Pearl P-3502D Demon XR Double Pedal

For the actual pedal review check out the last paragraph.

A bit of background: I've owned chained version of pearl's first generation eliminator, p932 and currently playing on speedcobra 910.
For a long time I wanted to switch to direct drive pedals and I have a few options in mind:
- trick big foot
- czarcie kopyto (actually ordered it but cancelled after some a week)
- Pearl demon drive p3002d
- Tama dyna-sync

Axis was out of the list cuz i just don't like their design (personal preference), same goes for Darwin pedals.
Trick have everything I like, but i didn't like narrow footboard and lack of any sort of grip on the base plate.
czarcie kopyto - cancelled as had to do some budgeting decision since i've decided to go with more expensive ekit.
Demon drive - I've almost lived in a music shop checking those out as it was one of 2 options from my list i could have actually tried in a local shop. But something didn't feel right when i was playing and i also didn't really like the design of it. No matter how many times I approached I thought that maybe it's something wrong with me and i just didn't adjust to the feeling of the direct drive and pedal itself. But ...
Tama dyna-sync - ... checking those just out of curiosity made me understand that my initial feelings for demon drive were correct, it wasn't for me. The dyna-sync felt so much better, it had a bit more weight and it was easier to control it. But... the beaters were awful and driveshaft, like come on... So i thought that adding trick driveshaft (or similar) and new beaters and the price will be almost like pearl p3002d.

And then...
Out of the blue I saw a post with new pedals from pearl, at first glance I thought it's czarcie kopyto, but then read whatever was available online (spoiler - not much) just an interview/presentation with George Kollias where he described the pedals and I got hooked.
The Pros:
- The design... I love the design of this pedals. It's smart and sexy looking piece of gear. It looks like a love child between trick and czarcie kopyto. Not undermining the efforts of Pearl design team as I think they made a great job. It's sleek, minimalistic and I love those read accent
- The beaters - they are great. I play on mesh ekit. Even on the bass pad it gives a solid heavy slap, wonder how it will sound on a real plastic.
- Limited adjustments. For me it's an advantage. Because you just set up the pedal once and then forget about it cuz it works. You can switch the springs (there are heavy springs installed and normal ones come as a spare) and heavy springs are really Heavy. I switched to normal once after about a week+ of play.
- Lifetime warranty. Well, can't go wrong with this one.
- pedal are pretty light and feel great.
Cons:
- Not much actually. Apart from me opting for normal springs the pedals are wonderful in my opinion.
If you were looking for something that just works with minimal adjustments then look no further. Very happy with my decision and kudos to pearl for such an amazing design in all regards.

