Bass Drum Pedal


The first invention leading to this development incorporated the use of the right foot to activate sound from the bass drum, which was called the Turkish drum until the nineteenth century. In the 1890's, the bass drum pedal enabled one drummer to play two instruments. These early pedals were suspended from the bass drum's rim and tied to the musician's foot and later a footboard was added. William and Theobald Ludwig created the first modern bass pedal in 1909 when they created a spring pedal that allowed the beater to return from the drum on its own. This design, a spring attached to the beater's axis on an uplifted mound that is connected to the pedal, is used on today's bass pedals. These pedals also had a small device that would follow the movement of the pedal and strike a small cymbal attached to the lower right side of the bass drum. This cymbal was called a "clanger" and whenever the pedal was used the clanger and the bass drum would sound. The monotonous noise produced by the bass drum and clanger soon annoyed many percussionists. So the clanger was dropped but the urge to play a cymbal with the foot was not.

A fun site with a general overview is http://www.playmusic.org/percussion/index.html