TAMA Speed Cobra

Hi everyone,

I am interested in this pedal (double kick) and was wondering if anyone has one or used one and would like to give a mini review? How do they stack up to other pedals.... like the IC powerglides,DW's,Pearl elims etc. Pros and cons? Recommend or not?

I do realise it is all completely personal preference in the end, but it would be nice to hear everyones opinions.

Thanks!!!!

I have a double and love it. I had a DW5000 prior to this setup and it feels sooo heavy compared to the SC. I did remove the Cobra Coils because they're stupid. Everything else pretty much came out of the box good-to-go, though I set up the beaters to hit on the flat portion rather than the weird pointy part...

Thanks for the quick response!

Yeah they seem pretty sick, the problem is where I live I cant try them out so it kinda hard to get an idea of what these things are like. I have tried the 5000's before and the seem smooth. The speed cobras must be a light feeling if the 5000's were heavy! Awesome, the long boards would be sweet also.

If anyone has anything else to add that would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!!

I got the double pedal a few months ago and they are amazing. My pedal before was a pearl Eliminator and I found it to be too light (footboard-wise) and wouldn't rebound very well. Also it couldn't give me any attack or power (although this might've been the tuning at the time). The footboard on the speedcobras are like a perfect cross between the ICs and the Eliminators in terms of weight. Plus it's a longboard so you can get a more accurate sweet spot or do heel-toe. It's increadibly changeable. The beater can be moved to pointy or flat, the beater and foatboard shift independently (which always irritated me with the pearls), the cobra coil can be made stronger or lighter and the spring tension is held up very nicely. I don't know what they use on it but it holds the springs better than anything I know. The pointed beater gives it more attack and the chain is in a Catepult-like design with the footboard gives it more power (but watch out because I broke through an EMAD bass head with this pedal). My only problem is the clamp to the bass drum hoop. I've never liked their locking system, it's really irritating to me and my pedal always slides slightly to the left after a good session. And this is causing my bass drum hoop to get chewed up which no drummer likes. Basiclly, this is the only pedal that gives me the power and the weight that I need for hard rock (Alice In Chains, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and the speed I want for some metal (Bullet For My Valentine, Suicide Silence, Otep).

hey jwildman thanks for the response, I appreciate it.

Yeah the beaters look nasty!
I have some Pearl Eliminators at the moment and obviously I am looking around as I am not all that happy with the feel as well. Ive tried the DW5000 and liked them more than the eliminators( particularly feel not so much build). Have you sticked some rubber on your bass drum hoop so it doesnt chew up? Glad you liking the pedals, I am so tempted by these plus the longboard factor....sweet.

How do these feel smoothness wise compared to the Eliminators, I always felt the eliminators were sluggish? (could be my setup)

Anyway thanks again!

I have a single SC and I'm very pleased with it. The feeling is very light yet defined and the hinges and all the moving parts feels very well engineered. The footboard is long and smooth which makes it easy to slide with your foot.

I found the "default" setting way to flat for my liking. But there are adjustments possibilities for everyone (I guess). In my setting the cobra coils is of no use.

I also changed beater to one with "more reach", it protrudes a tad longer, which i found suites me better.

I agree that the fastening clamp is a weak point. The front part of the clamp touches the skin before the stop on the base which should stop at the hoop. As a result it slides to the right when im playing. I'll look into this later on and see if I can modify it to fit. I'm interested to hear if anyone have similar problems.

Even though I've not had the opportinity to try every kick pedal out here I'm very pleased with my SC. It had a good price too.

Good luck.
Jörgen

So I have been playing on my SC for about 8 months. I originally was playing on a set of old school dw 5000 single chain double kicks, but I was playing with them so long I got real comfortable with them. Once I switched to the SC I instantly noticed a big difference in consistency, durability and speed with the double kicks. But it has taken me a while to adapt to them and to fine tune them in. My double kick skills have improved a lot since I started using these pedals but I find my self continuing to try to make small adjustments on them.
A problem that I find is that my left kick pedal some times doesn't feel "solid". when I step down on it sometimes it feels like there is a delay or lag. I know a lot of it has to do with getting my left foot as consistent as my right but I think there is something up with the pedals. If I were to push both pedals down and touch the bass head and release them at the same time, they spring back and forth, but the left kick fades out and slows down a lot quicker than the right. Also I noticed a little bit of play (left and right) with the left beater, but every thing is tight. I have my settings for my left and right pedals exactly the same( pedal and beater height, beater position, and spring tension).
Any suggestions on tuning in my SC double pedals???????????

