John Bonham and the Pearl Demon Drive

evolving_machine

Silver Member
Growing up listening to Led Zep, I could never figure out how John Bonham was able to do the kinds of things he did with his right foot tirelessly for hours. Many people around me speculated that he had a pedal that did doubles for every single stroke he hit. Others said that he had a pedal that had two beaters on one drum, one for his right foot and the other for his left. Both of these are available now, but they would have been custom pedals back then in 1971.

I now know how he did it. Bonham was able to access a time machine and came into the future and took a Pearl Demon Drive single bass drum pedal back with him. I know many of you thought you saw Ludwig speed kings. No they had laser projections of the speed kings onto the Demon Drive. This was another piece of technology taken from the future.

This sounds like Science Fiction, but the new Pearl Demon Drive is the way he did it. I just got one and I can not go slow enough to sound like Charlie Watts anymore.

Of course I am just telling a story here and having a little fun. However, is it possible with Bonzo's other hobbies of cars and bicycles, do you think he could have customized the pedals he was using to have less friction? Perhaps with greece or bearings?
 
Ha ha?

But seriously, no, just an the old Ludwig Speed King. You know, it's actually not as "impossible" to do the kinds of things he did on a normal single pedal as you are describing it...
 
....... he did with his right foot tirelessly for hours.
Well, long rests while Page, Plant, and Jones did "their thing" helped. Add in the facts that "he was good" and his Speed King was well cared for.....and I'm sure he was plenty tired himself, at the end of a show.
 
I appreciate your posts and responding to my little story. Of course, I know there were a lot of other drummers that exceeded the limits of their equipment. Billy Cobham used a single bass drum on the album "Inner Mounting Flame" came out in 1971. Listen to "Noonward Race."

It is like listening to Coleman Hawkins who played an inferior tenor saxophone and because of his great musical skill, he made it sound better then the horn could. Coleman Hawkins took the saxophone instrument from a marching band novelty to a Jazz instrument. It was because of players like Hawkins, the instrument itself became what it is today.

These new pedals were inspired in a way, by the artists of the past who pushed the limits of equipment.
 
the ludwig speed king is a direct drive pedal similar to the demon drive. if you've never played one it is definatley capable of the same stuff as a "new" demon drive pedal.

I personally can't deal with direct drive pedals i'm used to the slack and the cam action of a chain so anything that uses the old camco design, dw, or iron cobra works for me.
 
the ludwig speed king is a direct drive pedal similar to the demon drive. if you've never played one it is definatley capable of the same stuff as a "new" demon drive pedal.

My first pedal was the speed king. Then I tried some Rogers’s pedals that had a strap, and allowed some adjustments in height and location of the beater. The speed king was good using the compression spring, where most others use the extension spring. I then bought two ghost pedals and they used wound coil springs. I never like the chain drives or the strap drives, because of the slapping and delay effect that I got. You do a double stroke roll or a double hit with your feet and sometimes it clutches on the chain or belt drive pedals. I could never get comfortable with those, others can.

And no, the speed king is nothing like the demon drive. The two compression springs of the speed king are tough to set up correctly. By adjusting the amount of compression in the two springs you can control the set back location of the pedal, and the forward resistance and the return speed. That is the same way the ghost pedals are set up. The demon drive has a shaft and you can locate the beater assembly on the shaft in your desired location. This is much easier to control because you are only setting the location and not the spring tension. The demon drive's adjustments are independent from each other. The speed king had a small foot board incorporated in the pedal to go from long board to almost a short board. The demon drive has a real conversion from short board to long board. The speed king did not have any ability to expand to a double pedal, they were not around then. The demon drive you can buy the add-on package and have a double pedal. There is also a way to adjust not only how far back the beater starts from, but the pivot point to which it rotates at, giving you power vs. control. I am kind of lucky to have gotten back into drumming at this time, so I could use the demon drive.
 
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the ludwig speed king is a direct drive pedal similar to the demon drive. if you've never played one it is definatley capable of the same stuff as a "new" demon drive pedal.

Capabale, perhaps, perhaps not. Comfortable, another thing altogether. I used a Speed King, probably for my first 10 years of drumming. Tama also, made a direct drive pedal. The King Beat (HP55). It also used a compression spring. My main pedal(s) now, the Yamaha Flying Dragon Direct Drive.
 
That add on doesn't seem to include the left side hardware that would need to be added to the single. Unless it's just not shown in the picture. Looking at the single at GC I noticed the necessary holes in the left side of the baseplate to add another pillar to mount the second beater.

There's no way the DD can switch between double and single as easily as the Trick though. With the Trick you just switch the beater and connect or disconnect the driveshaft between the two pedals. See it in this video. It literally takes less than 30 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5j1K2EYP1I

I think Pearl knows this and that's why they priced the single DD very close to the Trick single but undercut the Trick double by almost $100.

On another note the big thing the DD seems to have going for it is the ability to switch between shortboard and longboard.

NOTE: I have not used either pedal yet, just doing research.
 
That add on doesn't seem to include the left side hardware that would need to be added to the single. Unless it's just not shown in the picture.

Yeah, I don't think the picture is representative of the product, I haven't seen a "real" picture from Pearl yet.
 
My first double pedal was some kind of pearl POS, I played it a year and traded it in on my DW 5000. I am really wanting to try one of the Demon Drives out though. Hope more post on what they think about it. Especially in comparison to the Tricks.

And yes, interesting story, but I drank some whiskey with JB last week....so I already knew about the time machine.
 
My first double pedal was some kind of pearl POS, I played it a year and traded it in on my DW 5000. I am really wanting to try one of the Demon Drives out though. Hope more post on what they think about it. Especially in comparison to the Tricks.

And yes, interesting story, but I drank some whiskey with JB last week....so I already knew about the time machine.

Thanks Thunderhoof.

I have another comment on this. The older pedals were not as adjustable to the particular ergonomics of the foot of many drummers. It really makes me wonder that if many of the great drummers that had really good bass pedal work, actually had the right shoe size, the right angle, and the right stroke on their feet, and the right length of their big toe. What I am trying to say is that since drumming is an athletic endeavor that greatly utilizes the equipment of the athlete what if many of the great ones fit their equipment.

No one can truly walk in the shoes of another. However, what would happen if the shoes were so adjustable that you could?
 
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