Drum Fix How-to for all platforms:

Attention! Installing this piece will VOID your Warranty. Attempt at your own risk. The writer of this how-to is not responsible for broken drums.

Thanks for purchasing the DrumSensor.com hit sensor.  This guide will help walk you through the installation of your new sensor. Please read the instructions completely before you begin the installation. If you are unsure of need further assistance on a step in this guide please email me through the Contact Us page.

1. Disconnect your drum set from your console

2. Remove the drum pad that you need to fix. Drumheads are attached by four rubber plugs or sometimes a combination of rubber plugs and one or two small screws. A Phillips head screwdriver should be used to remove the screws if present. The rubber stoppers are press fit, and sometimes require a good deal of pressure to release. I recommend using a bit of petroleum jelly on a Q-tip and applying it to the plugs while compressing the drumhead. This will allow the plugs to slide through the mounting holes with a bit less force. Gently pull one plug out at a time by pulling firmly on the edge of the drumhead while pushing from the bottom on the plug with your finger. Repeat until all plugs have released and the drumhead is free from its base.



3. At this point the drumhead and its base are attached by only the signal wires. You can choose to carefully unplug the wires from their clip, or complete the installation with the plug still in place. Separating the two pieces will allow a bit more room to work but care must be taken when unplugging the wires. You will notice that the wires are secured to the drumhead by a bit of plastic. Carefully pull the wires free of this bit of plastic. It seems that this acts as an indicator of tampering. AKA fixing your drums.



4. Remove the old hit sensor by unscrewing the two small Phillips head screws that hold the orange damper mechanism in place. Now the old sensor is free to be removed from its placement ring.

5. There is a piece of semi-transparent rubber that sits between the plastic and the sensor. Do not discard the piece.
6. The stock sensor is covered in a bandage type material that will need to be carefully pealed off of the old sensor. Pieces of the old sensor may pull off with the material. Remove any remaining pieces and set aside the material for reuse.

(note: These pictures show and discribe wire colors for the "QM" style drum set. The "EL" sets have a WHITE wire as the repeating color and that WHITE wire connects to the new sensors RED wire.  The other colors will alway connect to the new sensors BLACK wire.)
7. Prepare the stock sensor wires to connect to the new wires by cutting the old leads roughly two inches from the stock sensor. You can now discard the old sensor.

8. Connect the new sensor to the stock wiring by inserting the black wire from the new sensor and the black wire from the stock wire harness into one of the supplied quick connects.  Stripping of the wires is not needed.  With both black wires in place compress the connector at the orange tab with a pair of pliers to securely and permanently connect the wires.  Repeat this process with the red wire from the new sensor and the colored wire from the stock sensor.

9. Reattach the adhesive material to the new sensor in the same fashion that it was attached to the old sensor.
10. Place the new sensor back in its housing with the brass side facing the plastic. Be sure that the rubber spacer piece is re-installed between the black plastic and the new sensor.
11. Re-install the orange damper mechanism with the two Phillips head screws you removed earlier. Take care not to “cross thread”, the screws into the plastic. Tighten until firmly seated without over tightening.
12. If you chose to disconnect the wire harness from the main drum body, carefully re-attach the harness now.


13. Now all you need to do is re-install the drumhead to the main drum body. Note that there are 3 locator pegs on the plastic of the main body. There is one locator peg on the underside of the drumhead. (This is visible in the second picture in this How-To) Rotate the drumhead until its locator peg is in line with the missing peg on the main body. Simply press the drumhead onto the main body engaging all of the rubber pegs and taking care to route the wires in a way that does not pinch them. If the wires are mistakenly routed over the locator holes, when you press the drumhead down to re-install, it may rip the wires free from their solder connection.

14. Plug in and rock out!