F
Flam_Taps
Guest
I just got one of these pedals at a local music store for $58. The reason it was so cheap, was because a local drum shop went out of business and this other music store picked up a lot of the merchandise.
I've just had the opportunity to practice with it for 30 minutes, but this seems to be a super responsive pedal--very fast with a natural and neutral feel to it. Fast doubles are pretty easy with this thing, although the volume of the doubles themselves seem to be lower in relation to single beats, and indeed, the overall volumes possible with this pedal across the spectrum of standard technique are not nearly as loud as is possible with pedals such as DW or Iron Cobra.
Because of the design, and because it's a fairly large pedal, it is necessary to sit back away from the set by a couple of inches more than I'm used to, but adjusting to that slight difference should be worthwhile given the benefits of an extremely fast and natural-feeling action for jazz, latin and fusion style playing.
I would not recommend this pedal for heavy rock or metal playing, but most metal players use double pedals nowadays anyway so that's probably a moot point.
The beater that comes with this pedal is very large and flat like a felt pancake, and I've found that by switching to a wooden Tama Iron Cobra beater the relative lack of very loud volume possible with this Gilbratar can be offset by increased punchiness. There are hardly any adjustments possible with this pedal, but it feels good "as is" and I probably wouldn't be interested in adjusting the beater angle or footboard height anyway, even if I could. In terms of spring resistance, there is a spring running parallel to the base plate, under the footboard, but I'm not certain what tightening or loosening it could possibly accomplish because the entire point of this pedal lies in the minimal resistance, both in the down stroke and the return action.
I could get used to this thing very quickly. It might become my preferred single pedal, and I own several nice pedals, including an Iron Cobra flexi-strap, an Axis-A, an Airlogic Percussion springless compressed air pedal, a couple of old Speed Kings, a Remo pedal designed after the old Yamaha fp910, a double DW5000 and the Pearl Eliminator double.
I've just had the opportunity to practice with it for 30 minutes, but this seems to be a super responsive pedal--very fast with a natural and neutral feel to it. Fast doubles are pretty easy with this thing, although the volume of the doubles themselves seem to be lower in relation to single beats, and indeed, the overall volumes possible with this pedal across the spectrum of standard technique are not nearly as loud as is possible with pedals such as DW or Iron Cobra.
Because of the design, and because it's a fairly large pedal, it is necessary to sit back away from the set by a couple of inches more than I'm used to, but adjusting to that slight difference should be worthwhile given the benefits of an extremely fast and natural-feeling action for jazz, latin and fusion style playing.
I would not recommend this pedal for heavy rock or metal playing, but most metal players use double pedals nowadays anyway so that's probably a moot point.
The beater that comes with this pedal is very large and flat like a felt pancake, and I've found that by switching to a wooden Tama Iron Cobra beater the relative lack of very loud volume possible with this Gilbratar can be offset by increased punchiness. There are hardly any adjustments possible with this pedal, but it feels good "as is" and I probably wouldn't be interested in adjusting the beater angle or footboard height anyway, even if I could. In terms of spring resistance, there is a spring running parallel to the base plate, under the footboard, but I'm not certain what tightening or loosening it could possibly accomplish because the entire point of this pedal lies in the minimal resistance, both in the down stroke and the return action.
I could get used to this thing very quickly. It might become my preferred single pedal, and I own several nice pedals, including an Iron Cobra flexi-strap, an Axis-A, an Airlogic Percussion springless compressed air pedal, a couple of old Speed Kings, a Remo pedal designed after the old Yamaha fp910, a double DW5000 and the Pearl Eliminator double.