On February 25 1998 I had the pleasure of visiting the Pintech factory in Greenville, South Carolina USA. I spent a few hours visiting with Pintech company president Larry Easterday discussing fast cars (Larry is a Porsche fanatic) and fast triggers. Mr. Easterday has been in the electronic music industry for over ten years now and is a seasoned drummer as well. With his love for drumming, design, and fine automobiles, he has managed to present the drumming community with some extremely well designed, hand crafted musical instruments. Pintech may well be the Porsche of electronic percussion. I’m a Corvette guy so we already got off to a bad start. Just kidding.

Pintech is soon to move to a new facility in Greenville that is said to not only be bigger but brand spanking new. The current Pintech factory is laid out in sections for production and various offices. The production area is then divided into various areas for welding, powder coating, assembly, packing, metal works, plastics, etc. I watched as skilled Pintech workers built various items. One gentleman presented Mr. Easterday with a product that had a barely noticeable flaw in it which was disagreed as a 'no-sale item'. I may be a "pack rat" because I hate seeing things as such being trashed but it is obvious that consumers are going to get top notch products with this kind of quality control.

I enjoyed the visit and hope to see the new plant once it has opened. I hopefully won't get lost on Hwy. 25 again!

The Pintech items that will be reviewed in this Electronic Drum Web Reviews section are the CS/2 (12 piece Concert Cast professional series kit) and the RS-5 Acoustic Drum Triggers. The CS/2 kit is made up of various Pintech products such as the Concert Cast drum pads, Dingbat percussion pads, K-3 Kick Triggers, H2E high hat switch pedal, and a Pintech custom rack with various mounting apparatuses. I have divided these items in to various sections.

Concert Cast pads are available in single zone (CC101) and dual zone (CC102) versions. The pads I received for review came in a standard Silver Vein powder coat finish that is very attractive and durable. The Silver Vein looks similar to a silver sparkle with small gloss black "squiggles" in it. The drums also have 10" chrome plated counter hoops and standard black single ply 10" heads with the Pintech Concert Cast logo printed at the upper portion in blue. This complemented the blue on black Concert Cast logo on the bottom plate. The bottom plate actually looked to be a foe bottom head from a distance which gave the Concert Cast pads a more acoustic drum appearance. The Concert Cast pads appear to be drums in most aspects and not just electronic peripherals.

One of the first things I noticed when removing the pads from the boxes was the weight. They do seem a little heavy but on the other hand, I felt as if I were holding a drum and not a practice pad. I am not bothered with the weight at all. The drum rack is going to hold them up after the pads are mounted so the weight is not a concern. They also fit well in a DW and Pearl snare drum stand and should work fine with most other snare stands.

The pad mounting mechanism was of the standard "L" rod type with a large high quality Italian made knob for clamping them to popular drum hardware and racks.

The input jacks are sturdy all metal verses many of the plastic types found on some electronic products. The shells are tapped and the jacks are threaded through from the inside leaving a clean, sleek appearance with no nut to loosen or fall off. The shells are made from a very high quality billet aluminum and cast in to a one piece shell. The aluminum shell material was not soft as one may expect form other aluminum products. I figure if a Porsche can zoom around a race track on cast aluminum wheels, what could a drummer do out on the road with these?

The counter hoops were thick and true with a very nice, mirror like chrome plating. The standard tension rods and washers were also chrome plated as they threaded into standard lug inserts. I felt that the lug inserts were a good idea because if they were to get stripped or lost, they can easily be user replaced for a few cents. The bottoms of the lug inserts were capped off with black plugs for a nice cosmetic touch. The head tension was easily adjusted with the supplied standard drum key.

I used the Pintech recommended Alesis DM-5 module as well as the Roland TD-10 V-Drum for the ultimate test (feel and tracking). Once the Alesis DM-5 was set on the factory defaults, the pads tracked beautifully across the entire head surface. When using the CC102 dual zone pad as a snare drum pad for rim shots, it didn't’t take much tweaking of the parameters on the DM-5 to get a nice separation of head and rim shot sounds. The CC102 is recommended to be used as a snare drum pad for blending head and rim shot sound but with this kind of separation, I was able to play separate sounds off the rim with little or no cross talk.

