PEARL ELIMINATOR DEMON DRIVE DOUBLE BASS DRUM PEDAL!

I recently went and bought the new pearl demon drive double bass drum pedal, i had a choice between the pearl, the tama iron cobra or the dw 9000. I was wondering what people think of the demon drive and weather or not you onsider the pedal better than the others.

Well, you own the pedal. What do YOU think of it?

benjamin said:

I recently went and bought the new pearl demon drive double bass drum pedal, i had a choice between the pearl, the tama iron cobra or the dw 9000. I was wondering what people think of the demon drive and weather or not you onsider the pedal better than the others.

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I can get a better (to me) feeling Axis X single pedal for about half the price of the single DD.

I know your thread was referring to the DD double pedal..I was just making an observation.

The DDs are great pedals to be sure..I however am not convinced of their worth.

i thought the pedal was a bit heavy at first,but lighter than the dw, i like the fact that you change the pedal to a long board, and also change it from a heavy feel to a light feel, another great thing about the pedal that attracted me to buy it was the use of the z link. now the left pedal feels exactly like the right. You can also lock the tension springs so they dont adjust during playing so they both feel the same constantly.

Me personally I don't like the feel of the DD. I've tried it a few times at GC and Same ash and it just wasn't the pedal for me. Not saying it's a bad pedal just not one my feet like, that's why there are so many pedals out there everyone has a different taste and feel in pedals.

Congrats on your new pedal and enjoy.

i've been toying with the idea of picking up a demon drive but a few things keep picking at my brain. ok you can convert it from a short to long board, will you really be switching it back and forth that often to really require that in a pedal? hell same with half the features, once you have it dialed in to your liking you'll never touch them again. the only thing that really makes stand out in my mind is the fact you can turn the double into 2 singles which would be cool for me since i go back and forth between single and double bass drums but you can do that with other pedals too. i would like to give a direct drive pedal a good working over for a while to test them out but are any of these pedals really worth that price?

thats really the huge down fall of these pedals, when i bought my first iron cobra double pedal years ago i had a hard time letting go of 380 bucks cuz that was more then i dropped on any pedal but 550? 650? 750? if it was more reasonably priced i'd probably pick one up real quick but i just don't see them being worth that much. honestly i think i'd be just as happy with replacing my old ic double with a fresh shiny one for half the price...

or if u must have direct drive, look around for the previous gen flying dragon. doulbe converts into 2 singles also. might be able to get a new old stock for around 200

i tried the DD at gc yesterday. liked it, but i couldnt do anything i cant on my 9310 dragons. maybe if i had more time to set it up to my specs.

I personally didn't like the Demon Drive very much. Yes, it was extremely smooth, but I like having the feel of something under my foot.

I can get a better (to me) feeling Axis X single pedal for about half the price of the single DD.

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Hold on, I thought Axis Pedals were like super expensive.

...and I don't see cam-independent beater angle adjustment on the Axis.

I have a Demon Drive and an Iron Cobra. I love the feeling of both but they are different. My last pedal was an old CB 700 so you can only imagine the difference. It has taken me much longer to dial in the Demon Drive but I really like it. I have replaced the beaters with Drum Workshop beaters and that has been a HUGE plus. The Pearl beaters are not worthy of a pedal that costs so much. The DW beaters added the weight that gave me more of the feel I'm looking for and I'm using the plastic side. It's set up in the long board configuration. I've never played a long board pedal before but I prefer it over the short board on this pedal. I almost switched the Iron Cobra back to my main set but I knew I had to keep trying to adjust it and I think I'm there. It's hard to believe that it is hard to get used to a pedal that feels so effortless but as someone else mentioned it can feel like there is nothing under your foot. I prefer the Iron Cobra in one area, it has more upward pressure so it tends to bring your foot back to the starting position and not in the down position while resting between beats. Love both pedals. Keep adjusting and you'll more than likely find your feel.

The one and only downside to this pedal is that it takes a good amount of time to get used to. You pretty much can't feel anything under your foot.

I didn't read this entire thread, but the few I did read all mentioned the price of the demon drive. If anyone pays more than $450 for the double version this pedal then you are getting F*%$ed by the music system... If you don't wish to hear me rant on how to save money skip to second paragraph... I picked these up for $475 out the door at of all places guitar center who are reasonably priced but dont tend to budge on price a whole lot (in my experience). I am very picky about how much I will pay for an instrument... I just picked up a mid level kit for my little brother, ( Gretsch catalina maple in the ebony finish) which has a price tag of $850, I took home for 650. I have a simple system of talking them down. I am not going to get crazy with how I do this, but if you are interested PM me or email me and I will explain it to you. Again, I took home the Pearl Demon Drive double pedal for $475 after tax brand new!. I also picked up the Dw5000 Hi hat stand for $99 bucks... Not to beat a dead horse but I am in negotiation now on a Taylor 214ce, Going price $999.99, I have already had an offer of $827...
Now On to My experience with the DD pedal. I bought this and did no changes from out of the box...Except switching to the longboard setting. First night... very impressed, so smooth and fast it threw me off a few times. took it home, changed it to the heavy feel, and I love how fast and smooth it is... I had heard of problems with the loss of power... 2nd night i used this I really felt the loss of power. I am still tweaking this out but, just for the record I DO agree with the loss of power. I am messing with the settings to fix this, with the versatility I think it can be worked out. If you mic your Kick this isn't really a problem, except it doesn't feel like your hitting the head very hard.

