Can you recommend a bass pedal practice pad that feels closest to an actual bass drum?

BigDinSD

Gold Member
I am currently using a DW Go Anywhere practice pad kit. When I kick the pedal, the rebound is much quicker than an actual bass drum head.

BTW, it's maybe about a 1/4 inch foam/rubber pad over a steel pad. I assume this is giving it much quicker rebound.

I even have attached a piece of flip-flop slippers to deaden it.

It's a big difference when I jump back on the acoustic kit.
 
Not really. None of them manage to accurately capture the feel of a bass drum, much in the same way that practice pads tend to miss the mark of a snare drum head too. But they are all better than nothing at all IMHO.

That said, I prefer the feel of the Gibraltar style pads: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/drums-percussion/gibraltar-gbdp-bass-drum-pad over the feel of the Pearl style pads: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/drums-percussion/pearl-bd10-bass-drum-practice-pad I find this type a little too hard.
 
Not really. None of them manage to accurately capture the feel of a bass drum, much in the same way that practice pads tend to miss the mark of a snare drum head too. But they are all better than nothing at all IMHO.

That said, I prefer the feel of the Gibraltar style pads: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/drums-percussion/gibraltar-gbdp-bass-drum-pad over the feel of the Pearl style pads: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/drums-percussion/pearl-bd10-bass-drum-practice-pad I find this type a little too hard.

Yeah PFOG, I think you hit it right on the head (batter, that is).
I'd prolly be better off with a softer impact than a bouncier one in regards to building technique.
I'll be using it as the 2nd pad for a 2 pedal set up.
 
I use the Gibraltar one also, I've actually taped a 1.5 kg dumbell weight behind the pad to make it feel more solid. The whole thing used to bounce around but now it's fine. I also have a square of plastic taped where the beaters hit, because I had trouble hearing the hits over the rattle from the pedal :)

There was a thread here recently about the same topic, I had a quick look but couldn't find it....
 
This will depend greatly upon the tension of your bass drum head.

For me, I use the Gibraltar bass practice pad but I switched out the pad for the "tunable" Remo head for a similar feel as I typically have a slightly higher than normal bass drum head tuning. I play mostly jazz.

Plus, the distance I have to press the pedal to the head seems about the same as my kit. That Gibraltar pad is a fatty....
 
This will depend greatly upon the tension of your bass drum head.

For me, I use the Gibraltar bass practice pad but I switched out the pad for the "tunable" Remo head for a similar feel as I typically have a slightly higher than normal bass drum head tuning. I play mostly jazz.

Plus, the distance I have to press the pedal to the head seems about the same as my kit. That Gibraltar pad is a fatty....

That's creatively cool. Did you just unscrew the Gibraltar assembly and pop in a 10" (?) remo pad?
 
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