Whats the best pedal for double bass drumming

[Hoosier Drummer]

I double bass with DW 5000's and the last pair of pedals wore out and I bought them 5 years ago. I love the DW's and now I'm looking at foot pedals for the first time in a while and there is some new stuff out there. Basically the 7000 is the old 5000 and the new 9000, forget about it, its an awesome pedal but it doesn't have the feel of the foot pedal I'm used to so I'm not sure what pedal to get. I was reading about the Axis pedals. I am looking to get better at heel toe and I'm wondering what is the best pedal to go with. I was reading about the long boards. What do you guys think.

[DamoSyzygy]

Axis pedals are high quality but the heel-toe technique is overrated and not a reason in itself to go buy a particular pedal. Your reasoning is kinda like buying ProMark over Vic Firth because you want to learn how to do paradiddles. Heel toe can be done on any pedal and if you find the feel of other dw pedals strange, the Axis will feel very different again.

[Just Drums]

I absolutely LOVE the Axis pedals. I just got one in stock and love it to death.

There's basically 2 types of pedals in my opinion. There's the light and feathery pedals that have no weight and no weight transfered to the heads. Axis pedals are like these and that's the kind I like.

The other type is the heavy mechanical pedals. They have a lot of weight to them and transfer a lot of that weight to the head and they typically have a heavy beater. The old DWs, the Pearl Eliminators, and the Gibraltar Intruders are like this. Massive, heavy...but very smooth and quick.

[AlexM]

Everyone I know swears by the 5000 pedals...

9000's are too nice and smooth and somehow make it more difficult....

[Wavelength]

This is the best pedal for anything. (http://www.homestead.com/playsmart/pedals.html) Or not. :)

[Mr. Pasquini]

Yamaha Flying Dragon Double Pedal (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Yamaha-Flying-Dragon-DirectDrive-Double-Foot-Pedal?sku=449282). Light and feathery.

[T.Underhill]

To answer your thread question there is no such thing. You have to try them out and see what works best for you.

[harryconway]

I'll agree with T. Underhill. One man's sugar is another man's poison. I'll vouch for Mr. Pasquini's choice. The Yamaha Flying Dragon Direct Drive is one of the best pedals I've ever played. I own 2 Yamaha single pedal FDDD's. My recent need for a double pedal has led me to this. The Off-Set. I tried this pedal system about 5 years ago at a NAMM show. I loved it. Kept going back to the booth for 3 days to try it out. That was the same year Sonor was introduced the Giant Step (if my recollection recollects). So now, 5 years later, I score one off eBay, from those nice people at Dale's Drum Shop. As you can see, it's a whole different "animal" from most double-pedal designs.

[doublebass]

AXIS all the way dude...no wonder almost all great death metal drummers use them.And using axis doesnt mean you have to go heel toe

[Karaboo]

I used to have pearl elimintater double pedal and i hated it. I got iron cobra because it was smooth and a decent price. Took me a little bit to get used to but now I absolutely love it. And I am able to do heel toe technique fine with the iron cobra, although I do have small feet. But Im sure you cant go wrong with Axis either.

One a side note I bought ankle weights the other day and they have been working wonders for my double bass chops.

[DamoSyzygy]

AXIS all the way dude...no wonder almost all great death metal drummers use them.And using axis doesnt mean you have to go heel toe
Gear endorsements can be a way of tricking consumers into thinking the brand is better or more popular than it really is. Im not saying Axis is a bad brand (far from it) but before you talk any brand up too much, make sure you find out how many of those metal drummers paid for their axis pedals.

[Hoosier Drummer]

Damo I'm not new to drumming and I'm not new to double bass. I play fast heal up...I'm just trying new things, heel toe for example because it looks great and I feel it will help with foot work and command of my feet. A lot has changed in 4-5 years and I'm looking for the vast wealth of experience this board has to offer. I will agree that the older style DW 5000 has a top heavy feel it was very smooth and effortless to use. The new 9000's seem to have more resistence to them right from the shoot. Its a great pedal and I know you can play heel toe on any pedal. My first cheapo pedals I bought at a garage sale...I played Slayer and Pantera just fine with them. I know its the technique and skill but I just want to be careful with my next purchase as its a lot of money for a foot pedal and I don't want to be disappointed. I really like this board because there are so many smart people out there and I love to read all the information. I don't post very often but I read all the time. Thanks for the help guys.

