Cobra Coil?

TColumbia37

TColumbia37

Silver Member
So a buddy of mine traded me his Iron Cobra Power Glide double pedal for my DW 9000 single pedal, because he doesn't play double bass and just wanted a good single pedal. It's kind of a trial period right now. If he decides he wants to keep the 9000, I'll offer him a little extra cash, as the IC is about twice the price new.

Anyhow, it's one of the newer models, but just before the Cobra Coil was introduced, so it has the provisions to fit one to the base plate. I have only had very little time to play with any Tama pedal, so I'm not familiar enough with the Cobra Coil design to know if it would be worth the upgrade. So, to those who are currently using ICs/SCs with the Cobra coil, if we were to decide to stick to this trade, and I end up with the IC as my main pedal, would you recommend the Cobra Coil? Do you think it makes enough of a difference to spend $50 on outfitting a double pedal with it?
 
TColumbia37 said:
So a buddy of mine traded me his Iron Cobra Power Glide double pedal for my DW 9000 single pedal, because he doesn't play double bass and just wanted a good single pedal. It's kind of a trial period right now. If he decides he wants to keep the 9000, I'll offer him a little extra cash, as the IC is about twice the price new.

Anyhow, it's one of the newer models, but just before the Cobra Coil was introduced, so it has the provisions to fit one to the base plate. I have only had very little time to play with any Tama pedal, so I'm not familiar enough with the Cobra Coil design to know if it would be worth the upgrade. So, to those who are currently using ICs/SCs with the Cobra coil, if we were to decide to stick to this trade, and I end up with the IC as my main pedal, would you recommend the Cobra Coil? Do you think it makes enough of a difference to spend $50 on outfitting a double pedal with it?
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When I used to play the IC's and SC's (I had both), I found that the Cobra Coil reduced fatigue, especially when I was playing with this Symphonic Metal band and entire songs were 16th note double bass, patterns or straight at 150 BPM and greater. When you are playing at "full bore", they really are a leg saver. I even found myself not being at all tired after a show. Try for yourself, with and without, at similar energy levels and track your time.
 
Just my 2 cents. I've got SC's dbl. I couldn't tell much difference when I first got it, and was adjusting it. Also, the cobra coil has been out a long time, and I don't think any of the other manufactures are making anything like it. If it were something really good, then the others would be copying it. I guess you'd just have to play one in a store or something, and see for yourself. I'm not knocking the pedal though. I really like it. I just think the coil might be just more of a gimmick, than a useful item.
 
I own 2 sets of IC doubles......................one with the Cobra Coil and one without..................honestly, I can't tell the difference. But, I'm not playing anything crazy technical on them
 
JosephDAqui said:
When I used to play the IC's and SC's (I had both), I found that the Cobra Coil reduced fatigue, especially when I was playing with this Symphonic Metal band and entire songs were 16th note double bass, patterns or straight at 150 BPM and greater. When you are playing at "full bore", they really are a leg saver. I even found myself not being at all tired after a show. Try for yourself, with and without, at similar energy levels and track your time.
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One thing to add - I was using wood beaters and had them positioned a ways back for power (without hitting my leg) for a good powerful stroke, plus I had the coil in the "back" position of what the manual would state as "least" amount of coil return - like I said, it reduced fatigue for me for long practices or intense shows.
 
It's possible that some techniques get more benefit from the coil. I use wood beaters and play primarily heal up. I've been working on heal toe and continuous release lately, but not very good at it yet.
 
$50 to add that little spring underneath the footboard? Really?

I suppose it depends on you if you like it, but when I played the IC, I couldn't handle the pedal pushing back up on me all the time so I removed the coil.
 
I found the coil pretty much non-existent, as far as feeling it there. I first thought something was wrong with the pedal; like someone installed the wrong spring on it at the factory. In it's most forward position I could barely tell it was there.

$50?

The pedal has a cool feel the way they have pulled the footboard back further than other pedals. But with a chain, if they put a spring on there that really had some force to it, it would play havoc with the chain, especially if you 'danced' on the footboard. You really need direct drive to gain full advantage of that feature in a meaningful way. To me it's more gimmick than anything else.
 
I thought the coil was a gimmicky idea before I played it. I've had IC's since about 2000 so I do speak from experience and I think the coil does help make life easier. They're pretty hard arse pedals. I still love them.
 
I think tama should come out with updgraded coil springs. I think this is a brilliant idea, expecially for the slave on double pedals to help the return of the footboard. I just think the stock spring is too soft. Maybe if they came out with a heavy duty one?? Thoughts?
 
Speeding up the rebound of the footboard is disadvantageous when it rebounds ahead of the sway of the beater. You get slack in the chain and it feels like crap. As soon as I determined what was going on with my speed cobras I moved the coil all the way forward and put a stop to that.

But it may behave differently for different styles I suppose. Maybe if your strokes are really short when playing fast you won't have that problem with the coil.
 
It's an old thread but WTH...

I personally haven't used pedals with cobra coils but from my understanding what cannot be unmentioned is the pedal spring tension. I suppose you can't expect the pedal to be faster if you set the coil way back and have loose tension on pedal spring. In this case the footboard will come back faster than the beater and there will be slack in the chain and, as someone mentioned, it will feel like crap.

I think you should find a balance between those two springs to use maximum potential of cobra coils.
 
Dangerous Dave said:
It's an old thread but WTH...

I personally haven't used pedals with cobra coils but from my understanding what cannot be unmentioned is the pedal spring tension. I suppose you can't expect the pedal to be faster if you set the coil way back and have loose tension on pedal spring. In this case the footboard will come back faster than the beater and there will be slack in the chain and, as someone mentioned, it will feel like crap.

I think you should find a balance between those two springs to use maximum potential of cobra coils.
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The spring itself is pretty weak, 2 lbs to compress it. What people forget is the the CCOIL doesn't magically push the foot board back, it takes energy to load the spring, that energy is gotten from the downward stroke, so its 6 of these, or half dozen of the other.

Now if CCOIL electricaly reset itself between strokes, that would make a difference, but all the mechanical energy needed to compress the spring comes from the stroke.
 

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