NPD: Trick Dominator - Initial impressions, to be followed by periodic review

Reggae_Mangle

Silver Member
My new pedal arrived today. Got it out of the box, set it up and jammed for hours. Here are some pictures.

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1) My initial reaction after unboxing the pedal was positive. Well-made, solid. I've heard a lot of criticism about the lack of a footplate, but it seems mine is a later model, which has a foot plate. It's a single sheet of metal, but latticed, to keep costs and the weight down, I imagine. It looks very sleek, very professional, I don't understand the complaints that it is ugly. Turning the two single pedals into a double was a cinch and I am sure the reverse holds true as well. Interesting find: when I opened up the cover plate on the master pedal to convert to a double, I noticed some red-looking lubricant (?) in the spring cavity. It looked like it was glow-in-the-dark, intriguing. The demo vids I've seen don't show anything like that.

2) The spring mechanism is promising, but I noticed that if you loosen it too much, it comes out completely! I was lucky to stop in time and put it all back in (the right way I hope, the innards are not to be messed with as per Trick Percussion).

3) There were four strips of velcro in the box, which was handy, as when I first tried the pedal, even the master pedal was slipping and sliding, because my e-drum kickpad couldn't hold it in place. However, I think that a few more strips are necessary for each pedal. This is because if I fasten a strip at the front and one at the back of the pedal on the base, the pedal becomes unstable, because the strips don't run from one edge to another and hence it can tilt toward either side. Fortunately, I had some pedalboard tape with me to rectify the situation, but it would be nice if Trick perhaps gives enough velcro to keep the pedals stable.

4) The feel of this pedal is definitely on the heavier side. I attribute this to it being a longboard as well as the compression spring, which gives the pedal a feel akin to an Iron Cobra with a Cobra Coil, rather than an Eliminator. Action was very smooth, I had some initial worries about noise from the pedal, but tightened all nuts and it was all good.

5) I hurt my knees playing. Love new gear, but I couldn't get the double kick to sound like squat. Adjustments were a PITA like all pedals, but the one advantage is that the spring tension is easier to fix on this pedal. Just playing the single kick was very rewarding. Plan to adjust my seating position and reposition my drumkit tomorrow, besides some more tweaking, including a change of shoes.

What I do for love of music... Watch this space.

- Reggae Mangle
 
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Congratz on the new pedal.Good choice. I am surprised you find them heavy, these are the lightest pedals i have played. Btw the pedal should not make any noise, mine are,completely silent. Good luck with them.
 
It's hard to get the big picture when you have to scroll. Can you maybe downsize the pics a little?
Hopefully, the pedals turn out to be what you were wanting.
 
Another 682Drums head user! Was considering Tricks when I went for a pedal upgrade. Let us know if things get any better with it down the track (once you've had time to break it in).
 
It's hard to get the big picture when you have to scroll. Can you maybe downsize the pics a little?

Re-sized (smaller) pictures will also add a degree of better sharpness of the images to the viewers.

Dennis
 
Apologies! I clicked some new pictures with a smaller size. Thanks for the suggestion. Got an extra one of the spring innards, looks gruesome... yet has the same attraction as one of those wounds... You know the kind!

@risewiththefallen: I actually found the feel to be a little heavier than my Pearl Eliminators out of the box. I'm not talking about resistance when being played. Just a different feel from the footboard. They are completely silent after I tightened down everything! It all started when I made an adjustment :eek:

@wildbill: I wrestled with them all day and then about an hour ago, a glimmer of hope. It must be the direct drive mechanism, coupled with the compression spring. Very unusual. After hours of frustration, I seem to have hit upon a nice setting, .

@toddmc: 682Drums mesh-heads are pretty cool, this is the first set I got, but coming from the stock mylar heads on my Alesis kit, there's a world of difference in playability. Their e-trigger cone conversion is pretty nifty, the dynamics on my dinky e-kit have improved dramatically.

- Reggae Mangle
 
And a clarification: making adjustments on the pedal is actually easier than I thought, mainly on account of the fact that I don't have to get off my drum throne and grovel on the ground. Sure to be invaluable on stage and situations where you're trying to impress :)

Still looking for optimum set-and-forget, so it's a burning issue!