The feel was superb. In fact, the Concert Cast drums were some of the quietest acoustic headed pads I have played. Mr. Easterday informed me that this was due to the use of various densities of open and closed cell foam rubber "sandwiches" placed under the playing surface for both feel and sound dampening. I do not like saying that any electronic drum feels exactly like a acoustic drum because they don’t. In fact one 10" acoustic drum will feel different than another. I will say that the feel of the Concert Cast drums were so appealing, it was almost addictive! Maybe better than some acoustic drums I have played!

I tried the Concert Cast pads with the Roland V-Drum module and also had great luck. Then I played with the parameters and got various pitches between the head center and "pingy" sounds closer to the rim similar if not exactly like an acoustic snare drum! I also was able to play very convincing brush patterns with out any special heads. This can be done with traditional drum sticks when the TD-10 is set in Stick Mode. The Pintech drum kits can be ordered with the optional Alesis DM-5 module and according to Pintech, they have been proven to track well with all popular modules. The concert cast pads produced no hot spots or dead spots across the entire playing surface with either module used! Bravo Pintech!

The K-3 Kick Trigger is of tubular design made of sturdy 1½" rack tubing with a thick steel mounting plate welded underneath. The K-3 is gloss black powder coated and bares the Pintech logo pad printed in blue. It has a rubber beater surface and requires a supplied inverted bass drum beater. It felt appealing, was quiet, and tracked nicely. It is also very compact and a singly K-3 unit accommodated my DW 5000 Delta double bass drum pedals nicely. The pad had 2 all metal ¼" jacks for daisy chaining another unit together for separate pedal double bass setups. The CS/2 kit came supplied with (2) K-3 Kick Triggers for separate double bass applications! I don't know of any other kit package that is currently shipping with 2 bass drum pads. If you don't play double bass, the second K-3 Kick Trigger would make for a great auxillery percussion pad for playing cow bell and other percussion sounds via an additional bass drum pedal.

Compact, functional, and quiet. What more could you ask for? This is starting to sound like an ad but I about choked when I found out this unit lists for only $39.90 with the beater! That is before most music stores discounts. None of the Pintech products appeared to be "cheep" but accordingly, Pintech originally set out to "provide top quality instruments at reasonable prices". Pintech recommends the use of a professional model bass drum pedal with a bass plate and spurs when using the K-3 Kick Trigger. The K-3 was simple and got the job done very efficiently and effectively.

The high hat pedal supplied with the kit is of your standard sustain pedal type which works well with the open/close features of the Alesis DM-5 and D4 as well as many other popular modules. It was very quiet and rather rugged unlike some other cheaper switch pedals. The pedal was one of the only supplied items that was built for and not by Pintech. It was made in Italy. I guess if the Italians can build a Ferrari that will out run a Porsche, they can also build a nice high hat switch. It is also very affordable, adjustable, and serves the job well.

The DB12 Dingbats are supplied with the CS/2 Professional kit and are intended to be used as cymbal and percussion pads. The Dingbats were made of gloss black powder coated 1 ½" metal tubing that can be mounted by either a standard "L" rod or a rack "T" clamp. Pintech also makes a complete kit using the same technology as the Dingbats called a Sensorac kit. I asked Mr. Easterday what the difference between the Dingbats and the Sensorac was. He replied that the Sensorac was identical to the Dingbats with the exception that the Sensorac pads could only be mounted using the rack "T" clamps. The 1 ½" pipe had a custom contoured rubber playing surface that felt nice and offered good stick rebound. The Dingbats are supplied with the kit to be used as cymbal pads but would also make nice auxiliary pads around an acoustic drum kit or Latin percussion set up. These also tracked well with the Alesis DM-5 factory default and were a joy to play. I keep thinking of creative ideas on how to mount and use these pads. A percussionist could use them as hand held calves etc. I must mention that Pintech also makes 10", 14", 16", and 18" TC Trigger Cymbals that look more like conventional cymbals that can be purchased separately or added to a custom ordered Pintech drum kit configuration. This is not the focus of this review because they are not included with the kit but Pintech specifies that they make custom configured kits on an order basis.

