Bass drum lifts my pedal

A

Abbruzzese1981

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Whenever I clamp my bass drum pedal to the rim, the pedal kind of lifts inward and never lies flat with the floor. This makes it to where whenever I hit the pedal, my entire kit moves.

Is there a specific product (or a home remedy) I can use to fix this?
 
What pedal is it? I use an Iron Cobra and it does the same thing. I ended up not tightening down the clamp tight. Just snug, and just keep the bass drum legs down and keep the drum from sliding away.
 
alvanko said:
What pedal is it? I use an Iron Cobra and it does the same thing. I ended up not tightening down the clamp tight. Just snug, and just keep the bass drum legs down and keep the drum from sliding away.
Click to expand...

It's a Pearl P902. I've tried that, and for some reason the pedal still wants to be lifted
 
What type of bass hoop do you have?
If it is a steel hoop then it has a lip on the edge and a valley in the middle. If this is the case with your drum then you have to install a thick rubber hoop protector in the valley.

If you have a wooden hoop on your bass drum then you have to adjust the spur height until the pedal sits flat.

The other issue could be that you have your drum rug over thick padded wall to wall carpet and the goalpost area pedal sinks into the soft carpet causing the heel of the pedal to raise.
 
It sounds like you mean the back end of the pedal lifts up. Is that correct? If so, try raising the front of the kick up by adjusting the spurs. That should drop the pedal flat to the floor.
 
Front spurs higher. You want that anyway to raise that part of the bass drum off the floor so as to maximize its resonance.
 
Many people here feel the front of the bass drum needs to be raised. How much?
I have a 20" bass and the front is a good 1'' off the floor. I don't see the point of raising it more than that.
How high is the front of everyone's bass drum off the floor (at the hoop)?
 
My 18" bass drum shell does not touch the floor at all, except where the pedal connects to the hoop. Peace and goodwill.
 
alvanko said:
Many people here feel the front of the bass drum needs to be raised. How much?
I have a 20" bass and the front is a good 1'' off the floor. I don't see the point of raising it more than that.
How high is the front of everyone's bass drum off the floor (at the hoop)?
Click to expand...

That sounds about right to me. Mine is about 3/4 inch.
 
alvanko said:
Many people here feel the front of the bass drum needs to be raised. How much?
I have a 20" bass and the front is a good 1'' off the floor. I don't see the point of raising it more than that.
How high is the front of everyone's bass drum off the floor (at the hoop)?
Click to expand...
Place your bass drum on a hard floor. Install your pedal. Adjust your spurs until the front of the bass drum is about 1/4" higher than the batter side.
Do not use extremely thick padded carpet under your bass drum because that causes the bass drum spurs to sink in and the back of the pedal lifts up.
If the room where you set your drums up in has a thick padded carpet then get a few pieces of 1/2" plywood and place them under your drum rug after you cut them to size..
 
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alvanko said:
Many people here feel the front of the bass drum needs to be raised. How much?
I have a 20" bass and the front is a good 1'' off the floor. I don't see the point of raising it more than that.
How high is the front of everyone's bass drum off the floor (at the hoop)?
Click to expand...

Well, try it and see if it solves your problem. Doesn't take more than a minute. You're asking for advice, so try it out. THATS the point of raising it more than 1".

How much to raise it? Until the pedal lays flat like it's supposed to.

Doesn't matter what everyone else is doing. Everyone's drum-to-pedal fit is going to be unique, depending on all the factors. What matters is what works in your situation.
 
alvanko said:
Many people here feel the front of the bass drum needs to be raised. How much?
I have a 20" bass and the front is a good 1'' off the floor. I don't see the point of raising it more than that.
How high is the front of everyone's bass drum off the floor (at the hoop)?
Click to expand...

Agree with others. You must try different variations. But my suggestions is to raise the front of your hand just enough to put your hand under the bassdrum. Bob Gatzen suggested it too :)
 
I was just thinking some pictures might help us figure this out.

Does your pedal have a way to adjust the angle of the toe clamp? If so, adjust it. This would mean that there's two points of adjustment (the tightening bolt and the adjustment bolt).
 
I use 20" bass drums most times. I also used a Mapex or Gibraltar lift. When I use my DW 9000 with the most recent bass drum hoop clamp the heel of the pedal lifts off the floor. I will put a cymbal felt OR slide a drum stick, tip side under the heel until it stops and I'm good to go. If I use my Pearl Eliminator then I have no issues? My guess is it's the way the pedal clamps to the hoop. It does it on 3 of my 20" bass drums so I know it's not the hoops.

I used a level on the bass after the pedal is attached and it is level, I suppose I could raise the front of the bass a bit to see if that helps but with the lift the drum is already 2" off the floor.
 
This seems common to a lot of pedals with floor plates.

It makes the action sloppy.

I wonder if bending the whole floor plate down would do the trick?

Either that, or figure out the height of the hoop and shave the rubber pads on the pedal to match the level and height of the hoop?
 
Just thinking out loud here...

Every time this type of issue comes up you get suggedtions to raise the spurs and lift the front of the bass drum off the floor "more". This is exactly the opposite of what you should do if you are using a pedal with a non-articulating clamp or a solid base plate imo.

Over the years it seems the front of bass drums have been lifted higher and higher. (I am not aware of any pics of "old timers" with bass drums lifted more than maybe an inch. But I have seen modern pics with drummers lifting their bass drums at least two inches in the front). We have also seen an increase in pedal clamping issues since the solid baseplate pedal designs became popular.

What I think is actually happening is that by raising the front hoop higher the batter hoop acts as a fulcrum and is "levering" the base plate up off the floor. With a non-baseplate pedal design this won't happen because the base support "rods" are able to pivot and relieve the tension caused by the extreme angle of the rear hoop.

My suggestion would be to set your bass drum on a short-pile carpet almost flat/level then attach your pedal and see bow everything sits. If everything looks good-then *gently* raise the spurs and check for any weird tension or pulling on the pedal base plate.

It may just be that the angle of the rear hoop attachment point was too extreme for your pedal to compensate for, and keeping your bd more level will solve the problem.

I have never raised my bass drum that high in the front-and I have never had an issue mounting a solid base plate pedal (at least not Tama pedals).

Just an old dog trying to help...
 
2 inches is quite a bit, I'm probably just one inch, so actually lowering it might be just as possible a solution.
 
My bass drum hoop in the front is the same distance off of the floor as the rear hoop. The height of the pedal connector. The drum is level. Raising the front too high is kind of 1980.
 
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