"Best" bass drum pedal ever?

  • Thread starter Cooper
  • Start date
    • This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
smittyboy63 said:
Speed Kings. My fave rock'n'roll drummers Bonham and Peart used them on all of my fave Zeppelin and Rush albums.
It's old. It's clunky. It's picked on and made fun of relentlessly, but it does the job.
I just had a 40 year-old Speed King refurbished by the Baltimore Drum Company, and they did an excellent job.
Click to expand...
Like you, I really like the Speed king .but for me, it had one weakness ,and that was where the little metal strap on the bottom wood connect to the beater. After you play it awhile that strap would bend and come loose. Other then that, I like it, It's very fast and lightweight.
 
beatdat said:
You sure did.

I can't wait to get my "hands" on one of them. Until then, I'm happy with my TAMA SC 910s.

By the way, do you have/use the hoop clamp for your Swivos?
Click to expand...
Oh yeah , if you get one make sure it comes with the hoop clamp . You can’t use that pedal without having it .
 
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
If there is a pedal that's a clear winner for me, I haven't tried it. I have a few pedals with my favorite being a Tama Iron Cobra, but I don't like that thing worlds better than even some really inexpensive pedals that I've played on. Most of the modern designs don't squeak and feel pretty solid and I'm convinced that, at least for me, it's more about dialing in the settings that work best and getting used to the feel. I would pay more for some new pedal that would really improve my playing, I'm just not convinced that such a thing exists...
 
I guess mines not the best or everyone would have the same answer as me. My Pearl Eliminator, strap drive, is built like a tank. It's been inside hardware bags and cases with lots of other hardware for more than a couple decades and still works great. I stopped using a double pedal live a long time ago but I have a very nice DW5002 on my practice kit which I would recommend to anyone looking and I have Vector pedal with a single chain and swivel footboard that has very nice action.
 
ASBA Caroline.

It feels like nothing else

IMG_1964.jpeg
 
Rockape said:
Even though it's a bit left-field, I still regularly use my Ludwig Ghost pedal. The twin coil spring design is genius and it's just so quiet, fast and smooth. It's a shame that they weren't able to make them more easily reparable.
Click to expand...
Jeeeese! I have not seen one of those in a life time. Talk about some history!
 
This would have been your only choice in the early 20th century
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4894.jpeg
    IMG_4894.jpeg
    68.7 KB · Views: 24
  • IMG_4893.jpeg
    IMG_4893.jpeg
    45.3 KB · Views: 21
I really like the old Yamaha flying dragons. I like my dw pedals too, but they defenitely have a heavy feel. Nice for laying in. The Yamahas are very balanced, pretty light feeling.
 
I think the Yamaha FP-9 direct drive is so sick. I used one for a night at a jam session at someone's house. The drummer was newer to it (normally a bass player but the dude is loaded so he just has nice stuff) and had the beater super close to the head. I asked if I could adjust it and he excitedly said yes so I got to fine tune it to myself throughout the evening. Never have I had so much fun on a kick. I ended up with the spring a little tighter than I was used to but it just felt so damn easy. Might've just been the night. I've used a handful of others to varying levels of success.
 
Flamateur Hour said:
I think the Yamaha FP-9 direct drive is so sick. I used one for a night at a jam session at someone's house. The drummer was newer to it (normally a bass player but the dude is loaded so he just has nice stuff) and had the beater super close to the head. I asked if I could adjust it and he excitedly said yes so I got to fine tune it to myself throughout the evening. Never have I had so much fun on a kick. I ended up with the spring a little tighter than I was used to but it just felt so damn easy. Might've just been the night. I've used a handful of others to varying levels of success.
Click to expand...
I have an FP9 in the touring rig. The chain version. At first I was blown away by how smooth it was. But once the honeymoon phase waned (and after playing a while on my Caroline during a band hiatus) I started fiddling with the adjustments. I even switched to strap drive to try and match the Caroline,s feel, to no avail. I should bring it home and spend time to really dial it in, because it IS a killer pedal and it's a shame to just use it as a spare.
 