- Reggae Mangle
 
I too found the adjustments a PITA when going from the DW9000 single to the Dominator double. I think much of that had to do with going from a regular board to a long board. That was frustrating at first - my biggest learning curve.

My main gripes were that there were no spikes, so you have to have a nice rug and position the velcro wisely. The heel part of the foot plate is narrow to fit velcro there. Trick should have included ENOUGH velcro for this. The included velcro is quite industrial and effective. My slave pedal does stay anchored amazingly.

There are rubber tips that press against your bass drum hoop that wear out eventually (I've heard). I haven't seen these yet on their website? I just placed a thin rubber pad inbetween hoop and pedal. I swapped out the beaters and use the heavier DW beater.

A very precisely engineered pedal. The wrenches fit tightly onto each bolt. Super easy to adjust tension on the fly. Wickedly smooooooth. The axle is nicely engineered with huge U joints. Plus they're only $130 if you ever need a replacement. Have heard excellent things about their axles.

Overall, excellent pedal.
 
I tried this pedal briefly in store. A bit hard to play single foot doubles for me so it wasn't my bag but it felt more like a weapon than musical equipment. Seems like a very high quality piece of gear.

My advice on getting used to pedals is to play rather than think really hard about the settings, as it's easy to get confused or disappointed when you over analyze.
 
The primary consideration was price! But it's still extremely pricey! I had to make sure I wasn't buying some sort of watered down pedal.

While narrowing down on the pedal, I noted comments that it was essentially the same thing as a Bigfoot. I also noted comments that the compression spring hindered playing due to resistance at the end of the stroke. The complaints about the lack of spikes and the lack of a footplate were also noted.

The major difference with the top of the line pedal was the absence of an "adjustable cluster" to change the footboard feel and the sliding bass hoop clamp mechanism.

The latter feature didn't really make much of a difference to me: I figured they had designed it in a way that the hoop clamp was positioned far enough ahead to prevent the drive from grinding against the drum head. Didn't seem like I was wrong as far as my e-drum kickpad, I'll put up some pics!

The adjustable cluster on the other hand seemed like an interesting feature. But since the Dominator "cluster" seemed to be locked into a "middle position", I reasoned that not having one would just mean one less doohickey to drive me nuts! Someone needs to make me a non-adjustable, custom pedal!

While there's no difference between the Dominator footboard and the Pro-1V Bigfoot, the Trick Detonators on the other hand feature a traditional shortboard with heel plate. I've been taking stock of a lot of amazing drummers playing longboard pedals for a long time and a lot of the older players also seem to be migrating to them. I'm not an experienced drummer, having taken up drumming at the "out of prime" age of 28, when ideally I should have built the required muscle knowledge by now. So I figured why not try out something radically different. Compression spring and longboard, check.

I'll admit, it was a bit of a risk going with a smaller manufacturer -- albeit one with a competent reputation -- and I'm not too sure whether it has paid off just yet. There is a learning curve with direct drives too,

But as far as quality, I'm extremely happy with the construction, it's very reassuring to look at and have underfoot. I think as a result of being machined, it seems even sturdier than my Pearl Eliminators, which were rock solid pedals in their own right.

In that respect, it seems every bit a top-of-the-line pedal. But I went with it instead of the real top-of-the-line pedal because of the price. Confusing? I hope no one gets reservations about this pedal because I sound wishy-washy about them after splurging. I am truly excited to have these things in my possession... The review is still underway!!

- Reggae Mangle
 
Week 1 is up and I really feel this pedal is beginning to grow on me. I'm still not 100% acclimatised to it's workings... Here are some more pictures!

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The funky looking drive-shaft. Notice the two different ends (sorry, the end got lopped off a bit on one). What makes it special is just how fitted it is to the respective ends of the .
pedals. Super snug, I imagine the design lends itself to zero latency while using the slave. I haven't noticed any lag in the slave. This does not mean it doesn't feel different from the master pedal. You get a subtle feeling about the additional weight being moved. But it doesn't manifest itself in the form of a lag when you play the pedal, pretty much a 1:1 relationship between the board and the beater.

That's one good thing about being able to split the thing into two singles, something I didn't factor in when buying this pedal (for $599, gasp, I can't breathe). As a guy used to playing on a single bass drum, splitting the pedal into two singles and playing double bass was one of the fun-nest things I've done on a drumkit. There is something very different about playing two singles versus a double pedal... You might have known it, but I didn't!

