New drummers prioritizing wrong gear?

Having worked with teenagers for several decades my take on them purchasing a top of the line double bass pedal over better shells, heads, hardware and cymbals--apart from many of them not having disposable income--is their thought process in general:

1) What will bring me instant status?
2) Will this make me look better than I actually am?
3) If I play faster then I'll get gear endorsements.

Don't get me wrong there are some really good young drummers out there, but they're often benefitting from a great teacher and hours of disciplined practice.
 
My own experience of younger drummers is this: about the same percentage of them are as determined and willing to put the practice in as ever.
The thing about kids is that most of them have no clue who they are yet. a lot of them are still deciding, and meanwhile, with the expanse of some of the best resources that one could hope for ( online lessons, gear cheaper in real terms than ever with a huge second hand market ) so have expanded the marketing reaches of the gear companies. You know, companies telling them all the things they want to hear.
It seems to me that a lot of people are criticising kids for being...er...kids.
And for being VERY effectively targetted by huge companies with marketing clout and their endorsers.
seriously, having a go at kids who literally aren't allowed to drink in bars for...believing what they are told by companies who want to sell them things?
Punching down much? The standard of young drummers over the last 20 years has increased enormously, and it's a privilege to see some of them play.
Also as some have said a good pedal is a long term investment: if you don't like the sound of your bass drum you can do all kinds of things to improve it or change it. If a pedal doesn't work it doesn't work.
 
Stuflyer said:
It seems to me that a lot of people are criticising kids for being...er...kids.
And for being VERY effectively targetted by huge companies with marketing clout and their endorsers.
seriously, having a go at kids who literally aren't allowed to drink in bars for...believing what they are told by companies who want to sell them things?
Punching down much? The standard of young drummers over the last 20 years has increased enormously, and it's a privilege to see some of them play.
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Absolutely......100% (y)
 
reflecting on my purchases as a 53 year old drummer, I have spent 95% of my money on hardware, head, and stick replacement. I have played the same 2 drumsets for over 40 years....and to this day, have never really needed better drums. But those drums would have been pointless to have with broken, or inferior, hardware...

granted, I also drive my hardware to the grave - duct tape and zip ties do wonders
 
1 hit wonder said:
Today I found a Pearl 932 double pedal to try out.
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That looks like a great pedal. No-nonsense longboard and sophisticated minimal design, so lower price. I'd totally rock that.

Before I bought my Redline best believe I was looking around for a less expensive double pedal "workhorse". But I didn't know where to start looking since I'm still relatively new to the double-kick game. I only now can appreciate things like getting a pedal without a heelplate, etc.

In fact this relates to the OP: The better I get at playing double-kick the less I care about getting the "perfect" pedal. My next pedal purchase should be easier. IME, it's way funner to bring the chops, rather than hope the gear gives you the chops. Alot of newer pedal tech has a "this pedal is fast" look to it. But no, I think only the player is fast.

Being able to blaze on a cheap-ass pedal is O.G. :cool:
 
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Puzzling is when a $2-3k Vintage K has no marketing other than rarity, and nostalgic sound over mid-century audio files - why not the puzzling thought within order of enhanced ability over that and an $800 K Con?

Because each of our respective genres don’t question proper appointments, we strive for them to have as ‘occupational’ assets.

#Spang-a-lang-ability
#my ride goes faster than yours
#gofeatherwithgretschpedals
 
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1 hit wonder said:
Today I found a Pearl 932 double pedal to try out.
Click to expand...
Years ago in the rehearsal rooms we use, the supplied kit had a 930 , the single version of the 932, fitted. It's the only piece of hardware I've ever used that was so good I went out and bought one of my own immediately. I even took it to the studio, got down on the floor and placed it next to the studio's pedal to set the spring tension the same, that's how good/fortunate a find it was.
I've just fished out the invoice for it, August 2016 and still going strong.
 
There's a funny parallel here with astrophotography equipment. Please bear with me.

It's perfectly possible - with enough skill - to get decent pictures of large structures (e.g. the Orion Nebula) with a half-decent DSLR, some standard lenses of the right focal length and a tripod. It's difficult to do well without a tracking mount (which start at about £250) as you only get a couple of seconds of exposure before the stars start trailing in the image due to the Earth's rotation. But it's possible. It just requires a high level of skill and knowledge and be a dab hand at the post-processing.

