Guitar Hero Kick Pedal Dead

August 28, 2010 5:54 PM

My Guitar Hero drum's kick pedal is dead. I looked online but there are a lot of options and mixed reviews for most of what I found. What's the best mix of frugality and "not going to die on me"-ality that I can find? I'm not opposed to buying an entire new set if that makes more sense.
posted by theichibun to Technology (4 answers total)

Best answer: Well, it depends on how you want to do this.

First off, are you using the GH:WT drumset, or are you using a Rock Band drum kit, or a higher end kit like the ION Drum rocker?

(Also, I am coming at this from the perspective of someone who uses an ION kit and mostly plays the Rock Band games. You may want to sniff around Doc's if you want GH specific answers.)

If you want to keep it as cheap and simple as possible, I'd look at Nyko's Metal Pedal. It isn't great, but it's cheap, and if you put grip tape on the bottom or attach it to your kit with PVC you can keep it in place.

If you want to go a little more upscale, I would look at the Roadie Kick Rocker kit. This gives you a surprisingly good kick trigger that can be hooked straight into your GH:WT kit. (It can also be hooked into a Rock Band or ION kit with a Kick Box, and you can buy a bundled package with the Kick Rocker and a Kick Box, too.)

(Disclaimer: I own a Kick Rocker that I use with my ION kit, hooked up to a Mapex pedal.)

The stock pedals you can buy with the Kick Rocker are kind of 'meh', but they'll do fine for general use, and if you want to buy a better pedal from your local music store or drum shop, all you have to do to hook it up is unscrew the pedal from the trigger, put on and line up the new pedal, and you're good to go.

The other mod that I'd suggest if you get the RKR is to replace the mylar head with a mesh head. It makes the trigger a lot quieter.

The final option, if you want to really go balls to the walls, is to buy a pro e-drum kick trigger, like the Yamaha KP-65 or a Roland KD-8. You'll also need to buy a pedal to connect to them.

Last but not least, here's a Youtube review from David Shek comapring the RKR, the KP-65, and the KD-8. Dave does a bunch of reviews for options to upgrade your Guitar Hero or Rock Band kits - you might want to flip through his channel to see if you can find anything else that catches your eye.
posted by BZArcher at 6:16 AM on August 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh - I forgot to mention that if you have an ION drum rocker or Rock Band set and buy a KD-8 or KP-65, you'll need a Kick Box to hook those up, too, because of how Rock Band looks for bass pedal input compared to GH or a MIDI drum brain.
posted by BZArcher at 6:18 AM on August 29, 2010

Response by poster: Yeah, it's the World Tour drum kit. On a PS2 too, so that makes this it's own special kind of crazy to figure out. I've already accepted the fact that we probably won't get another Guitar Hero game until after we get a Wii, so super long term holding up is great but not needed.

Thanks for all those options. That's going to be fun convincing the wife that I'm just looking and drooling over the more expensive ones and not planning on getting them.
posted by theichibun at 4:21 PM on August 29, 2010

Glad I could help - and good luck!
posted by BZArcher at 5:19 PM on August 29, 2010