I got a new DW 5002 Double Pedal

Maverick10 said:

Thank you all.

I don’t have any Velcro on the pedal as of yet. My carpet is normal household carpet. I think think it’s any thicker than normal. But maybe the padding underneath is causing it to be thicker.

I did spend 30mins yesterday speaking with a DW customer service rep who said his pedal does the same thing depending on the where he has his kit set up. He was saying that the problem is due to the angle of the kick and how thick the carpet is that can be causing the heel plate to rise up. He suggested trying to get the spikes tightened (sticking out) to raise the batter side of the kick up a little more, then try lowering the front of my kick a bit and with PPG’s suggestion (I already have some of those) I should be able to get it flat and sturdy.

But it seems that a lot of DW people have had this problem and not so much with non DE pedals. So I’m wondering if it’s because the pedals that have hoop clamp setup with the three moving discs is more prone to this happening.

I used a 3000 series belt drive with just the normal hoop mount and no base plate pedal at a jazz workshop (their pedal not mine) and it didn’t have this issue.

He also said that DW would be able to work with me if I can’t get this to go away through tinkering with the setup of it.

The drum shop I bought it from is closing down at the end of the month for retirement and so I’m not sure if returning it is an option.

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This is what I did with mine same problem it makes the pedal alot more stable cupboard under the back plate .

I can see that working. But the carpet I have I can’t really tape down things to. I rent a house not own.

Plus I feel like yeah if I had the pedal for a few years and that started happening that’s one thing. But mine’s brand new.

But good tip none the less.

Put some velcro under the heel plate. Works great.

Tiges said:

I haven't any idea if this happens with other brand pedals

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Move the pedal to the left or right a bit & retighten. something is out of alignment & the result is the heel coming up.
Also, lift the front of your drum a bit and this will help.

Cmdr. Ross said:

Also, lift the front of your drum a bit and this will help.

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I'm wondering if perhaps this could be causing the problem? If the drum is too steep, the hoop isnt flat in the clamp.

I dunno. If it was in front of me, it would only take about 5 minutes of raising/lowering things to figure it out.

C. Dave Run said:

I'm wondering if perhaps this could be causing the problem? If the drum is too steep, the hoop isnt flat in the clamp.

I dunno. If it was in front of me, it would only take about 5 minutes of raising/lowering things to figure it out.

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So I’ve done some of that both on a carpet and hard floor. Then I spoke with a DW customer rep and got some more pointers, but just haven’t been able to properly fidget with it since. Life stuff, but I’m hoping in the next day or so to be able to really get into messing with all the the rep suggested and what’s been suggested here.

That way I can see if it’s a simple fix or if maybe the DWs just aren’t for me. I’m hoping they are cause when I did play it (even with the heel plate a little bit off the ground) it felt nice and smooth.

So please keep sending your tips and suggestions and will see what I can come up with.


Thank you all!

Drummers are the best!!

C. Dave Run said:

I'm wondering if perhaps this could be causing the problem? If the drum is too steep, the hoop isnt flat in the clamp.

I dunno. If it was in front of me, it would only take about 5 minutes of raising/lowering things to figure it out.

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Could very well be. If the front is too high or too low the pedal won't align right. I've found that moving it left & right helps too until you find the "sweet spot". Once you do, mark it & you'll be good to go!

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!!


So I finally got a chance to really mess around with the setting. And I might have finally gotten it.

So on the 22” kick on a hard flat surface I was able to get the heel plate to lay flat and to stop rocking up a smidge when bringing the beater halfway to the footboard and letting it go and swing under spring tension only.

Didn’t have to add any extra felt pads, or tape the heel plate down etc etc.

So now there’s maybe a 1/2 in or less gap between the base plate and ground right under the where the hoop mount is.

Which I think is fine and shouldn’t hurt the pedal, also this is without my drum rug under the kick on the hard surface.

It came down to adjusting the spikes on the pedal! Who’d of thought that’s what was doing it. I never had issues like that in the past but also never had a DW pedal with base plate or the new hoop mount system they have. And I have the front of my kick up as high as it can go, which isn’t too high. When I tried having the front as low as possible the pedal had the batter side higher than the reso (front side) and that didn’t work.

So as long as having that little gap between the floor and pedal by the hoop isn’t a problem I may have fixed the issue for hard surfaces. Now I have to see what it does back on the carpet. So I may have to add a little something to keep it level on carpet just for practice at home and then be good to go on hard surfaces for gigs.


Again. Thank you all for the help and advice!! You all encouraged me to really try and work this out and not just take back the pedal.

Now I just have to work on the 24” kick to get the right ht of the drum spurs to match the pedal spikes so I don’t have to keep changing the pedal if I switch kicks.

Glad to see you got it sorted, was about to suggest the spikes as I get the same on mine.

Hopefully you can enjoy the pedal now.

