Simmonsmuseum's Blog

Some posts ago I reported about the rusty Musicaid SDSV frame SN#72. Today I had the opportunity to disassemble the device. While the outer chassis has obviously suffered from humidity, the internal cicuit boards look pretty good. All soldering joins seem to be ok. Only the socket of the fuse and the power LED need to be replaced. No big deal.

The SDSV: consisting of only a handful of electronic parts, not really rocket science, but somehow mean

this picture reminds me of my first car, a 1970 Volkswagen Bus T2 right after purchase

The rust and old lacquer has been sanded away

the sanded surface grounded with a special undercoat

some dead insect….

The next step will be to replace the fuse socket and power LED, then I will assemble all parts again for testing. Stay tuned

Instead of waiting until my gear has rottened in my basement, I rather prefer to place it in the limelight. Yesterday I had the opportunity in the photo atelier of a long time friend:

When Howard Jones released his first hit single “What Is Love?” in 1983 I purchased the entire album. This initial smash hit was followed by countless more chart hits. I was told that when he used to perform he integrated several Simmons gear into his setup, for example the SDS6 step sequencer and SDSV (the emphasis is on “I was told…”).

For whatever reason Howard Jones was looking for two Simmons pads, I assume in order to integrate them into the percussion setup of his upcoming shows. One of the former Simmons protargonists forwarded my email adress and so I got his request purchasing two SDS9 pads last week. (Un-)Fortunately I don’t sell any gear from my collection. But I offered him to send two pads for free if he would return some Simmons gossip and pictures of the setup for my blog. He was very happy about my offer, but his counter-offer said that he would invite me for his Indigo2 show in London on November 6th. And I will join this show together with my wife!

Today the pads arrived in England. Howard kindly documented the arrival with a picture of him, together with none less than Rupert Hine, world famous producer, posing with my SDS9 pads. Thanks guys! Another story for my grandchildren!

What’s even more fascinating than a Simmons SDSV? Exactly: A Musicaid SDSV. But these first steps of hexagonal history are so hard to find. I got an empty Musicaid SDSV frame, serial number #71, in absolute pathetic condition: rusty and filled with (vintage) British autumn leaves. I assume it has spend the last 25 years in a humid barn or basement. However no SDSV is to be scrapped. I was truely reminded of two years of my life, 1989-1991 when I had been working in a retirement home where I learned: “Everybody has a claim to a dignified evening of life”

I swear this oldie will live to see a second birth. My Musicaid pads need something to plug in. Stay tuned…

At school I was a nerd. Especially interested in mathematics and physics. Mathematics are based on theory and models. Perfect and clean: geometry, symmetry. Not as fallible as life. No wonder I had been immediately fascinated by Simmons drums: A ballanced form. The sound: calculable. No unknown quantities like acoustic drums provide. For those who want to learn more about the hexagon’s properties, I like to refer to the Wikipedia Entry about hexagons

The “Deutsches Museum” in Munich/Germany is for sure Germany’s most important museum for technical innovations (followed by Simmonsmuseum… :-)). When I was a child, I remember several visits where I was fascinated by exhibits like aircrafts, moon vehicals, etc… . I cannot deny that recently I was pretty astonished to hear that even the SDSV made it there.

The board right in front of the SDSV says:
“In 1979, Dave Simmons invented the first drum synthesizer. Series production of this synthesiser began in 1980. This instrument was played like an acoustic drum, but offered much bigger volume and differentiation.

Thanks to its outstanding sound quality, this instrument was very high in demand. The small company rapidly grew to become the most important manufacturer of electric drums in the world.

Sounds were produced by various generators and passed through an adjustable, voltage-controlled filter. Depending on how hard the drum was hit, an amplifier controlled the output signal and intensity.

5 channel drum synthesiser
bass, snare and 3 tom modules
could be expanded to 7 modules”

The picture is taken from Wikimedia Commons