SETHRO said:

So I have been playing on my SC for about 8 months. I originally was playing on a set of old school dw 5000 single chain double kicks, but I was playing with them so long I got real comfortable with them. Once I switched to the SC I instantly noticed a big difference in consistency, durability and speed with the double kicks. But it has taken me a while to adapt to them and to fine tune them in. My double kick skills have improved a lot since I started using these pedals but I find my self continuing to try to make small adjustments on them.
A problem that I find is that my left kick pedal some times doesn't feel "solid". when I step down on it sometimes it feels like there is a delay or lag. I know a lot of it has to do with getting my left foot as consistent as my right but I think there is something up with the pedals. If I were to push both pedals down and touch the bass head and release them at the same time, they spring back and forth, but the left kick fades out and slows down a lot quicker than the right. Also I noticed a little bit of play (left and right) with the left beater, but every thing is tight. I have my settings for my left and right pedals exactly the same( pedal and beater height, beater position, and spring tension).
Any suggestions on tuning in my SC double pedals???????????

Click to expand...

This "lag" is an inherent problem with all double pedals. Some are worse than others. You may be able to tweak it out a bit, but never fully get rid of it.

Bottom line, the slave will always feel slower than a directly connected pedal. This is one of the reasons why I stopped using them.

So when the recoil of the beater slows down quicker then the right one, it is because it is not direct drive, not because there is possibly a fault in the pedal itself? There are amazing double kick drummers out there so maybe I just have to keep tweaking it to minimize that delay as much as I can to get it to where it feels more comfortable. And when you say you stopped using them, does that mean you went to two single kicks?

SETHRO said:

So when the recoil of the beater slows down quicker then the right one, it is because it is not direct drive, not because there is possibly a fault in the pedal itself? There are amazing double kick drummers out there so maybe I just have to keep tweaking it to minimize that delay as much as I can to get it to where it feels more comfortable. And when you say you stopped using them, does that mean you went to two single kicks?

Click to expand...

Almost. When I said directly connected pedal, I really mean the master pedal. Not necessarily direct drive, that's a whole other ball of wax based on personal preference.

Yes, I stopped double kick all together for multiple reasons. One is the double pedals will never feel as natural as two actual bass drums and I'm too lazy and poor to buy and lug around another bass drum. Another is, that as I get older, I find less need for double kick as my style evolves.

I would suggest adjusting the cobra coil more on the left pedal than the right and you could also attach an additional spring assembly as well. This should help the return of the footboard.

Alright sweet. Thanks guys, I will continue to fine tune my double kicks...

They are very fast and light. I haven't ever played a pedal that fast. My biggest issue is that it is too light and not enough power'. I'll just stick with my 5000 for now.

i've had my sc double pedal for almost a year, and i'm still not quite used to them. they are VERY well made. high quality throughout, so i'm happy about that. i've used conventional pedals my whole life, so the long board is really taking some getting used to. my last pedal is/was a gibraltar direct drive avenger. nice pedal. i still use it. i trade off between those and the speed cobras. the beauty of the sc is it's adjust ability, which is why i'm keeping them. like one of the previous posters said, they are VERY low. i adjusted them quite a bit higher, and eschewed the cobra coil device. with the footboards higher, the cobra coils are redundant. the beaters are fine, but the felt is not particularly durable. mine are just about used up. i've had no problems with the hoop clamp, but mine does slide all the way up to the stops. i have the master and slave adjusted almost exactly the same, and i check the slave with my right foot- no perceptible difference. i had to make my own reference marks for beater angle on the slave, and when checking spring angle on the slave, i disconnect the drive shaft, and transfer the black end cap from the master to the slave, just to see how close the two are in adjustment. if you ever play heal down, the long boards can be a surprise. if your feet have moved forward (there's nothing to stop them from that), heel down will be difficult. like stepping on a brick.

SETHRO said:

If I were to push both pedals down and touch the bass head and release them at the same time, they spring back and forth, but the left kick fades out and slows down a lot quicker than the right.

Click to expand...

This is because the left pedal is also moving the connecting rod, which adds inertia causes the pendulum action to slow down quicker.

Hi All,

I have played with SC now one and half year. It really takes some time to get used to, but it will pay back. Very well made, easy to lubricate. Fast and good pedals. Totally different animal than IC or Eliminator with chains.

alfthan said:

Hi All,

I have played with SC now one and half year. It really takes some time to get used to, but it will pay back. Very well made, easy to lubricate. Fast and good pedals. Totally different animal than IC or Eliminator with chains.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. I got these for a steal (double pedal) and I have been adjusting them to get used to them. I've been first adjusting spring tension.

When I decided to pick up a pair of Speed Cobras, I looked up some reviews and have read some concern regarding the slave wobble and the slave Varipitch beater holder. Without explaining everything, I have noticed after taking my pedal apart to lube everything (bearings, etc.) with white lithium grease, I noticed my slave beater-holder assembly did not have the hex screw and bearing housing as the other S.C. I noticed that while my main pedal beater holder has that medal drum that contains two hex screws that need to be tightened under the beater holder, my slave does not. My question is, did Tama release a newer updated version of the S.C. to fix the problems that plagued its initial release?