[HAM] Smooth Drawbars and Percussion.

[Dave Bishop]

The biggest challenge is mounting the percusion switches.  The B3 drawbar 
base has four rectangular holes punched in it to accomodate the switches on 
the right side that are difficult to replicate in a C2 base.  You can buy a 
whole set of smooth drawbars, switches and base plate from a doner A100, C3 
or B3. Installation is a matter of cleaning it up, screws and soldering a 
bunch of wires.  For about $400 you can get just a set of re-manufactured 
smooth drawbars.   Its possible to convert ratchet to smooth by using doner 
parts from an M3 plus some significatn mods, but the C2 busbars are thinner 
than the C3s, so its not a perfectly smooth action.

Switching to an AO-28 requires drilling some different mounting holes so 
that the expression pedal lines up, extending some wires and adding the 
percussion wiring.  Plus probably re-building the AO-28.

I'd suggest that you disassemble, clean and De-oxit your ratchet drawbars 
and play them for a month or so.  Once you get used to them they're quite 
nice.  The TrekII percussion sounds great and is a lot less work than going 
the AO-28 route.  If you have to have C3 specs, there are plenty around with 
which to trade up to the real thing.  If you put a realistic value on your 
time, the expense of upgrading a C2 goes a long way toward the difference in 
price.

Regards,

Dave Bishop