and spring assembly, wires trailingSide view of the drum prototype on bolt feet, spring-mounted guitar pickup arm extending from its rimClose-up of hand-wired drum pickup electronics with blue-taped connectors and a quarter-inch jack leadDetail of a piezo sensor disc under the drum's black mesh headMacro of a guitar pickup wrapped in a tension spring, clamped to the drum hoop with brass rodsGuitar pickup, potentiometer and piezo disc laid out on a black soldering matHand-soldered wiring harness with potentiometer, output jack and piezo disc on a work matMacro of soldered potentiometer lugs with blue wires and heat-shrink
Finished wooden electric drum with wire brush in warm light at London Design Festival 2024MESSIER '57 drum exhibited on a steel plinth by a window at London Design Festival 2024Drummer Ayo Salawu's hands testing the mesh-head wooden electric drum with sticksHand adjusting the drum's onboard volume knob while a drumstick hovers, small amp in the backgroundRhino CAD render of the drum with translucent shell revealing internal pickup and springTop-down Rhino CAD view of the drum showing internal spring and pickup layoutInside the drum shell: tension spring, piezo disc, pickup and hand wiring on wooden bracingPure Data patch wiring a piezo-excited virtual string synthesis for the drum
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