foot operated wood-block

justjim

Senior Member
sort of new territory for me here

With woodblock I know there are the LP-style kick pedal beater options and I've seen a few simpler pedal and dowel type things (though i couldn't name one) for this.

anyone have experience/insight into the solutions

for example :
does the bass drum kick pedal work pretty well or is the rate& throw kind of strange?

beater choice?

can you get off the block crisply enough with the pedal& dowel stuff to get a nice clave sound?

(just some example questions to kind of guide the convo )

- I mean are there issues, opportunities or pitfalls that might not be apparent to me, being a noob to that?
 
I don't get what you're asking...

If you're wondering about how to piece together a foot operated woodblock, then I'd recommend getting a Gajate Bracket and an LP Jam Block, along with a bass drum pedal with a plastic beater. The Jam Blocks sound more like woodblocks than claves, though. The blue Jam Block sounds most like a pair of claves, IMO...
 
I have used the LP bracket and made my own, which are smaller and easier to use. See my set for photos and descriptions. I am now using a big dowel mounted on a beater rod, a Vater product, to hit the block and it sounds very good.

Don't expect to get the kind of rebound you get with a bass drum. Foot percussion is a whole different feel but it adds a lot to your playing.
 
I don't get what you're asking...

Hey! thanks for checking in -- sorry for being unclear - the question is a pretty general one (for the simple reason there may be issues I haven't considered)

my question isn't "how do I?" so much as it is
"have you found any issues with a particular implementation? "

I could, for instance, use a mounting bracket and just play with a typical kick pedal and beater
OR
I've seen a few folks use (and some of these have looked homebrew) - essentially a dowel attached to a springloaded pedal...sort of a direct-drive with no linkage and very little mechanical advantage (or, I suppose mech disadvantage being a 3rd class lever)

Deathmetalconga has something that looks somewhere in between - it looks like he uses a fairly standard style pedal, but with a dowel-like wood beater


so

My question is basically "given your experiences -- what can you say about the approach you are using? is there an upside? s there a downside you can live with?"


ADDITIONAL :whoops ! looks like deathmetal just checked in

thanks for the responses guys
 
I don't get what you're asking...

Hey! thanks for checking in -- sorry for being unclear - the question is a pretty general one (for the simple reason there may be issues I haven't considered)

my question isn't "how do I?" so much as it is
"have you found any issues with a particular implementation? "

I could, for instance, use a mounting bracket and just play with a typical kick pedal and beater
OR
I've seen a few folks use (and some of these have looked homebrew) - essentially a dowel attached to a springloaded pedal...sort of a direct-drive with no linkage and very little mechanical advantage (or, I suppose mech disadvantage being a 3rd class lever)

Deathmetalconga has something that looks somewhere in between - it looks like he uses a fairly standard style pedal, but with a dowel-like wood beater


so

My question is basically "given your experiences -- what can you say about the approach you are using? is there an upside? s there a downside you can live with?"


ADDITIONAL :whoops ! looks like deathmetal just checked in

thanks for the responses guys

You may be thinking of the Hasenfutz pedal, intended for practice but also good for foot percussion. I would like to try one of those.

As for my own approach, it was worked well for me. I use basic DW 5000s for foot percussion pedals, nothing too exotic. I made my own mounting brackets to conserve space and weight. I just set them up and there's nothing to adjust. For a wood block, I would suggest using a plastic or wood beater.I wouldn't use a typical hardware store dowel, unless it were some really hard wood. I think felt wouldn't give you enough character or projection. The dowel beater I use was purpose-built by Vater so it stands up.

The downside is that these pedals take up a fair amount of room in transport and breaking them down is still a hassle. You may also need to modify or adjust your hihat to get it all to fit.

What are you thinking of doing with foot percussion?
 
What are you thinking of doing with foot percussion?


besides utterly fail to impress my Brazilian sister-in-law?

eh, well, basically perform an amazingly solid a clave while I blaze through intricate polyrhythmic figures on my toms wowing friends and enemies alike showing complete limb indepenence

OK, or just make a sorry attempt at holding a clave with my foot on something besides my hats while I flail around on hand percussion and annoy wife and dogs
 
sort of new territory for me here

With woodblock I know there are the LP-style kick pedal beater options and I've seen a few simpler pedal and dowel type things (though i couldn't name one) for this.

anyone have experience/insight into the solutions

for example :
does the bass drum kick pedal work pretty well or is the rate& throw kind of strange?

beater choice?

can you get off the block crisply enough with the pedal& dowel stuff to get a nice clave sound?

(just some example questions to kind of guide the convo )

- I mean are there issues, opportunities or pitfalls that might not be apparent to me, being a noob to that?

I use the Pearl clamp and an LP block. No issues thus far after some years.
 
I don't get what you're asking...

If you're wondering about how to piece together a foot operated woodblock, then I'd recommend getting a Gajate Bracket and an LP Jam Block, along with a bass drum pedal with a plastic beater. The Jam Blocks sound more like woodblocks than claves, though. The blue Jam Block sounds most like a pair of claves, IMO...

I have a similar setup and it works great! Jam Blocks and Blast Blocks are really sturdy complared to wood blocks which may be important to you if you gig a lot (or if you have inquisitive preschoolers stepping on your pedals!)

For a photo of my Blast Block setup, see: http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53179&highlight=drumskull+conga

Take care

GJS
 
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