Tama Iron Cobra HP900PSN

I owned the Tama Iron Cobra Power Glide Kick Pedal for a little over a year, and I ended up replacing it with the Pearl Eliminator. The pedal is very solid, and has nice action, but not for very long. After constant use at practices and gigs, the action slowed, and the pedal became less smooth. It was very well built, but even after I greased all the hinges and such. It still wasn’t as good as it was.

This was the pedal I played when I switched from a single chain driven pedal to double chain driven one, and there is a large difference in the action. But when comparing this to other double chain drives, it falls short to the DW 5000 and the Pearl Eliminators, in my opinion. The action on these two pedals is much smoother than on the Iron Cobra. I believe this may be resolved by buying the Rolling Glide, but I have never personally played on those.

The weight and the overall longevity of the pedal is where I have problems. The attack and intensity of the pedal are amazing in the first stages of use, but over time the action gets less smooth and the pedal starts to squeak, causing for it to be a handful while recording. The weight isn’t a big problem, it just weighs more than others, but that is the price you pay for having a pedal built like a tank.

The Tama Iron Cobra Power Glide kick pedal is an good pedal. It has sleek looks and plays relatively fast, it just doesn’t stand up to some of the other pedals in it’s price range. If I had to choose again, I would play the Pearl Eliminators from the start. Iron Cobra’s are better when they are played as a double kick pedal.

This pedal is amazingly versatile. Although it has gained a reputation for being a 'hard rockers pedal,' the sheer adjustability of this instrument makes it applicable to almost any musical situation.

I personally have been playing this pedal for about 3 years now in situations ranging from acoustic jazz gigs (Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson style piano trio- played mostly in extremely volume sensitive restaurant style situations) to louder fusion settings, to private party top 40 gigs (HIGHLY amplified and requiring maximum volume), and I can say without a doubt that this pedal has functioned beautifully in each situation.

I have to hand it to the Tama people for developing such an adaptable piece of hardware. The bass drum beater can be adjusted to rest farther back from the drum (for louder situations) or closer to the drum (for softer, more acoustic situations). This is easily achieved in seconds with the custom drum tool securely mounted to the side of the pedal. If all of this shifting of the beater has risen your foot board of your pedal to your navel, not to worry- the foot board is independently adjustable from the beater angle, so you come out with the perfect pedal feel every time.
One thing I do not like about this pedal, however, is that the heel plate is raised about a half inch from the ground (as opposed to tapering down to be flush with the floor). This part of the design obviously betrays this pedal as being designed for playing with the heel up, as it leads to some problems when playing with the heel down. The edge is set at a sharp angle, so when played with the shoes off the edge can press into the flesh of the heel of the foot in an uncomfortable manner (when the foot is shifted towards the back of the pedal). Conversely, playing with shoes can cause a problem because the heel of the shoe can slip off the back edge of the pedal while playing and can be frustratingly difficult (sometimes) to return to its original position.