It looks legit to me. My first Swivo pedal was from 1960, and looked just like that one. I honestly don't remember if it said Swivomatic anywhere on the pedal. My guess is that yours is from the late 50's--early 60's period. I currently own a half dozen Swivo pedals from various years. All of them are the hinged heel plate variety. The type of articulated heel plate on yours is much more prone to need maintenance of the bearing screws that are on either side to join the heel plate to the rest of the pedal. I wore out the heel plate on mine from many years of constant friction. The holes just kept widening until the bottoms of the holes opened up.

man that is one crazy looking pedal!

Same one Buddy used,even when he was with other companies!

I wear glasses. But, I don't think my eyes are so bad. I can't find the word Swivomatic anywhere on any of the pedals.

Your pedal is quite legitimate/real. I've been playing a Swivo-Matic exclusively for years... the Buddy influence for sure! You are correct with regard to "subtle changes" over the years too. Most all Swivo-Matics don't actually say Swivo-Matic as leedybdp has stated... they simply say Rogers, and the additional Made in USA/Pat. Pend. on the 1st models. ( on the footboard either hinged or solid ) All this said... you do have the UPGRADED swivel-unit on yours, so that indicates a slightly later model, and, you WANT the upgraded swivel-unit too as that stops the "ripping" of the connecting rod from heel to the base. The earliest models had a swivel-unit that wasn't at all durable... Rogers fixed it with the one you have on yours.

As far as models... only two:

The #395 w/solid footboard, and the #396 w/hinged footboard... everything else being equal/same.

Buddy did indeed play his Rogers Swivo pedal through FOUR different endorsements:

Rogers

Trixon/Vox

Fibes

Slingerland

Tommyp

Basically the term Swivomatic refers to the tom mounting system that has the collet nose and the ball socket that can be adjusted to whatever position you want. This is a Rogers Swivomatic era bass pedal.

Pounder!...

Not quite right... as it was indeed called the Rogers Swivo-Matic Foot Pedal, although I understand what you're saying. Rogers offered THREE different pedals during the "Swivo-Matic era" as you have coined it. They had:

#398 Rocket

#399 Jet

... and BOTH model Swivo-Matics, #395 and #396... point being there was only one Swivo-Matic pedal, and it was named as such, there was no other name given this pedal, irrespective of the tom mounting system that shared the moniker. Later on, Rogers debuted the #54-7000 Supreme, which was in all honesty, still a Swivo-Matic, only on steroids!

Tommyp

Actually,it's called Swiv-O-Matic....................Cool Dude

You are of course correct Sir!... but that takes too long to type, hence my use of Swivo-matic. Gets the point across regardless, no? A mere technicality! I'm just sayin'... LOL!

Tommyp