Eigentliche spiele ich seit 20 Jahren Axis Pedale. Da diese aber immer schwieriger zu bekommen sind und einige Stellen der Pedale schon immer etwas anfällig für Rost und Verschleiß waren (die Kugellager sind im Vergleich zur Konkurrenz einfach schlecht), habe ich mich mal an die neuen Pearl Pedale gewagt.
George Kollias, einer der schnellsten und besten Singlestroke Doublebass Spieler unserer Zeit, hat hier mehr oder weniger seine Axis Longboard in Pearl Qualität nachbauen lassen.
Dies merkt man realtiv schnell, sowohl am Aussehen, als auch am Spielgefühl. Sehr direkt, sehr schnell. Was hier wirklich positiv dazu kommt, ist die zusätzliche erzeugte Kraft des Pedals - der Beater ist wesentlich lauter und die Feder beschleunigt gefühlt besser. Die Demon Drive XR spielt sich für mich wie ein Axis Longboard, mit einer guten Prise Pearl Eliminator.
Genau das, was mir immer gefehlt hat!
Die Umstellung war recht einfach, die Federn musste ich ein bisschen lockern, um voll angezogene Axis Heavy Springs zu simulieren.
Die Demon Drive XR hat wesentlich weniger weniger Einstellmöglichkeiten, als die gesamte Konkurrenz. Federspannung, Beater Abstand zum Fell, das wars.
George Kollias hat im Video betont, dass dieses Pedal einfach "Out of the Box" funktionieren soll, ohne den Benutzer mit tausend Einstellungen vom wesentlichen abzulenken, was ich für mich bestätigen kann.
Ich würde aber jedem Interessenten dringend empfehlen, diese Pedale vorher gut auszutesten.
Wer z.B. Trick Pedale mit sehr speziellen Einstellungen spielt, kann evtl. das gewohnte Spielgefühl hier nicht umsetzen.
Verwundert war ich, dass sich der flache Beater nicht winkelig verstellen lässt, wodurch er nicht mit der Fläche gerade auf das Fell aufprallt, sondern mit der oberen Hälfte zuerst. Laut Herrn Kollias wurde dies bewusst getan, da ein gerade aufprallender Beater nassiv Rebound schluckt. Der Power tut dies keinen Abbruch. Auch gegen eine Wand aus Gitarren und Bass lassen sich Geschwindigkeit jenseits der 200BPM rein akkustisch nich sehr gut wahrnehmen. Da kann man den Trigger mal ausschalten:)
Dass bei Pearl eine hochwertige Tasche mitgeliefert wird, ist einfach klasse.
Am (rechten) Pedal selbst ist ein Stimmschlüssel inkl. Inbus befestigt. Mit diesem einen Teil lässt sich alles am Pedal lockern und verstellen. Ein Traum - bei Axis benötigt man 5 oder 6 verschiedene Schlüssel...
Ich kann diese Pedale jedem empfehlen, der ein modernes, schnelles Direkt Drive Pedal ohne unnötigen Schnickschnack und ordentlichem Beater Impact sucht.
Die Verarbeitungsqualität ist hervorragend, die Kugellager der Verbindungsstange super leichtgängig, ohne Verzögerung des Slavepedals.
Ich hab das Beste vom Pedal erhofft und war trotzdem positiv überrascht.
Preislich natürlich nicht billig, aber günstiger als die typischen Konkurrenten, welche gern die 1.200€ Marke knacken.

Let me start with something which is most probably obvious to everyone. Demon pedals are state-of-the-art. A spectacular piece of work. Works smoothly, almost effortlessly. Beautifully finished with plenty of details in place, such as small red felt installed in the direct drive mechanism preventing it from hitting metal parts each other. To me, there is no doubt this is the highest quality that can be offered by a hardware company.

Therefore, the question is why 3* only? There are at least three huge gaps that are hard to fix.
1. The most disturbing thing is that there is no setting that allows changing the angle of the beater head. This results in hitting with just the upper part of the beater (approx. 2% of the beater surface is used that way). The beaters are worn in a bad way (just the upper part, the rest is untouched) and I can see an upside-down "U" mark on the drumhead. There is a significant angle and gap between the beater and drumhead and I cannot reduce it in any way. The only way is to replace the kick drum hoop with slimmer than 2", but in most cases, this is not an option. After I replaced the original beaters with DW SM110 beaters (with self-adjustment) everything works perfectly in this area, but please note that price of those beaters is equal to 10% of Deamon XR price.
2. No spikes are coming together with the pedal in the box. There is rubber attached to the pedal on the bottom, you can also find velcros in the box which you can easily install. But for my setup, it wasn't enough, the left pedal was sliding on my carpet, so I had to buy an additional "pedal stabilizer" set. In Europe you can barely find any of the "pedal stabilizers" available, so I had to buy them in a different country and pay for international shipping (which was more expensive than stabilizer). It may change over time, but keep in mind that you can face additional challenges here.
3. The third missing thing is the memory lock for Z-link. And you cannot buy any online. Again something standard for DW is missing here. So the only way is going back to rubbers or tapes, but even then there is no place in the bag for dismantled Z Link since the bag fits only fully squizzed Z Link in one piece. Therefore you need to find another way of marking the Z Link setting and transporting it or you need to adjust it after every travel.

One small detail I love about this pedal which is unique to Demon XR is possibility of replacing big instalation screw with small one which is operated by drum key. Both are included in the box from the very beginning.

The bottom line is that Demon XR are great and for the most part, they do their job perfectly. However, there are a few areas where they lack some details and maybe the final touch. As I described, nothing you cannot deal with, but still there might be some additional money involved and challenges you need to face.