Tama Speed Cobra Pedals Review

Camco, DW and Ludwig have all produced such beasts, as has Japanese tucker 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 over many years. But instantly comes a new pretender in the form of the Speed Cobra, with features borrowed from its well-regarded older sibling and a host of innovative design tweaks to boot. Tamas tagline for the Speed Cobra is Extreme Velocity, undecomposed Power.As such the Speed Cobras new features have both simple goals in common to increase speed and to increase aggressive response. 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 straightaway 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 stroke and the Vari-Pitch beater holder that enables adjustment of the footboard link angle independently of the beater angle. To that already impressive mix, the Japanese company has added several significant new features. The first and most obvious of these is the Fast Foot 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 fine-tune to reduce friction, which Tama reckon will improve 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 percent catch fireer than the Iron Cobras, and the new Projector Beater.Th e beater allows the choice of compress or wide striking surfaces simply by changing the head angle go for punchy, defined attack with the former or a fatter, untasted 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 serve, nor the new Super Spring, designed to offer less resistance at the beginning of the pedal stroke) has left us little space to discuss the veritable build quality of the Speed Cobra.Fortunately, little space is required 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 dodgy feature names Tama has bestowed on the Speed Cobra, a word of warning. For sure, its easy to dismiss Speed Spring or LiteSprocket as marketing waffle, but when pressed into action the Speed Cobra does a fantastic job of silencing the cynical. For start ers 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 surveil 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 starter motor 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.