KarlCrafton
Platinum Member
The Sonor Perfect Balance (JoJo Mayer) pedal came to the shop yesterday.
They got 2. One I looked over, played around with it's different adjustments, and then played on my friends pedal which he already bought. It was set up in his lesson room on a pad.
It's very nice.
It's pretty light (nice!). Lighter than it looked to me in pics, and it's very compact when folded. I knew it wasn't going to be like a Trick pedal in weight, but didn't expect it to be comfortably light in my hand all folded up.
Before, I though, "eh, I wouldn't fold it if I had one", but now that I see it, I'd for sure utilize it.
It really doesn't seem like it would fall apart after a while either. It's pretty cool.
The workings are simple and easily done. You could do them and talk to someone while you folded it up.
The magnet to hold the spring is pretty strong as well. It's not hard to get the spring OFF the magnet, but it's not going anywhere while it's connected.
The spring tension is held in place by two nuts on either side of the nub where the spring goes through, and a final "really hold it in place" larger nut (like other pedals), at the very bottom.
The nuts were all easy to grip, but the extra nut above the (usual) longer length bottom nut struck me as maybe being overkill...a tiny bit (but that's Sonor--it's not going anywhere haha!)
The strap was light weight, but didn't seem like it was weak, or prone to breaking at all.
..................
The pedal I played was set up by my friend who bought it, so I didn't change anything from what he had. Here's some thoughts from playing it "as is"......
Very smooth, but I still "felt it" under my foot.
I reeeallly liked the open right side a LOT.
The smooth footboard was really nice, and it wasn't "slippery", as it appears it could be in pics (to me it did anyway). The low heel plate was awesome.
It was pretty effortless doing singles and patterns.
Some really smooth pedals can feel odd doing patterns, but this one felt good. I think someone could play this pedal all night on their gig and feel great afterward. Even though you can feel it under your foot, it doesn't fight you at any point of the stroke at all.
Unlike other Ultra Smooth, or DD pedals I've played, the PB felt good to me right away. Probably because it's still a "regular" pedal, it just has a way smoother stroke.
I did however have to do all the strokes. It didn't really do me any favors.
A tighter spring tension might have given more rebound, but I didn't change my friends settings which were kinda loose. Even with that, I think it would only take me a couple hours to really get accustomed to it.
I bought another newly released pedal a few months ago, and I'm still not used to it. It's kinda pissed me off frankly, and I stopped using it (will likely sell it).
The Perfect Balance is a lot nicer than that pedal. More money, but nicer
Is it worth $249 (US)?
I have to say Yes.
It would be freakin' awesome (as in, "I'll take one now") if it was less money than that, but at least it's not $300+ or something.
$249 seemed kind of expensive at first, but I've spent more on a cymbal recently, so I suppose I shouldn't feel like "Holy cow I spend a million bucks on this thing" if I did buy one.
Bottom line, IMO people in the market for a pedal in this price/quality/performance range should check this pedal out (if at all possible) before buying something else.
They got 2. One I looked over, played around with it's different adjustments, and then played on my friends pedal which he already bought. It was set up in his lesson room on a pad.
It's very nice.
It's pretty light (nice!). Lighter than it looked to me in pics, and it's very compact when folded. I knew it wasn't going to be like a Trick pedal in weight, but didn't expect it to be comfortably light in my hand all folded up.
Before, I though, "eh, I wouldn't fold it if I had one", but now that I see it, I'd for sure utilize it.
It really doesn't seem like it would fall apart after a while either. It's pretty cool.
The workings are simple and easily done. You could do them and talk to someone while you folded it up.
The magnet to hold the spring is pretty strong as well. It's not hard to get the spring OFF the magnet, but it's not going anywhere while it's connected.
The spring tension is held in place by two nuts on either side of the nub where the spring goes through, and a final "really hold it in place" larger nut (like other pedals), at the very bottom.
The nuts were all easy to grip, but the extra nut above the (usual) longer length bottom nut struck me as maybe being overkill...a tiny bit (but that's Sonor--it's not going anywhere haha!)
The strap was light weight, but didn't seem like it was weak, or prone to breaking at all.
..................
The pedal I played was set up by my friend who bought it, so I didn't change anything from what he had. Here's some thoughts from playing it "as is"......
Very smooth, but I still "felt it" under my foot.
I reeeallly liked the open right side a LOT.
The smooth footboard was really nice, and it wasn't "slippery", as it appears it could be in pics (to me it did anyway). The low heel plate was awesome.
It was pretty effortless doing singles and patterns.
Some really smooth pedals can feel odd doing patterns, but this one felt good. I think someone could play this pedal all night on their gig and feel great afterward. Even though you can feel it under your foot, it doesn't fight you at any point of the stroke at all.
Unlike other Ultra Smooth, or DD pedals I've played, the PB felt good to me right away. Probably because it's still a "regular" pedal, it just has a way smoother stroke.
I did however have to do all the strokes. It didn't really do me any favors.
A tighter spring tension might have given more rebound, but I didn't change my friends settings which were kinda loose. Even with that, I think it would only take me a couple hours to really get accustomed to it.
I bought another newly released pedal a few months ago, and I'm still not used to it. It's kinda pissed me off frankly, and I stopped using it (will likely sell it).
The Perfect Balance is a lot nicer than that pedal. More money, but nicer
Is it worth $249 (US)?
I have to say Yes.
It would be freakin' awesome (as in, "I'll take one now") if it was less money than that, but at least it's not $300+ or something.
$249 seemed kind of expensive at first, but I've spent more on a cymbal recently, so I suppose I shouldn't feel like "Holy cow I spend a million bucks on this thing" if I did buy one.
Bottom line, IMO people in the market for a pedal in this price/quality/performance range should check this pedal out (if at all possible) before buying something else.