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.
