Blockhead

A great product: A replacement drum pedal for the Rock Band drum kit! When I tried to get our broken pedal replaced and found out that the warranty time was being enforced (though I just read an article today which stated that this policy would be suspended again), the helpful guy on the phone at the warranty department recommended buying a replacement. Look at Best Buy, he said, and it's called Blockhead.

So I did so, and found that Blockhead was the manufacturer, and for 20$ picked up this kit. A drum pedal (adjustable height), drum pad silencers, and a new pair of drum sticks.

Drum pedal: this was the key component, and it works great. Took a little getting used to, but it's got good action and seems well built. There's also the option of either a low point or high point for the normal rest state. I found that the low point was great, it takes very little action to press and even at full release it's easy to use. The high point was very similar to the pedal that shipped with Rock Band and works okay. The mechanism used to switch between the two is very clever. The pedal initially had some trouble with the cord (it wasn't stretched out and so it had some tension at the normal position), but after a day it was fine. It also attaches more firmly to the drum kit than the original, which I like.

Drum pad silencers: A very clever product, these are basically round pads, plus circular strips of rubber. The strips fit snugly around the outside edge of the drum heads, holding the pads in place. They work great, and are even quieter than my original homebrew felt pads, and a lot easier to have stay in place. Very much recommended.

Drum sticks: The only part of the bundle which I had trouble with. They're black. I tried playing with them without lights. I couldn't tell what I was doing. Later trials with the lights on reveal that I can't drum with black drum sticks. I may have been hitting too lightly, or not judging distances well, or something else, but they just didn't do it. Switched back to the Rock Band wooden ones and am happy. Your results may vary!