Tama Speed Cobra Pedals Review

Camco, DW and Ludwig have all produced such beasts, as has Japanese drum giant Tama. Its Iron Cobra pedal is truly a drum world icon, having been relied on by countless big-name artists on the worlds biggest stages everywhere many years. But now comes a saucily pretender in the form of the vivify Cobra, with features borrowed from its well up-regarded older sibling and a host of forward-looking design tweaks to boot. Tamas tagline for the hie Cobra is Extreme Velocity, Serious Power.As such the Speed Cobras unused features have two simple goals in common to increase speed and to increase aggressive reply. Tama points out that these two aims have traditionally been mutually exclusive, with fast pedals losing some power, and powerful models reacting slower than some would like. So what solutions do Tama offer? Well to start with, a quick overview of the features which the Speed Cobra shares with the Iron Cobra.Such things include the Oiles bearing hinge (as used in the aerosp ace industry no less), the patented Cobra Coil spring which is located beneath the footboard to quickly return it to its default position after each slam and the Vari-Pitch beater holder that enables adjustment of the footboard link angle independently of the beater angle. To that already eye-popping mix, the Japanese company has added several significant new features. The first and virtually obvious of these is the Fast instauration footboard.Longer than on the Iron Cobra, the Fast Foot board is designed to increase speed of response but at the same time require less effort than previous designs. In addition, the face of the board is smooth to reduce friction, which Tama reckon will mitigate control. On top of this theres an impressive new bearing assembly in the shape of the Fastball bearing on the end of the drive shaft, a true round sprocket (which Tama have named, brilliantly, LiteSprocket) thats evidently 40 share send offer than the Iron Cobras, and the new Projecto r Beater.The beater allows the choice of narrow or all-encompassing striking surfaces simply by changing the head angle go for punchy, defined attack with the former or a fatter, fuller response with the latter. All this talk of new features (and we havent touched on the chain drives new Recessed Setting which increases the angle of attack for super speed and light action, nor the new Super Spring, designed to offer less resistance at the beginning of the pedal stroke) has left us little space to talk about the actual build quality of the Speed Cobra.Fortunately, little space is mandatory for this, as it is stunningly good. The Speed Cobra is beautifully engineered and does the Cobra name proud. If your eyebrows headed skyward at the number of clever feature names Tama has bestowed on the Speed Cobra, a word of warning. For sure, its easy to dismiss Speed Spring or LiteSprocket as trade waffle, but when touch into action the Speed Cobra does a fantastic commerce of silencing t he cynical. For starters its an incredibly smooth-rolling pedal.An objective appraisal of the impact of the new bearing mechanisms, for example, is well out of the scope of a review like this, but subjectively it feels wonderful. .For metal drummers dishing out high-bpm double bass battery, the Speed Cobra could be your new best friend. But thats not to say Tamas newbie is a one-trick pony. Its so well-conceived and built with the kind of near-endless adjustment that high-end pedals offer these days that it could be pressed into service in any genre with aplomb.