I think you need what’s best for you and your style music there’s some lightning quick pedals out there that can do crazy tempo’s with the right technique … I play R&B R&R so any number of pedals work for me. I’ve had all the dw and Tama super pedals of the day most required to much knee which I have very little of that left. I always came back to my trusty old reliable Speed Kings , WFL version which has a little more tab on the post keeps the pedal back from the head … more punch. So yeah I’ve rebuilt all mine with nylon bushings and little goodies that smooth them out and eliminate any metal to metal squeak. Good enough for Ringo and JB ! (Clearly the BEST bloody pedal ever made chaps!)
IMG_5836.jpeg
IMG_5835.jpeg
IMG_5832.jpeg
 
I love my Pearl Demon Drive P3002D double bass. You can switch it from right to left footed, convert it to two single pedals. Lots of adjustments - just a ton of versatility.
 
Cooper said:
What is the "best" bass drum pedal ever?

Vintage,Current.

Quickest, smoothest, light, no squeak.
Click to expand...
Without question Rogers Swiv O Matic. Legendary producer/studio and live engineer, Richard Mullen (Christopher Cross, SRV and Double Trouble, Eric Johnson), was checking my monitors on an Eric Johnson G-3 tour in South America one afternoon. He sat on my kick working my kick drum to adjust the levels. I happened to be standing beside the riser. I hadn't worked with Eric in a decade so Richard had had the opportunity to play several other drummer's kits. He turned to me and said..."why does your bass drum pedal feel like an extension of my foot and everyone else's feels like mess?" I just smiled and said...can you imagine the disadvantage they are at having to play on that crap lol
 
TommyTaylor said:
Without question Rogers Swiv O Matic. Legendary producer/studio and live engineer, Richard Mullen (Christopher Cross, SRV and Double Trouble, Eric Johnson), was checking my monitors on an Eric Johnson G-3 tour in South America one afternoon. He sat on my kick working my kick drum to adjust the levels. I happened to be standing beside the riser. I hadn't worked with Eric in a decade so Richard had had the opportunity to play several other drummer's kits. He turned to me and said..."why does your bass drum pedal feel like an extension of my foot and everyone else's feels like mess?" I just smiled and said...can you imagine the disadvantage they are at having to play on that crap lol
Click to expand...

Cool! That swiv o matic was working quite well on these 2!


 
I've been playing on and off since early 70's. I've always had boxes of parts from previous kits or yard sale finds of the same.
Only Rogers set I've had was a big R set in the early 80's that I bought used with no hardware.
About 6 years ago I was heading to work when I saw the reflection of what looked like a cymbal stand poking out of a trash can a half block ahead.
Had to look. Inside the trash were a couple of pos cymbal stands not worth their weight in scrap.
But what caught my eye was a Rogers pedal, later to be determined to be a Swiv O Matic.
Tossed it in the car and when I got to my shop I realized it must be broken as there was no way of attaching it to a hoop.
I had dug thru the trash can, so what ever broke off was not there.
Hero internet, once I brought up a picture of the pedal, I saw the mystery piece that was missing.
If you've ever known someone that has boxes of stuff, yet knows where everything is, that's almost me.
I went to one of my boxes of drum hardware and sure enough I had that clip.
Don't remember where I got it, I may have had it for 20 years
Ended up cleaning up the pedal and it found a new home with a local die hard Rogers player.
That part looked like a bass drum hoop spur that they used to sell to prevent bass drum walking(they never worked)
I had to tell someone who would appreciate the long winded story....believe it or not
 

Attachments

  • Swivel3.jpg
    Swivel3.jpg
    48.5 KB · Views: 16
TommyTaylor said:
Without question Rogers Swiv O Matic. Legendary producer/studio and live engineer, Richard Mullen (Christopher Cross, SRV and Double Trouble, Eric Johnson), was checking my monitors on an Eric Johnson G-3 tour in South America one afternoon. He sat on my kick working my kick drum to adjust the levels. I happened to be standing beside the riser. I hadn't worked with Eric in a decade so Richard had had the opportunity to play several other drummer's kits. He turned to me and said..."why does your bass drum pedal feel like an extension of my foot and everyone else's feels like mess?" I just smiled and said...can you imagine the disadvantage they are at having to play on that crap lol
Click to expand...

Hey Tommy , glad to see you here .
I’m a huge fan of your drumming !
We had a nice conversation on FB messenger a few years ago .
I asked how you got away with playing so many fills on those Eric Johnson records .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top