Concrete Pete
Senior Member
Hey Crew,
Thought I'd share this, as it was a big improvement for my Gibraltar double bass pedal--
I noticed a kinda "sloppy" flop at the union where the two pedals control the beater rods, (where the two twin bearings meet at the 4-screw clamp) thought it was due to age (of the pedal-not ME!) and took it all apart. What was happening was that I'd step on the right pedal, and it would draw the left beater in towards the right one, and vice-versa. Hmm...
After complete disassembly of the whole unit, I discovered that the bearings in the right pedal frame (the one that clamps on the bass drum) had a weird thing going on--- the pivot bearings were good, but the outer part of the arm had BUSHINGS instead of BEARINGS on the spring cam sides-- LOTS of freeplay. I took out the bushings and bearings, installed the "nippled/cone" type of bearings on the inside, and put the regular bearing on the outside, just before the spring cams. Found out that the allen wrenches needed to loosen the keepers were METRIC!?!?! (go figure-- it's made in USA, as far as I know)
The result is so phenominal that I can't even remotely describe the increased fluidity, the WAY faster action, and how much more solid the responsiveness and pedal speed is. I used Harley-Davidson 90wt gear lube when packing the bearings, and I think I might be on my way to catching up to getting nearer to doing a George Kollias 180 BPM after a long time using this new set-up.
So, now my horizontal rods have DOUBLE bearings each side-- do the newer pedals already have those, or do they do the bearing/bushing thing, too? I'm real curious.
Rock forever,
C. P.
Thought I'd share this, as it was a big improvement for my Gibraltar double bass pedal--
I noticed a kinda "sloppy" flop at the union where the two pedals control the beater rods, (where the two twin bearings meet at the 4-screw clamp) thought it was due to age (of the pedal-not ME!) and took it all apart. What was happening was that I'd step on the right pedal, and it would draw the left beater in towards the right one, and vice-versa. Hmm...
After complete disassembly of the whole unit, I discovered that the bearings in the right pedal frame (the one that clamps on the bass drum) had a weird thing going on--- the pivot bearings were good, but the outer part of the arm had BUSHINGS instead of BEARINGS on the spring cam sides-- LOTS of freeplay. I took out the bushings and bearings, installed the "nippled/cone" type of bearings on the inside, and put the regular bearing on the outside, just before the spring cams. Found out that the allen wrenches needed to loosen the keepers were METRIC!?!?! (go figure-- it's made in USA, as far as I know)
The result is so phenominal that I can't even remotely describe the increased fluidity, the WAY faster action, and how much more solid the responsiveness and pedal speed is. I used Harley-Davidson 90wt gear lube when packing the bearings, and I think I might be on my way to catching up to getting nearer to doing a George Kollias 180 BPM after a long time using this new set-up.
So, now my horizontal rods have DOUBLE bearings each side-- do the newer pedals already have those, or do they do the bearing/bushing thing, too? I'm real curious.
Rock forever,
C. P.
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