Help with Pedal

[jmettam]

I got this email and thought I would pass it along to the forum. I'm still waiting for someone to document the conversion process with description and pictures! Any takers?

- John
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I have set up a nice little set so far, Pearl piccolo snare, one stand with ride/crash and closed hats, a Pearl floor tom. The last piece is of course the floor pedal. I have heard the DW 5000 is reversible, which model? Is it a no-brainer to reverse? The side-kick is too much money, and I can't fine the world max pedals recommended in here. I just want to find one and order it so I can start using it. Any suggestions? Thanks for any help.

Susan

[palacki808]

Hey John, I have two DW 5000 pedals (one of which came from the drumset I sold to buy my cocktail drum). I have not tried to reverse either of them, but if you give me a couple days to fiddle with them I'll do a little write up. Even if it does prove to be difficult I still think its something that should be on the forum for people to read. Is there any specific file type you want the pictures to be?

-Joe

[jmettam]

Thanks Joe!

Jpegs would be the best but I can handle and convert just about anything.

- John

[fw]

The Pulse pedals on Musiciansfriend.com are very inexpensive and of surprisingly professional quality. The cheap one goes for about $15 and the fancy double-chain version with a key holder and lots of adjustment possiblities is about $30. Both have metal bass plates with velcro on the bottom, which makes them very nice for cocktail drums. I can't document the conversion process with pictures, but I can say that with a set of allen wrenches, all you need to do is disconnect the chain, disconnect the cam and flip it over in a position that lets the beater shoot up toward the head, and reattach the chain to the top of the cam and footplate, then reconnect whatever else you had to detach to remove the cam.

I can't think of a better cheap alternative to a DW pedal without going used.

By the way, never use the old style offset-cam strapdrive pedals for cocktail drums--you'll launch the drum into space after two seconds trying to push the pedal down.

Will

[palacki808]

Will, I understand your comment about the strap drive pedals and their ability to launch a cocktail drum. I don't know if I would entirely rule out using one.

Last night I did that write up on how to convert a DW 5000 pedal, after I was done I fiddled around trying some different settings and trying a strap drive, offset cam. It was hard to control at first, but after some time I really think I like the feel. Its definitely different. I don't know that I'll use it at a gig this weekend. With some practice though I really think I may want to change my pedal I got from Dennis to the strap drive DW. We'll see what happens at the next few practices.

I would also like to mention that I looked into those pulse pedals you mentioned and you're right, they look pretty nice for the money. If drum world has one in stock while I'm there this weekend I'm going to get it. At that price it would be silly not to have a spare pedal. Ever played a gig and had a pedal break on you? Happened to me once and I was trying to play the kick beats on the floor tom. Bad night needless to say.

-Joe

[fw]

I could see a DW accelerator working pretty well--what I was talking about was one of those early eighties Pearl strap drives with a leather strap and a huge offset cam--the one that comes off the beater shaft about two inches. I think the accelerator gives a little extra push at the end--not a massive "snap". I think I had a really heavy felt beater at the end, too--all of which made it a powerful pedal in the normal position, but a slow and mighty pedal in the cocktail position. A little extra snap might help make the drum a little louder--a lot of extra snap makes the drum a missile.

I think Pulse is the "house" brand for Musician's Friend--I think you can only get them online.

Will

[Bruce (the K)]

My wife and daughter bought me a beautiful DW Sidekick pedal for my Peace Manhattan cocktail set so now I have a Peace upward-striking chain-drive pedal that I'm willing to part with.

It's about 3 years old, in perfect condition, and comes with a 2 inch wooden heel block I made that makes the angle of the pedal better for a standing player. I can also throw in the bracket that attaches the pedal to the legs of the cocktail drum but that will only work for a 14 inch drum, I think. The pedal base is nice and heavy and the quality is quite good. I was very happy with the pedal and wouldn't have replaced it if I hadn't gotten the other pedal as a gift.

If you'd like to see a picture of the pedal, check the archives here under Your Cocktail Kit. Look for the post entitled Bruce Koller - Peace Manhattan Mod.

You can contact me at bkoller@muircommons.org if you're interested. I'm thinking of asking $25 plus shipping but feel free to make me an offer. I'm just trying to find a good home for my trusty pedal.

[jmettam]

Well kids, he did it!

Joe hooked us all up with a description and pictures of converting a DW5000 to a cocktail pedal! Here is the link to the page:

http://www.cocktaildrum.com/learn/construct/pedal/

OR you can get to it through the LEARN section of the website.

Thanks a million Joe

- John

[palacki808]

I had fun doing that little write up for the lounge. Since I joined over a year ago I have learned so much from everyone here, I'm glad I had information to give back.

If there's anything else I can do for the lounge, just drop me an email.

-Joe

[susanj]

Thanks for the help here, I have finally got a pedal working. I got a DW4000 and had an engineer friend reverse it for me. It works great. I had no luck doing it with the 5000 directions as they were completely different from one another. So, I've got it all together now and am having a blast. Thanks again. -Susan