I think I'd really like the feel of a light pedal with a quick smooth response.

[Jeff Almeyda]

Whatever you do, don't base your pedal selection on whether or not you want to use heel-toe. Frankly, heel toe is the single most overrated double bass technique. Everyone that uses it on an acoustic kit sounds uneven and the first note is always heavier than the second. There's a reason why guys like Lang, Donati, and Mangini don't bother with it. (Or for you metal heads, Gene Hoglan, Dave Lombardo and Flo Mournier. None of them use it either.)

The pedal doesn't matter. Great players can do it on the floor, without any pedals at all.

[Ironcobra]

there really is not a right answer, if you dont have a store to go to with a lot of variety, i guess you have to trust drummerworld. But if you have a lot of options for test playing them, its all about personal preference

[DamoSyzygy]

I know its the technique and skill but I just want to be careful with my next purchase as its a lot of money for a foot pedal and I don't want to be disappointed.

Just make sure that you give the pedals a chance. If Axis end up being your thing, be aware that they wont feel great straight away. Rather than going for a pro pedal because of the options it has and changing something the moment it feels less than perfect, try working through the pedal first. Use your adjustments to enhance the right feel, not to fix a bad feel.

Most people will take at least a month of solid work to feel comfortable on their pedals, so dont be too quick to change it up.

[Shinx]

The pedal that makes you want to practice most

[Raymond Bloom]

I'll elaborate a bit about heel-toe.

What you need to understand is that heel-toe is not a technique to play fast (probably you know that but just in case...!) I'm not using double pedal or two bass drums but I play with heel-toe technique quite much on my single pedal, what I like about it - it gives a nice flow, if you do singles with both feet for example heel up, it sounds kind of staccato and the dynamics are even (and they should be even!), heel-toe is like a double stroke roll it flows and breathes a bit. If I need to play some 16th notes on the bass drum I use heel-toe to get that double stroke feal. Check out Jojo Mayer, you'll know what I mean!

All in all, your right, heel-toe will improve your foot technique, heel-up and heel-down will become better, at least that was for me!

Good luck,
Ray

[Jeff Almeyda]

Raymond's post made me realize something: There is a drummer who uses heel-toe musically and his name is JoJo. I think he only uses it for single kick though... It's interesting that he uses those leather- soled sneakers, too.

Maybe Raymond could let us in a little more on JoJo's foot technique (in a separate thread?)

[Raymond Bloom]

Raymond's post made me realize something: There is a drummer who uses heel-toe musically and his name is JoJo. I think he only uses it for single kick though... It's interesting that he uses those leather- soled sneakers, too.

Maybe Raymond could let us in a little more on JoJo's foot technique (in a separate thread?)
Actually, his name is Serge hehe, Jojo is just a nick name but that's not important right now!

Too bad my drum room is kind of dark and I don't want to haul around professional lights but I really want to record some instructional materials, since I also work as a video director!
I learned the heel-toe from Jojo, of course I kind of made my own interpretation of it, but one thing I'd like to point out - a lot of guys do heel-toe with just dropping their leg and getting two strokes out of one motion, Jojo does a bit different, he makes a downstroke by dropping his leg (the heel stroke) but no matter what, the stroke is done with the toe, it's just a down stroke motion, the heel just gives the inertia to that motion, and the next stroke is an upstroke, by just lifting the leg again up and at the same time moving your ankle down.
The idea is simple, if your doing two strokes out of one motion, it's harder to controll them, but if you actually play both strokes it's easyer to to get them even and the controll is way better! And it's still less effort, different muscle groups are invloved while doing the heel stroke and different, while doing the toe stroke!

About shoes, for me most of the running shoes does the job fine, Converse All-Satrs are great, and if it's too hot comfy tourist sandals also does the job just fine!

[Hoosier Drummer]

Well guys, first sorry for not responding to all the posts...lots of great information, I travel a lot sometimes and I was away from the computer. I am the proud owner of the DW 9000's and I really love them and they're extremely well made. It was hard to buy them over the 7000's because the 7000's are the old 5000's which I've played since they came out so naturally they feel the most comfortable. Now I'm going to put some time into them. After an hour with them I really started enjoying them, like a kid with a new toy. I haven't done any adjustments just played them right out of the box, just like I did with the 5000's 5 years ago. Well these 9000's have some really neat ajustments and I can see that they have the ability to play really fast. I'm going to wait several months to get the natural feel of them before I start experimenting with making them play faster. Now I want to learn as much about them as possible. I'd love to hear some feedback on these pedals as all I'm going to do is read about them while I go through the break-in period.

