Broken spring (bass drum pedal)

[Cath962]

So this week, I was playing on my alesis command mesh kit and I broke the spring of the bass drum pedal… (after only 1 month of use!) When I first started to play, I didn’t know that I could set the tension of the pedal, and then, when I knew, I was already used to the way it was so I didn’t change it. But I didn’t know that it could break like that.. I just used the pedal the way it was out of the box.

So I contacted Alesis company, and they said they are gonna send me a replacement for the pedal. That’s pretty nice of them.

Meanwhile, I decided to put an elastic to be able to still play. And I was surprise that it was working pretty well!

Have you ever broken a spring like that while playing? I did some research on the internet and it doesn’t seem common…

 

[Tommy D]

Never had that happen to any of my pedals after 25 years of playing. Must have just been a fault with the metal after manufacturing. I suppose when millions of these springs are made, one or two have to be duds. Think of it like winning the lottery.

 

[poco rit.]

Yea this happened with a Tama pedal I had with a black spring.

To salvage that broken spring, you can get some plyers and try to create another hook.

If this happens again with your new spring, id say just buy a DW 5000 and youll have that pedal for the rest of your life with no problems.

 

[Deafmoon]

Usually the spring is not sitting correctly for this to happen.

 

[ARGuy]

I remember getting some pedals from one manufacturer that had a batch of springs that broke like that. The manufacturer sent me a bunch of replacement springs that were fine. So, it can happen. Glad to hear that Alesis is taking care of it.

 

[TonyVazquez]

I've had that problem with older generic pedals, and upon closer inspection I had found
that Friction was the culprit... the spring breaking in the spot where it was rubbing
bare metal against the bolt it was attached to.
Thankfully, modern kick drum pedals have nylon bushings that roll with the spring
so there is no metal to metal contact between the spring and the bolt...

However, I still check my springs to make sure they're still in good condition.
I keep an extra set of new springs on hand inside my stick bag just in case
of an emergency that might involve replacing the spring.
Knock on wood, as hard as I play, I'm lucky I haven't had any Spring accidents
during a live show.

---------------------------------

PS: for those wondering about my kick pedal attachment, that is how I "Lock"
my kick pedal to my homemade kick drum riser, with its factory bolt instead of the clamp.
It prevents my DW pedals from slipping away from the riser's attachment plate
which is made from a door hinge.
The riser is cast aluminum, I frankensteined it from the cargo rack of a pickup truck.
I keep the DW clamp-on part with me at all times in case I have to play a venue's house kit,
or the house kit provided by my local recording studio, so that I can
use the DW's clamp to attach my double pedal onto the kick drum hoop.

 

[backtodrum]

Its easily replicable is the good news!