Pedal and damper

When I started building my very first vibe some 15 (or was it more?) years ago, I made a smallwidth pedal for it.
With that pedal I got quite some problems:
- the damperbar was pulled down unevenly
- eventho it was only a 3 octaves with narrow bars, I didn't feel comfortable always having my right leg on the same spot.

To solve the first issue, I connected a Y-shaped pulling-rod, but then discovered that I had to place 2 springs ISO 1 (there has to be a spring as close as possible to any point where the damperbar is connected to a pulling device).
Still didn't do the trick, and also the 2nd issue wasn't solved.

After this very first 3 octaves, I started building my first 4 octave, which obviously was asking for a wide pedal (with 2 rods). With this, the experimenting of the best width for the pedal started.
Too narrow means discomfort for the player and uneven pulling of the damerbar.

But too wide came also with a huge problem: no pedal I could make was rigid enough to pull both rods down evenly, when stepping on the far end of the pedal.

Most efficient pedal width I came up with, and still use on all our instruments, is 67cm (26 1/3").
With this width,
- you can comfortably reach every part of the range, even 4 octaves
- the springs are at a perfect position of the damperbar
- stepping on the far end of the pedal still results in even pulling of the damperbar.

Nico
vanderPlas Baileo
www.vanderPlasbaileo.com
twitter #vibetech