I've pottered about with both combinations, two singles and the double pedal and it is really cool to have the option to go with either.

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Had to experiment a bit with the velcro installation on the pedals and this was the optimum solution I could come up with using minimal velcro. I hope someone from Trick on their friends do report back to them on the need for providing a little more velcro in the box, I'm sure it'll go a long way toward swaying potential customers. Even more so on account of the common complaint that without spikes it slips and slides all over the place.
I haven't tried the pedal on anything other than a carpet (hmm, something to try out, I guess!), but it clings really well, so well that the carpet moving is a bigger problem than the slave pedal sliding around. I have a jam coming up this weekend and I'll report on my experience in a different environment in due course.

The hoop clamp mechanism seems solid and reliable, but I havent been able to try it on anything other than my electronic drum kick pad which has a rather obnoxious hoop to clamp on to :D

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Pardon the dust, I need to get a vacuum of some kind. But that little hump is supposed to be the hoop! Hey, it does the job as far as triggering goes, so why complain? There were some initial hiccups with respect to the hoop clamp though. Initially, my pedal was not stable on the ground, as a result of the supplied velcro not being adequate. I'm really harping on that, aren't I! Mr Mike Dorfman of Trick Percussion should do something! A small section in the manual on appropriate placement of velcro would also be of use to those in awe of their new purchase and wanting to get the most out of it on Day 1.

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Just look at those things sitting behind my humble kit with only four cymbals! I like the colour, but I have a feeling that as time goes by, the pedals could lose some of their shiney quality as they develop playing scars and nicks. But what pedal doesn't!

Going to abstain from any commentary on the playability of the pedals, I really want to put up a short video demonstrating how the compression spring and tension system works on the Dominators. I keep thinking "Moeller method" to myself while playing, it really is something to play a quadruple hit with a single foot or sequences of triplets using heel-toe. Though I imagine that my triggers must be fooling me into thinking I'm onto something new and wonderful.

Heh, I keep thinking I'll be world-renowned as...

- Reggae "Trickfoot' Mangle
 
^^ Oh yeah, a carrying case would have been great, I wish it was included! The cases that are made for these pedals are super expensive, I plan to buy a bag and pad it up instead. Might invest in one of the carrying cases down the road, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to keep it safe for the time being.

- Reggae Mangle
 
^^ Oh yeah, a carrying case would have been great, I wish it was included! The cases that are made for these pedals are super expensive, I plan to buy a bag and pad it up instead. Might invest in one of the carrying cases down the road, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to keep it safe for the time being.

- Reggae Mangle

About $100. It's gotta be super padded, climate controlled with velvet inside (not really)

Some options I'm looking at:
Tool box from hardware store
Square snare drum case for at least 6 1/2 deep drum. That funny end cap that bolts to the axle on the main pedal sticks out.
 
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I travelled with it today using this. She got through the day a-ok! A rough n'tough bag, some 1" foam and it was extremely snug. Could carry my sticks, drumming shoes and tools with ease.

I think I need a different type of drum carpet, something fuzzy, not like the one I using now which is just a simple woven mat. The jampad where I set them up had this simple blue carpet that the pedals just stuck to like glue.

- Reggae Mangle
 
Oh, man! One of those days... I am grinning from ear to ear! I think my investment has paid off! Still got to do a demo video, I'm not the greatest drummer in the world, but this pedal makes me feel above average :)

- Reggae Mangle
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niBMcjGzJY0

Here's a video demo. I held my phone in my hand and recorded, so nothing complicated or technical. No use of hands though (except laughably at one part), so hopefully bonus points for demonstrating how easy it is to balance on these pedals :D

I hope the quality of the audio is sufficient to demonstrate how nice these pedals are for playing fast. I wasn't really blazing, it's around 1.30 am here. Other than the pedals, this is a good demo of the excellent Hellfire mesh head mod on my Alesis DM10 kick drum, it's awesome not to wake up the neighbours... Not! :p

If everyone's nice, I'll make a "proper" video this Sunday if I can. Maybe play along to a track I'm working on ;)

- Reggae Mangle
 
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