Talk about your first bass drum pedal upgrade

My pedal history:
1967–1977: Speed King. I struggled with it to the point that I dismantled it, lubed it and rebuilt it, and I still didn’t have the speed of Bonham. I blamed the pedal.​
1987–1994: Various unknown Yamaha models on various Yamaha church kits. No speed was required, no doubles, etc., but since they were church kits, I never bothered to adjust them.​
1994–2004: DW5000 Turbo. I never felt that I was “on the click”, and the action felt heavy. I toyed with the settings frequently but never it felt natural.​
2004–2008: Tama Iron Cobra Flexi-Drive. I loved the action but the power (loudness) was less than the DW5000.​
2008–2012: Tama IC900 Rolling Glide without Cobra Coil. This felt so good it disappeared under my foot.​
2012-current: Tama IC900 Rolling Glide with Cobra Coil. (I gave the previous pedal away to a superior drummer). The Cobra Coil can barely be felt, if at all. Everybody in the drum shop felt it was a gimmick. I didn’t care ’cuz it can be removed if necessary (it’s still on there, shrouded in dirt and dust).​

I’ve also tried a dozen beaters, which also make a huge difference in feel and sound, and am currently using the Vic Firth wood beater.

I will say that I was fortunate to have a recording studio in town. The owner would happily buy my old gear (pedals, cymbals) so I never felt stuck with something.
 
Bo Eder said:
I doubt I’m off base, but you can believe what you want. I started on a Ludwig Speed King - and John Bonham made all those Zeppelin tunes with a Speed King
Click to expand...
And some of us started with stuff like this:

Yibuy-Black-Shelf-drum-Pedal-and-Drumstick-for-Children-Rack-Drums-Repair-Kit.jpg_q50.jpg
If you can play great on any pedal, why not just buy this? It's only $16.
 
Yes, Bonham made some magic with a Speed King. That being said, what would he have done with, say, and Iron Cobra had he lived to try it?
The Speed King is not a junk pedal, there are however many total crap pedals out there, like the one @MrInsanePolack posted, and anything would be an improvement over them.
I have found that many pedals can't adequately keep up with my foot for any number of reasons, especially the beginner styles.
 
Swissward Flamtacles said:
Cool, try to take your pedal with you to serve as a baseline. I hope that you find something useful that's not too expensive. As others have said, a mid-range pedal might be perfectly fine. :)
Click to expand...
A mid range seems like a decent idea, a DW 5000 is too expensive @ 300CAD, there is probably something in the middle of that. Hopefully they will have a bass drum with enough tension on the head in the store.. i'll take my own pedal.
 
My very first pedal came with my CB kit, which was a CB bass drum pedal when I was 12 or so in '95.
It would have suited me fine, except the linking rod for the beater was missing.
When I got it, I taped both sides to hold the beater.
I would play until the beater would fly off, or if I got tired of putting it back on every time.

I played like this for a few years, then one day traded my electric guitar and practice amp for an off brand double pedal, can't remember this was around '99-00.
This pedal was seemingly locked in on the hardest tension, and I managed until I got a DW 5000 in '01.

From there, around '02-03, I traded out the heavy DW for the lighter IC strap drive.
Liked the IC but the strap loosened over a few years, will never get a strap drive.
Now I play on my Pearl Demonator bass drum pedal, though I do have an original Speed King.
 
What are the most popular mid-range pedals per brands? At 1 store they talk about 100CAD or 300CAD, there is a major gap in the middle..

It's for jazz, heal down, I want precise mechanics without feeling like pushing a weight with my foot.

I've got this one right now.

This is it: Gibraltar 3311S
www.vintagedrum.com

Gibraltar 3311S Velocity Strap Drive Single Bass Drum Pedal - Vintage Drum Center

The Velocity Strap Drive Gibraltar bass drum pedal utilizes a non stretch Kevlar strap drive delivering lightning speed with quiet and smooth action. Additional features include exclusive wave pedal board...
www.vintagedrum.com
 
I am super on board with the idea that the instrument should call you to play it. An old musician friend once told me that you should never buy a kids instrument for a child. His thinking is that they sound awful so not only will the kid not want to play that instrument but she might be turned off to playing music for the rest of her life. We need to connect emotionally with the instrument.

Now I’ll go back and read through this thread because I’ve been living with my Pearl P-920 for way too long. I’ve been to cheap to upgrade. Really I’ve spent my play money on more exciting things like cymbals.
 
Auspicious said:
What are the most popular mid-range pedals per brands? At 1 store they talk about 100CAD or 300CAD, there is a major gap in the middle..
Click to expand...
You're in Montreal, right? https://www.timpano-percussion.com/...ort=popular&max=950&min=0&sort=lowest&brand=0
The Tama HP200 is pretty popular, so is the Pearl that cmjones mentioned. I'm sure that other companies also make good pedals, so try them if possible. :)
The beater also makes a difference, so try to use the beater you're using now when testing them. Best of luck!
 