I'm glad to know I’m not the only one who was vexed by the oversized DW toe clamp. I bought a single DW5000 a couple years ago, and I was immediately disappointed with how awkwardly it clamped to my bass drum and even to my practice kick pad. I had this very same issue.

That fancy DW “pivot” clamp is the thickest, most raised up clamp I’ve ever seen. When I affixed my 5000 to my 22” Pearl Session bass drum, I literally had to make a riser to put under the drum to keep the heel plate from flying up into the air.

I have included photos of the DW clamp side-by-side with two of my other pedals. Neither of the other pedals caused any issues when installed and were naturally flush to the floor.




If you look at the “bed” of each of the clamps, where the bass drum hoop rests, you’ll see that the DW bed is way higher than the other two. By the time your bass drum hoop is lifted high enough to fit into the DW clamp, the amount of angle and downward weight of the drum will straight raise your heel plate right up into the air.

I have three single kick pedals, and two double bass pedals, and the DW is the only one that does this.

I do enjoy the feel and look of the DW pedals. I have a single "Accelerator" drive and it's pretty cool. However I don't really use it that much because it looks and feels really funky without some kind of extra rigging. This combined with the fact that all the other pedals I've bought had no such issue means I probably won't be buying any more DW pedals in the future.

ColdFusion said:

I'm glad to know I’m not the only one who was vexed by the oversized DW toe clamp. I bought a single DW5000 a couple years ago, and I was immediately disappointed with how awkwardly it clamped to my bass drum and even to my practice kick pad. I had this very same issue.

That fancy DW “pivot” clamp is the thickest, most raised up clamp I’ve ever seen. When I affixed my 5000 to my 22” Pearl Session bass drum, I literally had to make a riser to put under the drum to keep the heel plate from flying up into the air.

I have included photos of the DW clamp side-by-side with two of my other pedals. Neither of the other pedals caused any issues when installed and were naturally flush to the floor.

View attachment 132890
View attachment 132891

If you look at the “bed” of each of the clamps, where the bass drum hoop rests, you’ll see that the DW bed is way higher than the other two. By the time your bass drum hoop is lifted high enough to fit into the DW clamp, the amount of angle and downward weight of the drum will straight raise your heel plate right up into the air.

I have three single kick pedals, and two double bass pedals, and the DW is the only one that does this.

I do enjoy the feel and look of the DW pedals. I have a single "Accelerator" drive and it's pretty cool. However I don't really use it that much because it looks and feels really funky without some kind of extra rigging. This combined with the fact that all the other pedals I've bought had no such issue means I probably won't be buying any more DW pedals in the future.

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I agree bad design by DW i have one does the same thing ive lived with it but now im going to sell it and look for a decent pedal that sits flat to the ground its very disappointing because they are nice pedals to play.

ColdFusion said:

I'm glad to know I’m not the only one who was vexed by the oversized DW toe clamp. I bought a single DW5000 a couple years ago, and I was immediately disappointed with how awkwardly it clamped to my bass drum and even to my practice kick pad. I had this very same issue.

That fancy DW “pivot” clamp is the thickest, most raised up clamp I’ve ever seen. When I affixed my 5000 to my 22” Pearl Session bass drum, I literally had to make a riser to put under the drum to keep the heel plate from flying up into the air.

I have included photos of the DW clamp side-by-side with two of my other pedals. Neither of the other pedals caused any issues when installed and were naturally flush to the floor.

View attachment 132890
View attachment 132891

If you look at the “bed” of each of the clamps, where the bass drum hoop rests, you’ll see that the DW bed is way higher than the other two. By the time your bass drum hoop is lifted high enough to fit into the DW clamp, the amount of angle and downward weight of the drum will straight raise your heel plate right up into the air.

I have three single kick pedals, and two double bass pedals, and the DW is the only one that does this.

I do enjoy the feel and look of the DW pedals. I have a single "Accelerator" drive and it's pretty cool. However I don't really use it that much because it looks and feels really funky without some kind of extra rigging. This combined with the fact that all the other pedals I've bought had no such issue means I probably won't be buying any more DW pedals in the future.

Click to expand...

Easy fix I remembered:

Level the bassdrum with the legs, so it is flat again.

This makes that the heel shouldn’t rise anymore.

That is ofcourse if the ground is flat, risers usually aren’t.

A bass drum should be level anyways to relieve stress on the hoop (even a pivoting bottom doesn’t help too much) and thus raising pitch of the bassdrum.

Bob Gatzen has a good video about this.

TheDrummerFromAmsterdam said:

This makes that the heel shouldn’t rise anymore.

That is ofcourse if the ground is flat, risers usually aren’t.

A bass drum should be level anyways to relieve stress on the hoop (even a pivoting bottom doesn’t help too much) and thus raising pitch of the bassdrum.

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Excellent answer.

Also, don't over tighten the clamp on the bass drum hoop. A more relaxed grip will ensure the heel of the pedal stays on the floor.