if you could go back in time, knowing what you now know...

[OfXaos]

I had always wondered if equipmemt either hindered or bettered your playing skills. Like for myself, I was very fast at doing doubles on a single pedal when I was 16. Getting that same action with my left foot as my right foot had was like learning to do it all over again and frustrating. I couldnt tell you what double bass pedal I had but catch up till now I was learning on a Pearl P932 which was good.. But then I got a DW9000 and now I'm wondering if I'm cheating some how. Playing on this Pedal makes doing the heel toe technique almost effortless. Each hit is powerful, it came with nylon straps but hopefully it will stay closed with the rest of those bags. The beater weight is amazing, the pedal feels like its super solid and made for punishment I just cant give yet. I feel like I do this thing a disservice lol.

But I wonder to the "beginner level" pedals which I kinda jumped ahead of, is there something to be learned in a cheaper pedal that I wont otherwise experience in my current selection.?

[Mountain]

I had always wondered if equipmemt either hindered or bettered your playing skills. Like for myself, I was very fast at doing doubles on a single pedal when I was 16. Getting that same action with my left foot as my right foot had was like learning to do it all over again and frustrating. I couldnt tell you what double bass pedal I had but catch up till now I was learning on a Pearl P932 which was good.. But then I got a DW9000 and now I'm wondering if I'm cheating some how. Playing on this Pedal makes doing the heel toe technique almost effortless. Each hit is powerful, it came with nylon straps but hopefully it will stay closed with the rest of those bags. The beater weight is amazing, the pedal feels like its super solid and made for punishment I just cant give yet. I feel like I do this thing a disservice lol.

But I wonder to the "beginner level" pedals which I kinda jumped ahead of, is there something to be learned in a cheaper pedal that I wont otherwise experience in my current selection.?

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I would say along with personal preference, better equipment that is easier to use will certainly better your skills faster than a cheaper pedal that is harder to kick. I know, some will say "I learned on this or that pedal", or the great drummers back in the day didn't have the better pedals we have now, but they have more natural talent than the average drummer. Everyone is different physically, so a better piece of equipment may help a drummer attain the speed or level he or she is trying to reach.

[TMdrums]

I would say along with personal preference, better equipment that is easier to use will certainly better your skills faster than a cheaper pedal that is harder to kick. I know, some will say "I learned on this or that pedal", or the great drummers back in the day didn't have the better pedals we have now, but they have more natural talent than the average drummer. Everyone is different physically, so a better piece of equipment may help a drummer attain the speed or level he or she is trying to reach.

Great insight Mountain! In a weird way, although I currently have a Pearl Demon chain drive single pedal and granted an excellent pedal it is, however, I miss my old Ludwig Speed King I had back in the 80's! I feel like I can do more with that pedal then the Pearl!

[2 basses4life]

well, i dont mean to point a few things out but , placement of your double pedal is incredibly important.. you must have a heck of a time with the left pedal there , also those are reeeeally close together ..i couldnt play that kit with my hardware all jammed up like that. lol.
if i'm following you ... youre asking if a cheaper pedal will help build skills ?...my opinion... no.
ive been playing on my two iron cobras for like ..ever. theyre good solid pieces of equipment that have never failed. what i mean is, ive never had the exuse with these pedaLs , that its the hardwares fault im failing . for that reason , i'd say my playing improved . the only thing i ever learned from crappier equipment is , that needed better equipment

just for the record if a device helps you achieve you musical goal , then its an instrument not a cheating apparatus . nobodies coming see if you were cheating

[The_Prowler]

My first set was a cheap CB with the included "hardware" package, complete with the bloody atrocity they had the audacity to call a kick pedal. It was flimsy, wobbly, had absolutely no action in it and wouldn't have been fit for use by an artist who makes sculptures out of literal pieces of garbage from scrap heaps. That's what I had for the first year, and I somehow learned how to play Good Times, Bad Times by Led Zeppelin on it.

Then I "upgraded" to a used entry level Gibraltar pedal that had, to put it mildly, seen slightly better days. It was abused and not properly cared for, and its rough life more than showed. What's more, I still hadn't learned how to fully set a pedal for personal comfort. Granted it didn't really have any options beyond spring tension, but I didn't quite understand the full extent of it's usefulness and didn't experiment too heavily with it. The general feel of it could be described as stiff and "muddy" (I assure you that contrary to popular belief, something can be both of those things at the same time).

Then finally I got my first Eliminator. At this point, I was a full-blown drum geek. I absorbed everything I could about how drums and hardware are made, how they work, and how the slightest tweak of each adjustable component can change everything else. I spent months trying out every single option and setting available from board and beater angle, every cam, various spring tensions, etc... until I found *my* settings. Once I had it dialed in, it was like running in the proper shoes for the first time after spending years trying to run with live badgers tied to your feet. A better pedal made me a better player, but I also feel that a lesser pedal forced me to put extra effort into proper technique and control that not only made it easier to play on the Eliminator, but also more pronounced. Sound guys and engineers tell me all the time that my foot is very even and steady no matter what volume I'm playing at, and I do feel that learning how to play on miserable pedals are partly to thank for that.