[robitussin217]

I just bought a Tama Iron Cobra Jr.double pedal and prefer it to most of the more expensive pedals. I played on a DW 5000 and 9000. I prefer my Iron Cobra to the 5000 but would've bought the 9000 if I had the money. I disliked the feel of the Pearl Eliminator. The iron cobra jr. has a light feel, which I'm used to. I don't use heal-toe. I can get some really soft notes as well as moderately loud ones. I think the heavier pedals might be better for the really loud dynamics. I'm relatively new to double bass but am getting better really fast with the fast notes. (Between the Buried and Me, The Human Abstract kind of stuff) What I really enjoy about the light feel is the ease of playing heal down for the really soft, legato stuff. I play heal up most of the time. You have to try them out yourself. This pedal is inexpensive and comes with a hard case, too.

[Legacyrik]

Frankly, heel toe is the single most overrated double bass technique. Everyone that uses it on an acoustic kit sounds uneven and the first note is always heavier than the second. There's a reason why guys like Lang, Donati, and Mangini don't bother with it. (Or for you metal heads, Gene Hoglan, Dave Lombardo and Flo Mournier. None of them use it either.)



Perhaps you went just a bit too far with this comment. I'm not sure I DO want every stroke on the bass drum to be the same volume... ALL THE TIME.

I compare heel toe to moeller.

[RUSTE]

I love iron cobras but im more than happy to play on my old bottom range pearl double pedal as i have to use that when only playing 1 bassdrum & my 2 iron cobras when a have 2 bassdrums. Ive always been mucking around with spring tension & at the moment have them half way on my iron cobra's. But i keep hitting the bassdrum when i dont want to in between fast pedal work. Im thinking maybe i need them more springy??

[amba]

I'll agree with T. Underhill. One man's sugar is another man's poison. I'll vouch for Mr. Pasquini's choice. The Yamaha Flying Dragon Direct Drive is one of the best pedals I've ever played. I own 2 Yamaha single pedal FDDD's. My recent need for a double pedal has led me to this. The Off-Set. I tried this pedal system about 5 years ago at a NAMM show. I loved it. Kept going back to the booth for 3 days to try it out. That was the same year Sonor was introduced the Giant Step (if my recollection recollects). So now, 5 years later, I score one off eBay, from those nice people at Dale's Drum Shop. As you can see, it's a whole different "animal" from most double-pedal designs.


YAH BABY!!

Thats my pedal!
amba
www.ambadextro.com

[Ekim]

Whatever you do, don't base your pedal selection on whether or not you want to use heel-toe. Frankly, heel toe is the single most overrated double bass technique. Everyone that uses it on an acoustic kit sounds uneven and the first note is always heavier than the second. There's a reason why guys like Lang, Donati, and Mangini don't bother with it. (Or for you metal heads, Gene Hoglan, Dave Lombardo and Flo Mournier. None of them use it either.)

The pedal doesn't matter. Great players can do it on the floor, without any pedals at all.

I don't know what he says NOW, but Virgil Donati was definitely using heel-toe in a clinic I saw him at here in Indy some years ago. I specifically asked him about it because I couldn't believe his single foot speed. It blew me away as I'd never even heard of it before.

[FunkyJazzer]

There's basically 2 types of pedals in my opinion. There's the light and feathery pedals that have no weight and no weight transfered to the heads. Axis pedals are like these and that's the kind I like.



List more like this please.

[grooveweapon]

List more like this please.

^^^The Trick bigfoot and I would say that's about it.

There are two things about the Axis pedals that give them a unique feel. First is the longboard (unless you have the shortboards). The other is the direct drive. There might be other things but I consider these the main two influences on the feel.

Personally I have owned (and still own) the Axis A longboards and wasn't a big fan. They are too sensitive for my tastes. I spent a lot of time working on speed before moving to the Axis and then found them difficult to control once I got them, especially with mid-range tempos. I also felt like the sweet-spot on the pedal moved back because the board was so long. I have since bought the Eliminators and couldn't be happier because they are so adjustable and you can get the perfect feel for your style out of them. It's all up to your personal preferences...on a side-note, I am able to do heel-toe just fine with the Elims and can play as fast with them as the Axis...