Pedal "migrates" while drumming. Solution?

rpt50

Member
Hi all. I just bought my son a Yamaha fp9500c pedal. He loves the way it plays, but it does not seem to clamp securely to the drum hoop. During the course of a set, it will kind of "migrate" so that it is no longer perpendicular to the face of the drum. I have noticed two things that are probably contributing:
1. The clamp has nice rubber inserts that probably are not gripping as well as the metal clamps on his old pedals.
2. The clamp itself appears to be designed to accommodate a much thicker drum hoop, so when it is clamped to his Tama bass drum, the face of the clamp is not really flat against the hoop.

I'm thinking that I should do something to build up the section of the hoop where the drum clamps, but I would like to hear what experienced drummers suggest. My son's band regularly gigs so whatever we do has to work on a variety of surfaces. I should also point out that I am not a drummer myself, so please go easy on me if there is some obvious solution that we are missing! Thanks!
 
Get yourself a non-migrating species... problem solved :)











Just kidding... put some small pieces of rubber material above and below the hoop, it will compensate and secure the pedal more securely and act as a protection for the hoop at the same time, make sure it's some kind of "flexible" rubber, not too hard as it will slip and not too soft as it won't compensate the gap.
 
Just kidding... put some small pieces of rubber material above and below the hoop, it will compensate and secure the pedal more securely and act as a protection for the hoop at the same time, make sure it's some kind of "flexible" rubber, not too hard as it will slip and not too soft as it won't compensate the gap.

I agree, this will work perfectly. But before this, pedals usually have a nut on the clamp that allows you to lower the clamp still on the parallel. Have you tried lowering this to the right hoop size?
 
Taks a piece of skateboard grip tape. Cut an appropriate size piece to wrap around the bass drum hoop where the pedal attaches.
Stick it on the hoop. Problem solved.
As Brandon said, check to see if there is an adjustment on the pedal to make it clamp tighter to the bass drum hoop.
 
Stick some Velcro strips under the base plate. Other pedals like Axis come with Velcro strips under the plate. This sticks the pedal to the carpet keeping it from moving around.
 
Stick some Velcro strips under the base plate. Other pedals like Axis come with Velcro strips under the plate. This sticks the pedal to the carpet keeping it from moving around.

I have done this before in the same situation. I used velcro and it works - to an extent. If you're just a little bit short, velcro will make up the difference and it tends to hold well.

If you need even more space taken up, you should go with a rubber pad. I have used these as well. Any hardware or auto parts store should sell small pieces of gasket material you can trim to fit the jaw. Measure the thickness you need to make up and get appropriately thick gasket material and also get suitable glue. Remove the existing rubber pads. I would roughen up the bare metal jaw face with sandpaper and clamp the gasket and jaw together in a vise or similar clamp while drying. You really don't want this moving around again because the gasket came off the jaw.
 
I agree, this will work perfectly. But before this, pedals usually have a nut on the clamp that allows you to lower the clamp still on the parallel. Have you tried lowering this to the right hoop size?

Nothing like this that I can see on the yamaha pedal. Interestingly, my son tried it on a Yamaha kit last night (his kit is a Tama), and the pedal did the same thing. I'll try some of the solutions suggested above.
 
Nothing like this that I can see on the yamaha pedal. Interestingly, my son tried it on a Yamaha kit last night (his kit is a Tama), and the pedal did the same thing. I'll try some of the solutions suggested above.

That is interesting indeed, I wonder why they would choose not to put it on there, and also not make it possible to fit on any bass drum hoop... In this case I would recommend the rubber pads :)
 
Well, the rubber pads did not work, but, we tried the pedal on his old bass drum that had grip tape (like skateboard stuff) already installed, and it worked fine without moving. Grip tape is ordered. Thanks for all the help!
 
If the pedal looks like this the adjustment for the hoop clamp is to the right of the pedal, looks like a drum key. You should be able to tighten that down till it's snug




If it looks like this,(whether it's a single or double pedal it's the same) there is a socket cap screw on top of the hoop clamp that you can tighten down with the double ended key yamaha supplies



Here's a little bit better image of that socket cap screw, same regardless of chain or direct drive

 
When you tighten the clamp down, does the back of the pedal lift off the floor? If so, you may want to adjust the bass drum spurs higher so that the front of the drum is 1-2 inches off the floor. In addition to flattening out the pedal this will also flatten out the angle that the beater is hitting the head, and increase resonance (because the floor won't be dampening the shell).
 
Just to follow up, the problem has been solved with skateboard grip tape. A strip on the top of the hoop and one on the bottom does the trick. Now the jaws of the clamp seem to get a decent bite.

And by the way, the pedal is the newer style pedal with the "drum key" looking screw on the side. It only clamps on the hoop. As far as I can tell, there is no adjustment for the angle of the jaws to accommodate hoops of different thicknesses. When we clamp it tight on his Tama hoop, the jaw faces of the clamp do not sit flat, which reduces the clamping area. It's kind of like using a wrench that's not quite the right size for a nut. If I have further problems, I will just use a shim to build the hoop thickness a bit where the jaws clamp, but I think the grip tape will do the job.

Thanks for all the suggestions!
 
Just to follow up, the problem has been solved with skateboard grip tape. A strip on the top of the hoop and one on the bottom does the trick. Now the jaws of the clamp seem to get a decent bite.

And by the way, the pedal is the newer style pedal with the "drum key" looking screw on the side. It only clamps on the hoop. As far as I can tell, there is no adjustment for the angle of the jaws to accommodate hoops of different thicknesses. When we clamp it tight on his Tama hoop, the jaw faces of the clamp do not sit flat, which reduces the clamping area. It's kind of like using a wrench that's not quite the right size for a nut. If I have further problems, I will just use a shim to build the hoop thickness a bit where the jaws clamp, but I think the grip tape will do the job.

Thanks for all the suggestions!
You are welcome, I knew that the skateboard tape would work. It always does.
Peace
 
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