Okay I am done now...lol.. sorry for the lengthy response...
Overall I think it was worth what I paid.

Kevin Reynolds
feel free to email me or PM me
[email protected]

JoeLackey said:

The one and only downside to this pedal is that it takes a good amount of time to get used to. You pretty much can't feel anything under your foot.

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I respectfully disagree, speaking from experience (I own one) It took me almost no time at all to get used to, because I took half an hour and set them up so that they felt right for me. That's the selling point (at least it was in my mind) about these pedals, the adjustability. So in theory you can adjust them so that you don't feel anything under your feet or you can crank all the settings so that you have to stomp on the pedals. The one and only downside to this pedal is the price, unless you're Kevin here......

fireems343 said:

I picked these up for $475 out the door at of all places guitar center who are reasonably priced but dont tend to budge on price a whole lot (in my experience). I am very picky about how much I will pay for an instrument... I just picked up a mid level kit for my little brother, ( Gretsch catalina maple in the ebony finish) which has a price tag of $850, I took home for 650. I have a simple system of talking them down. I am not going to get crazy with how I do this, but if you are interested PM me or email me and I will explain it to you. Again, I took home the Pearl Demon Drive double pedal for $475 after tax brand new!. I also picked up the Dw5000 Hi hat stand for $99 bucks... Not to beat a dead horse but I am in negotiation now on a Taylor 214ce, Going price $999.99, I have already had an offer of $827...
Now On to My experience with the DD pedal. I bought this and did no changes from out of the box...Except switching to the longboard setting. First night... very impressed, so smooth and fast it threw me off a few times. took it home, changed it to the heavy feel, and I love how fast and smooth it is... I had heard of problems with the loss of power... 2nd night i used this I really felt the loss of power. I am still tweaking this out but, just for the record I DO agree with the loss of power. I am messing with the settings to fix this, with the versatility I think it can be worked out. If you mic your Kick this isn't really a problem, except it doesn't feel like your hitting the head very hard.

Okay I am done now...lol.. sorry for the lengthy response...
Overall I think it was worth what I paid.

Kevin Reynolds
feel free to email me or PM me
[email protected]

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Wow congrats on the sweet deal!!

about the power thing, yes I know it doesn't feel like your hitting the bass drum very hard but after taking the pedals to some practices I was actually getting comments on how much harder i was hitting the bass drum. Now (to me at least) this makes no sense but it has been my experience that (with how I have them set) I get more power with less effort, which is awesome cause I can sometimes be lazy. lol.

-Jonathan

Can you guys who mentioned the loss of power elaborate a little? Do you mean that you get less punch when kicking just as hard or do you mean it feels like you're not kicking as hard?

I switched from a Pearl Eliminator double to a DW 5000 double because the DW felt heavier and more sturdy (I always felt like I was going to break the Pearl with every kick). I've been looking at the Demon Drive as an upgrade from the 5000 (as opposed to the 9000), but if there's some sort of issue with it not actually responding to the force of my foot, I don't want to waste my money.

I will say this, the thing I've noticed about the higher end pedals is adjustability. I liked the changable cams on the Eliminator, I like the infinite adjustability on the 5000/9000 lines, etc. I can't speak to longboard/shortboard feel as I've only ever played longboards, but a direct drive pedal does offer a much, MUCH lighter feel than a chain/nylon drive.

Thanks for the input!

Fluff out

So I have played a lot of different pedals. I have played almost all of the Yamaha pedals, Axis Pedals, Pearl Pedals, Tama Pedals, and Ludwig Pedals. Recently I traded my 4 year old DW9000 which I had put the strap drive on for a brand new Pearl Demon Drive (even trade).
My thought was hey if I don't like the pedal I can sell it and get enough money to buy a new DW9000. It was an offer I couldn't pass up. So as soon as I got the pedal it felt nice I had a little adjusting to do of the pedal and of my technique before I got it right, but after about 15 minutes of adjusting I had it dialed in. I tried the longboard and didn't like it which I thought was strange because I play heal toe. But with the DD I can do exactly what I was doing on my DW9000 with a little less effort. I did have to move the extra beater weight thing(for lack of better words) to the top so that I could feel it a little better. Overall this is a great pedal. I'm still not sure what I like better the 9000 or the DD but it is nice. my only complaint is the beater its self is crap after a day of playing its wore out so I'm going to buy a new beater that will last longer.

However I do not think this pedal is worth the price. I would go for a DW or a Flying Dragon because they do they same thing for cheaper. However if you can get a good deal on it run with it like I did. I hope this is helpful

i have used one pair axis longboards for about 3 years. they have been transported to many gigs, played for countless hours. they have yet to snap or have any issues, they are actually more responsive than when i first bought them (breaking them in, if you will). i bought them second hand off eBay for £250.

i bought/went through several sets of pedals when i was younger. gibraltar > big dog > pearl (eliminators) > axis. i have the pearl as a back up pair and well, they just feel horrible in comparison to the axis. i have some trick metal beaters which are light but powerful, and these combined with the axis is just heaven. i use my ankles a lot, so i do not want any pedal which feels sluggish/is heavy.

i'm sure the demon drive is nice but well, i don't want one. i don't want a trick V1 either. pedal is simply personal preference, my old drum teacher uses dragons.
once you find a pedal you feel comfortable with you should stick with it.