Pedal setup - aka. how do people play this?

Naigewron

Platinum Member
So, Zildjian posted this pic from one of their artists on their Instagram feed yesterday:

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Now, I'm not trying to diss this guy in any way, but his pic inspired this thread. That's a very nice kit, and I have no reason to believe that the guy isn't a great drummer. However, how in the hell does he play with his pedals set up like that?

I see these setups pretty regularly, where the kit setup looks in general pretty comfortable, but the pedals are just at angles or positions that would force you to sit with one or both legs in what I can only assume are very uncomfortable positions.
I won't drag forward specific forum users, but if you look through the "Let's see your POV/ Driver's seat pics" thread, there are lots of these very curious setups on display.

I realise that as long as you're using a straight hihat stand, there's going to be a compromise between the comfort of the pedal position and where the cymbals end up in relation to your hands and snare, but still...

I always strive to find that position balance, and I think I've gotten good at it (to suit my own personal requirements) over the years. My pedals are equal distances from my throne and angled identically in relation to it. That means that both legs and feet are positioned and angled identically, regardless of what pedal they're playing.

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So, do you take special care to find comfortable positions for your pedals, or do you just play you pedals wherever they end up when you're happy with the position of your snare, hihat cymbals and toms (if you have your toms mounted on your kick, your tom placement will influence your kick pedal position)?
 
It depends what is comfortable. I would presume that most drummers, like myself, the position of drums cymbals and pedals has been tweaked, over the years, so they fall naturaly in line with the limbs involved. Given the constraints of the drum sizes and limb length, posture, and size of the player I am surprised there are not more variations in setup.

As they say "Make the instrument fit the player, not the other way round".
 
One time I played another guy's kit at this party. Take a normal, symmetrical, reasonable double bass pedal set up...and then move the left pedal towards you nearly a foot.

The only thing that I'm really finnicky about on my drums is where my pedals and throne are.
 
I don't find it so odd. I have an assymetric set up too, snares and hi-hat to the left and all my toms a bit right of centre. Pedals are either parallel if I'm using a double bass drum, or with the slave closer to me if I'm using a drive shaft.
 
It depends what is comfortable. I would presume that most drummers, like myself, the position of drums cymbals and pedals has been tweaked, over the years, so they fall naturaly in line with the limbs involved. Given the constraints of the drum sizes and limb length, posture, and size of the player I am surprised there are not more variations in setup.

Oh absolutely, variations are to be expected, and that's great! I'm specifically referring to the setups which look like they would require some very uncomfortable or inefficient leg positions. The first picture I posted would require the drummer to tuck his right foot right in underneath his knee, while the left leg would need to be more stretched out, with the foot placed at a very strange angle to align with the footplate. And to play the kick and the leftmost e-pad pedal at the same time, his hips would presumably need to dislocate entirely.
 
It looks crazy if it were a double bass setup but the far left pedal is for an effect on a tambourine or something. So he has a bass drum pedal a hit and then the effects pedal. So not how mine would be set up but not impossible to play as shown
 
My guess is his foot is on a rather severe angle across the BD pedal. I have a friend who plays like that. Tears up a lot of pedals.
 
In that pic posted that led to the OP's question, the position of the hi-hat and pedal is what leaps out at me. To each his / her own, but that just looks uncomfortable to me.
 
To me, the odd one is the hi-hat. The left-most pedal looks to be a kick drum trigger to be used with the roland triggers on the left. I'm guessing that he plays acoustically, then rotates his entire body left to play the e-drums.

Either that, or everything on the left was pushed out and gets pulled in when he sits down.

At the church I play at, whoever set up the Roland TD20s set the hi-hat pretty far back toward the rack, then tied the hi-hat and stand to the rack where they can't be moved. A real weird set up. (I don't play that kit often)
 
looks fine to me. It's not like your foot needs to be aligned with a hat pedal to work it.
 
I'm sure it's perfectly comfy to the drummer. Maybe his one leg is longer than the other. There are so many types of body types. The way the drums are set up is just a reflection of their unique bodily proportions. His set matters only to him and therefore it's not our place to state whether we think it's efficient or not. That's all his/her choice. Live and let live. If you owned this drummers body, it would probably make perfect sense.
 
As Watso said, you don't actually need your foot in line with a pedal to use it. However, I will say that those kind of setups certainly don't please my aesthetic senses :) My pedal setup looks a lot more like yours, OP.
 
With a friendly tone here just to set the record straight on my earlier post.

I make, or made no judgement on proper,right / wrong nor efficient. Like I said, to each his or her own, just looks uncomfortable. To me. ;)
 
It's hard to say what would be comfortable to someone. For me, because I play heels up on the hi hat and bass drum, I have some freedom about the placement of the pedals. I'm more concerned about the placement of my stool than I am about the pedals not lining up. I'm a jazz player, and I use the hi hat a lot. I never had a problem with a bit of an odd angle. If I played heels down, I'm sure this would be completely different.
 
Well, here's how my pedals stack up. However I have since shifted the tom and timbale to the left because as I used the pedals "heel up",. my knee kept hitting the underside of the tom nearest the snare. Then again depending on the day I shift the pedals around depending on my mood. Face it. Drummers suffer OCD.
 

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I'm sure it's perfectly comfy to the drummer. Maybe his one leg is longer than the other. There are so many types of body types. The way the drums are set up is just a reflection of their unique bodily proportions. His set matters only to him and therefore it's not our place to state whether we think it's efficient or not. That's all his/her choice. Live and let live. If you owned this drummers body, it would probably make perfect sense.

I agree with you in spirit, Larry, but I have watched players use set-ups that clearly hindered their playing because of the choice of positioning, angles, etc. It has been really difficult at times not to say, "Here, let me help you with that." Or at least, "Have you ever tried..."

Meh. I keep my mouth shut. It is their body and playing that suffer, not mine.

As for the pic in the first post, that kit is playable if the player doesn't keep the left foot in line with the pedal. He/she might even use the heel on the trigger while the toe is on the hat.
 
no judgement on proper,right / wrong nor efficient. Like I said, to each his or her own, just looks uncomfortable. To me. ;)

Yeah, it seems I need to clarify this too. I definitely never meant to judge anyone's chosen setup with this thread; it's posted out of genuine curiosity.

I'm actually a bit surprised though. I honestly wasn't expecting that a lot of drummers actually choose to play with these asymmetrical setups. If it works, it works, but from my own personal experience and style I just can't wrap my head around how it can be more comfortable to play these setups than having things a little more in line.
 
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