Sometimes the word custom is used loosely but when visiting the Pintech facility I was intrigued to find them cutting and powder coating their very own rack tubing and not contracting it from some overseas plant. The 3 sided rack was made up of 10 standard 1½" metal tubes and 8 "T" clamps. The rack clamps were both sturdy nylon/cast metal and made use of either an Allen bolt or a knob that was a smaller version of the knobs on the Concert Cast and Dingbat pads. That was a cosmetic nice touch as well as functional. The knobs are located in the places where most drummers break down their racks for transportation. The Allen bolts were placed in the locations where racks are commonly locked down after permanent positioning. In other words, once the rack is positioned how you like it, you don’t have to mess with the supplied Allen wrench any more. When I asked Mr. Easterday why he decided to use the Allen bolts verses standard drum key tension rods, he replied that the Allen bolts have been proven to add structural support. I can't argue with that. Besides, the Allen bolts add to the overall "high tech" look of the kit and hardware.

The rack also came supplied with long chrome plated "L" rod arms that are fully adjustable in every position possible. They are also long enough to reach up relatively high (like a cymbal stand) if need be. The rack was sturdy, very adjustable, and had a stealth look about it. Also supplied were black double sided Velcro straps to secure the also provided cables neatly to the rack. Did I forget anything. It sure seems that Pintech did not! Oh yea, also provided is an all metal Module Mount. It is "T" shaped and is designed to mount the Alesis module as well as other popular modules to the drum rack in ease of reach. This thing appears to be sturdy enough to possibly mount a full sized Porsche for an oil change! Again, it looks good, is functional, sturdy, and does its job like you would expect form a professional electronic drum kit.

I figured I'd do a quick review on the Pintech acoustic drum triggers since I have mentioned so many other Pintech products. I didn't want to look these little guys over. The triggers can be head or shell mounted and come with a sturdy molded ¼" jack. Supplied with the triggers are a spare mounting clip and a spare round adhesive mounting disc that comes packaged in a nifty storage case. I placed the trigger on the shell position of my DW snare drum with the adhesive mounting disc. Worked well and tracked well with both mentioned modules. It did not fall off the shell even during the entire Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy CD. When I did decide to switch to the drum head position, I had no problem with missing lacquer are sticky residue. I also like the fact that no silicon was needed. I placed it on the head position and it tracked well again! O.K., now I'm gonna beat the heck out of the molded plastic housing and I'm sure I'll break that darn Piezo for sure! The trigger still works. It took a licking and kept on tracking! The cable portion that connected the ¼" jack to the Piezo housing was also of a heavy gauge wire. You cant beat that with a stick.

Over all I was very impressed with all of the Pintech products I reviewed. Price verses quality makes them a super deal and Pintech also offers a lifetime warranty on all their products including the acoustic drum triggers. I truly had trouble finding any errors in design, playability, and function. The Concert Cast pads were instruments that I would have expected to pay much more for! Pintech Concert Cast Pads are by far one of the best electronic drum pads I have ever played. I have played quite a few! I feel that Pintech is doing well at their goal of "providing top quality instruments at reasonable prices". With the looks, feel, and professional durability of the Pintech products and the compatibility with all popular modules, any drummer should be proud to use Pintech products. That would be hard to beat in a 911 Turbo!

Pintech CS/2 Kit 12 Piece ConcertCast Kit

• List Price: $1,428.00
• (1) CC102 10" ConcertCast Two Zone Snare Pad
• (4) CC101 10" ConcertCast Single Zone Pads
• (5) DB12 12" Dingbats (for use as High-Hat/Cymbals)
• (2) K3 Kick Trigger Units with Inverted Beaters
• (1) H2E High Hat Switch Pedal
• (10) Pad/Dingbat Mounting Arms
• (1) 3 Sided Double Braced Rack System With all Necessary Clamps, Cables, and Module Mount.

Pintech CS/2-DM 12 Piece ConcertCast Kit with Alesis DM5 Module

• List Price: $1,878.00

Pintech RS-5 Acoustic Drum Trigger

• List Price: $19.95

Prices and specifications subject to change without notice.

Pintech Drums, Inc.
108 Park Place Court, Suite D
Greenville, SC 29607

Phone: 800 445-0506 (Sales Only)
864 277-1164 (Tech Support)

Fax: 864 277-5356

E-mail: play@edrums.com

Web Site: http://www.edrums.com