Now take that same image and throw £3,000 at it. It's a lot easier. The mount will automatically guide so you can take minute-long (and much longer) exposures, with the right gear you can get your mount to guide you in a polar alignment, the camera will be cooled so the noise is much lower and you'll probably have a better lens (e.g. a low power apochromatic refractor telescope) which will be easier to deal with as it won't have chromatic abberation.

The second option requires much less skill and knowledge to actually pull off. It does still require a high level of skill (setting this up isn't easy) but if you throw enough money at it and read a few guides you'll get a nice picture of the Orion Nebula. However, if you have both the skill and the money you'll get a really superb picture.

I look at most equipment in the same way. In many instances, it's not a substitute for skill but it does make it easier for somebody that's already skilled. There's no substitute for practice.
 
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ColdFusion said:
That looks like a great pedal. No-nonsense longboard and sophisticated minimal design, so lower price. I'd totally rock that.

Before I bought my Redline best believe I was looking around for a less expensive double pedal "workhorse". But I didn't know where to start looking since I'm still relatively new to the double-kick game. I only now can appreciate things like getting a pedal without a heelplate, etc.

In fact this relates to the OP: The better I get at playing double-kick the less I care about getting the "perfect" pedal. My next pedal purchase should be easier. IME, it's way funner to bring the chops, rather than hope the gear gives you the chops. Alot of newer pedal tech has a "this pedal is fast" look to it. But no, I think only the player is fast.

Being able to blaze on a cheap-ass pedal is O.G. :cool:
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Nothing wrong with being new at something, we all have to start somewhere, also, a lot of people think that double pedal is only used for really fast continuous singles which of course is not the case. As an example listen to a lot of music from Disturbed, he uses double bass in several tracks but because it's not fast or continuous, a lot of people don't even know this, but try to play for example Stricken with a single pedal. (I can but it gets you really tired). Another thing that I use double bass for is to develop independence, for example I would sometimes switch everything (I am right handed so I normally play the snare with my left hand and the hi hats with my right). When I switch, I play the bass drum with my left foot, the hats with my left hand and the snare with my right hand. It gets quite challenging to maintain a complete song without errors. and finally a good middle of the line double pedal can be hugely improved with the correct linkage :

what that does is it prevents the slave pedal from getting stuck (common with regular double pedal linkage. As long as the pedals you use don't have jiggle between different positions, this shaft can completely change the way a pedal plays.
 
Mediocrefunkybeat said:
There's a funny parallel here with astrophotography equipment. Please bear with me.

It's perfectly possible - with enough skill - to get decent pictures of large structures (e.g. the Orion Nebula) with a half-decent DSLR, some standard lenses of the right focal length and a tripod. It's difficult to do well without a tracking mount (which start at about £250) as you only get a couple of seconds of exposure before the stars start trailing in the image due to the Earth's rotation. But it's possible. It just requires a high level of skill and knowledge and be a dab hand at the post-processing.

Now take that same image and throw £3,000 at it. It's a lot easier. The mount will automatically guide so you can take minute-long (and much longer) exposures, with the right gear you can get your mount to guide you in a polar alignment, the camera will be cooled so the noise is much lower and you'll probably have a better lens (e.g. a low power apochromatic refractor telescope) which will be easier to deal with as it won't have chromatic abberation.

The second option requires much less skill and knowledge to actually pull off. It does still require a high level of skill (setting this up isn't easy) but if you throw enough money at it and read a few guides you'll get a nice picture of the Orion Nebula. However, if you have both the skill and the money you'll get a really superb picture.

I look at most equipment in the same way. In many instances, it's not a substitute for skill but it does make it easier for somebody that's already skilled. There's no substitute for practice.
Click to expand...
Exactly which is why I said "you can make a cheap drum sound decent, you can't make a shitty pedal perform well". That is why the high end pedals have a proper linkage system, much tighter tolerances, beefier parts, and LOTS of adjustment options that cheap pedals simply lack.
 
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