Decided to buy an AA and Epic and see which feels better. Haven't received the Epic yet, but the AA looks great.

That said, it appears to have a strange design for the piece that runs underneath the footboard (the long strand of metal that hooks to the front of the pedal to provide stability). Unlike the design of the Ludwig Speed King, where this piece is flat to the floor, the AA piece is convex and arches up toward the underside of the footboard. When you push the footboard down, it actually strikes this convex piece, which produces a metal on metal clicking sound, and diminishes the force that the beater can strike the head. Wonder if the Epic is similar? Has anyone else wondered about the reason for this design as well? Although it looks cool, it seems functionally odd to me :)

James

i'm not sure that curve is original, my epic and many of the hh, aa, and epic pedals i've seen pictures of have that piece running flat.

Interesting....that would explain it, but I was told that all parts on the pedal were original..hmm. If you happen to run across any pictures of AA's with flat bases could you send one along? I wonder if the design of these pedals shifted at all through the years. Thanks for the info.

James

That piece may be original to the pedal, but it is NOT bent the way it left the factory. I highly recomend flattening it out to what should be its original shape....leave the hook at the end of course...

Awesome pic Ludwig-dude! Thanks for that. I will give it a try. Any advice on what I might use to flatten it out? Hammer?

I would try a soft jaw bench vise to get it back into shape. If you do use a hammer, use a soft face dead-blow hammer. This will keep the plating from getting marred up.

Cool. Just spent about 5 minutes de-bending the floor piece with a vice and then a hammer as Ludwig dude suggested. Although it's not perfect, it turned out just fine and plays a heck of a lot nicer. Thanks to all for the help and for realizing that this was not just an odd Slingerland design...guess I still have a lot to learn DOH

James

One final update (5 months later). I finally picked up an Epic pedal to compare to the AA I bought in June. I definitely like the action of the double springs on the AA better. Plus I can set the tension lower on the AA (the way I like it) and still have smooth action. Heres a pic of the Epic all cleaned up.

Looks like new- can I see a shot of the spring and how you have it attached? I am wondering if mine has stock parts or other pieces on there (the spring, screws and bolts for that spring assembly) - thanks alot

Hey OsakaBop - sure thing. These two pics were taken before the pedal was cleaned. I apologize for the quality of the second pic - if you need a better one I can get you one tomorrow. I wondered if mine had stock parts as well. I compared to a few pics from ebay and saw a lot of variation in the top nut that holds the spring in place - some pedals had a wingnut, others just had a nut. I am interested to see what your looks like. How do you like the feel of your epic pedal?

James