Ask A Drum Tech!!!

[chris perra]

To do the non spring thing,, U'd have to have the bass drum skin tight so it would bounce,.. Just like Doing a Freehand technique into a dead drum skin with a pillow behind it a modern sounding tuned kick drum probably wouldn't work.. It would just be to get he right balance of beater height ect.. after that the spring would be used to offset the tuning of the skin and each persons mash vs bounce technique...

[YamahaPlayer]

To do the non spring thing,, U'd have to have the bass drum skin tight so it would bounce,.. Just like Doing a Freehand technique into a dead drum skin with a pillow behind it a modern sounding tuned kick drum probably wouldn't work.. It would just be to get he right balance of beater height ect.. after that the spring would be used to offset the tuning of the skin and each persons mash vs bounce technique...

Works just fine. There's plenty of rebound to be had. It's not like a snare drum, of course - it's more like a floor tom. But there's PLENTY to be had.

The amount of force put into a kick drum is fairly incredible. At least, if you actually play it. The freehand technique is a totally different thing btw.

Practicing with the springs off the pedal is akin to practicing the rebound stroke. Because that's all you are doing, letting the beater rebound off the head as it would naturally. Thing is, IMO, most people hardly focus on kick drum technique so that when it comes to practicing something like that it seems incredibly hard. But like all things, go give it a whirl!

[chris perra]

Sorry.. I meant the Free Stroke technique..

[deseipel]

proper is subjective, end of story. different for everyone. If you mean optimal, I'd say that sure, there is a setting that would be preferred by a representative bell curve; statistically speaking.


OT: No company has yet to produce the best bass drum pedal, which is a beater that has zero resistance from point of rest to the drum head; and spring-induced-rebound from drum head to starting position. This effectively mimics what our hands get: true rebound. this is the ultimate engineering feat.

[YamahaPlayer]

OT: No company has yet to produce the best bass drum pedal, which is a beater that has zero resistance from point of rest to the drum head; and spring-induced-rebound from drum head to starting position. This effectively mimics what our hands get: true rebound. this is the ultimate engineering feat.

I invented and designed just such a pedal, but the cost of making it far exceeds my budget for a possible prototype. I also designed a true suspension mounting system for drums - one in which has absolutely zero contact between the drum from the holder. Same reason applies, but I have the designs on paper at least.
Also superior drum designs are bought out by the industry, so there's just no point in trying to be a little guy and compete. Friend of mine designed an amazing lug system, DW straight up offered a cash pay out for the design patents - this was earlier this year. This happens fairly often, the unfortunate thing about it is it stumps industry growth and instrument development in order to feed the greed of these larger corporations.

I always understood the springs on the kick pedal to simply be there for balancing the pedal. It seems to be a misnomer that they are there for rebound, the beater rebounds on it's own, evidenced by the fact you don't actually need the springs to play - however that only applies to continuous motion, so when not in use, something needs to hold the beater at a neutral point, and hence the springs.

You see guys who max the spring tension out thinking it makes the pedal faster, they seem to miss the point that while that MIGHT increase the beaters return speed to it's resting position it definitely increases the amount of force necessary to put the beater into motion, because you're fighting against the spring.

Which is why it seems the best possible ratio of input power to output is when the pedal is balanced, it is able to move it's fastest when the least forces are pulling on it - IE, the springs simply balance the pedal and pull on the beater the least.

The funny part about all of it is, no matter what company or pedal* they all use the same absurdly cheap generic bearings inside. *Yes, the one pearl advertises using Ninja Bearings - cause the name sounds cool, they are totally bottom of the line bearings, though perhaps slightly better then the generic ones.

My pedals have Bones Swiss Ceramic bearings in them, and they are smoother then any pedal I've ever touched.

Of course when you factor in the fact that some of the people with the fastest feet in the world use old pedals, 25 year old camco's, etc... *shrug*

[JohnC]

My pedals have Bones Swiss Ceramic bearings in them, and they are smoother then any pedal I've ever touched.

What make and model pedals do you own that have Bones Swiss Ceramic bearings in them?