Swissward Flamtacles said:
You're in Montreal, right? https://www.timpano-percussion.com/...ort=popular&max=950&min=0&sort=lowest&brand=0
The Tama HP200 is pretty popular, so is the Pearl that cmjones mentioned. I'm sure that other companies also make good pedals, so try them if possible. :)
The beater also makes a difference, so try to use the beater you're using now when testing them. Best of luck!
Click to expand...
:eek: I am not in Montreal, perhaps 25 minutes away from the river (which is on the other side of downtown). I tried to go there, Timpano, to check their Istambul cymbals, there is not a single parking spot in that sector. I am not going back there unless I am payed 200$ for the trip, minimum.

The roads are 3rd world country grade, I risk repairs on my car way above 1000$ because of pot holes.

--> No thanks, I'll use the Gibraltar instead or order one blindly from Amazon.ca.

I'll stop at a small store in the north shore, they have a Yamaha 100$ and an Iron Cobra 300$, I'll stop and check, probably without buying.
 
cbphoto said:
Worst pedal design ever:
Click to expand...
I feel like the idea is there. There havent been any new design concepts, its all still basically lever and pulley. Alas, I do agree though, horrible pedal design.
 
Auspicious said:
The roads are 3rd world country grade, I risk repairs on my car way above 1000$ because of pot holes.

--> No thanks, I'll use the Gibraltar instead or order one blindly from Amazon.ca.
Click to expand...
Yikes! No public transportation? :) I won't give you $200 for the trip, sorry..
If you end up not buying anything locally: https://www.acclaim-music.com/tama-hp200p-iron-cobra-200-single-bass-drum-pedal-hp-200-p.html
Not sure about that store, but anything should be better than that staff-exploiting, tax-undercutting, returns-scrapping company Amoralzon. Sorry for the rant - of course you're free to shop wherever you want. :)
 
TJK said:
Looks interesting and simple
Click to expand...

The Gibraltar Catapult was interesting, and simple. Simple, because in theory it behaved like a pedal: push down on the footboard, and the beater is hurled towards the head. Interesting, because the designers could not possibly have consulted with drummers on the implementation, or even tested it with them after it was built. Just. Not. Possible. No drummer would have said 'yeah, this is great'. None.

Sadly, this is not the only thing Gibraltar put out that was poorly thought-through, and probably not tested with drummers. There was a hi-hat clutch so poorly designed - the threaded sections were too far apart - that it would not hold the top cymbal in place without adding additional felts (or perhaps they were trying to sell felt packages?) There was also the zip-open drum bags that laid flat - supposedly so they didn't take up space while not in use - but required three times as much effort to open, and then close them again. There was some other thing they cooked-up that was a loser right out of the box... hard to keep track.

Anyway, I bought a Catapult just to have one, I made a stupid low offer, and the shop was thrilled that I took it off their hands. It's an atrocious piece of crap.
 
TJK said:
Looks interesting and simple
Click to expand...
MrInsanePolack said:
I feel like the idea is there. There havent been any new design concepts, its all still basically lever and pulley. Alas, I do agree though, horrible pedal design.
Click to expand...
our local shop had one in the pedal display/try-out area. It was sluggish, without a quick/sprite recoil, noisy, and didn’t feel like any other pedal I‘d every tried.

I heard @bermuda bought one though, ‘cuz he had only 45 pedals and needed 46. 😂
 
I just recently retired my DW5000s in favor of the Yamaha FP9. I liked my 5000's for many years, but a few years ago I started playing with shoes on and for whatever reason I just lost confidence with my right foot control. As I was planning to start playing lots of gigs, I just didn't want to have to deal with the shoes on and off thing when working at clubs and I know so many great drummers play with shoes on so I wasn't going to budge on that... I recognize it's all totally mental, but changing pedals was what I had to do to get my bass drum mojo back. I do think the FP9 has a slightly longer footboard than the DW5000 so perhaps that helps with the extra surface area my foot takes up with shoes on, who knows...

Either way, I really like these Yamaha pedals. My first pedal was a Speed King, and it was honestly really awesome. Then a mid-level Pearl double pedal before moving to the DW5000s which I stuck with for 20 years.
 
I went cheap on my first double pedal, a Gibraltar of some kind. I upgraded to an Iron Cobra Power Glide and loved it.
Then I became obsessed (not exaggerating) with searching for the perfect pedal. That was an expensive couple of years. You're welcome, Tama, Trick, Axis . . . . .
 
Swissward Flamtacles said:
Yikes! No public transportation? :) I won't give you $200 for the trip, sorry..
If you end up not buying anything locally: https://www.acclaim-music.com/tama-hp200p-iron-cobra-200-single-bass-drum-pedal-hp-200-p.html
Not sure about that store, but anything should be better than that staff-exploiting, tax-undercutting, returns-scrapping company Amoralzon. Sorry for the rant - of course you're free to shop wherever you want. :)
Click to expand...
I might try another store in Montreal called Drum Bazar, that one has parking around. I went to a very small store today, they had some Sonor pedals (which i can't find on the website) 169CAD double chain and 99CAD single chain.

--> But no drums to try it.

The engineering looked ok but aesthetically they were not really good looking pedal like DW, even Iron Cobra.
 
Like many other drummers, my first bass drum pedal was a speed king, mine belonged to my father and was from the 50s or 60s. Now I have a Sonor single-chain pedal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top