Proposal for a new double pedal/hi-hat accessory

mikeper94

Junior Member
Hi guys,

I'm new here, I wanted to see what you thought about a product I've designed and intend to develop for an A-Level Technology project. As a drummer myself, I've experienced the problems with using a double pedal and hi-hats at the same time. As far as I see there are three current solutions.

1) Close the hi-hats for the duration of the song, no open hi-hat sound.
2) Buy another pair of hi-hats, one to keep shut, and one to use as open if necessary. Not a cheap option.
3) Get a Janus pedal and sacrifice your own preferred double pedal.

While I won't go into detail about how my product works, put simply, it allows you to lock the hi-hats shut at any time while playing, using only your pedal foot, and open it again equally as easily. This allows your hi-hat foot to move to your double pedals for a fill, for example, but then to quickly switch back to your hi-hat pedal for an open hi-hat accented beat. You can still adjust how much the hi-hat opens as you would normally, and when you're not using it, the device will not affect how you play in the slightest.

To confirm, my product works entirely separately to the double-pedals, allowing you to use your own personal preference.

The device will be either attached to an existing hi-hat stand, or marketed as a feature for stand manufacturers to add to their product, depending on the results of my market research.

Any advice on the viability and need for my product will be very gratefully excepted.

Thanks,
Mike
 
Yeah, sounds very much like the Cobra Clutch to me... How will yours be different?

Alternatively, there's a guy trying to nail down an electronic clutch too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oigx5YjvGxs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0yQO4W1Gro

It will automatically locks when it senses that your foot has moved off the hihat pedal (supposedly it locks in the position you leave it in, but I can't quite see how that would work comfortably), and as soon as your foot touches the pedal it will resume normal pedal operation. Pretty nice, but strikes me as a bit cumbersome, and possibly unreliable.
 
Oh I hadn't seen that before, I've been researching for ages but that one must've passed me by.

I'll go into a bit more detail with my product. It is a normal shaped pedal, with a smaller plate on top, pivoted towards the heel The top plate has a fin which when pushed to the side, locks into a slot on the stand, holding it in place. This is a really really old design, and I've changed it a lot since then, but this is the only image I have on me at the moment, and it illustrates the rough point.

http://www.ukimagehost.com/view/5e65a00160d07160.jpg

I guess my selling point is the sheer simplicity and reliability of it
 
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