Yes L-D,Your pedal would be the early one with the strap..You know of you ever need a N.O.S. strap i have them...I also have a "Black Max" pedal for sale i have posted about it on the forum in the pass....Mikey

Sort of, but not quite. The swivo pedal has WAAAAY more adjustment. About the only thing in common would be the easy to reach spring adjustment. Honestly, there are only two adjustments on this Calato pedal....spring tension and beater angle. Other than that, you pretty much live with the way it was made....

Ok, so I've taken this one all apart to clean it as it seemed a bit sluggish. Sure enough the bearings were full of what used to be grease, but was just now dirty funky gunk! A little cleaning and I discovered that this pedal uses needle roller bearings on the rocker shaft. Now its all re-greased, reassembled, and adjusted. Ok, ok...there are only two adjustments possible, beater angle and spring tensions, but its all set now. I got to tell you, for a rare piece of drum history, this pedal sure is fast and smooth! I'm surprised it didn't sell all that well! This is almost as smooth as my old Ghost pedal, my WFL speed king and the Rogers Swiv-O-Matic pedal I had for a short time. I've retired the speed king and the Ghost was sold last year. My gigging pedal of late has been a late model Yamaha strap drive, which is also super fast and smooth. I'd say this Regal Tip Calato pedal is darn near close to the Yamaha!

x-mas3

Attached are a couple of pics of it showing the early strap drive for the spring mechanism. I know the later ones were a little different since they used a chain, and I believe they changed the footboard stay as well. Later ones I've seen attach at the heel hinge pin rather than screw to the bottom of the heel plate like this one. The only non-original part on it that I can see it the hoop clamp. The original must have gone missing a long time ago, so someone modified a Ludwig Accent pedal hoop clamp to work. It seems to work rather well too.

The Band

Ok, so I've been messing around with this old Calato pedal for about a week now and I gotta tell ya......in answer to the original poster's question...a resounding YES! This pedal is the fastest, smoothest pedal I've played in a long while. I'm finding I can do triplets like I used to be able to do with my old speed king! Can't do that with my Yamaha, or my Ghost, only the Speed King, and now this one. I've tried all kinds of other pedals......DW, Floating Action, Camco (I know those are all pretty much the same), Iron Cobras, an old Tama King Beat, a couple of old Yamaha 9000 series pedals, a couple of newer flying dragons, a Ludwig Junior, a Ludwig Universal Speedmaster, a cheap Pearl P90 pedal, the modern Ludwig Accent series pedals, you name it, I've tried it and with none of those have I ever been able to play fast triplets on, only the Speed King......until now. Loving this Calato pedal, its a shame they don't make it anymore! No idea why it never caught on......

I'm so convinced, I'm bidding on another on ebay to have as a spare, just in case......;)

Again, is it any good? YES!! Excited

One of these on the GC site right now. Offered out of their Bedford Center, IL store.

$30 might be a steal of a deal on a cool rare smooth fast pedal.......

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Regal-Tip-Used-Regal-Tip-Calato-Single-Bass-Drum-Pedal-110840060-i4143722.gc

An interesting concept with a spring for both the down and up stroke...Clapping Happy2

Drummerjohn333,

Thanks for the tip on the Calato pedal. I took lessons from a great guy who had an original pad set with the pedal from Calato. We live in the WNY area and Calato/Regal Tip are a local company. I've always loved and used (endorsed) their products. Great people who make great sticks, brushes and beyond. I've talked to Joe, the inventor of the plastic tip and this pedal and the patriarch of this company and family. I've asked him about the pedal many times and he would always say that he might have a few parts around but no pedals. I'm glad to get this one.

John.

This is a perfect example of why I post discoveries like this on our beloved site. If I were in a better circumstance, I would have snagged it up myself - not because I NEED it, but because of the testimonial earlier in this thread. I knew it was not all that common (had never seen one before myself) so I certainly wanted to raise the flag here. I am very glad that someone who read my tip snagged it up!

BTW - I LOVE my 5A Nylon Regal Tips that I play! I have tried to replace them (to save money) but I simply can not. I have not found any other stick that feels the way they do and I certainly hope they NEVER go away! Please tell Joe and the family that I sincerely thank them for their products and surviving in an ever increasing difficult market.

PS - GC SUCKS at keeping these in stock.

Thanks again Drummerjohn333!! It's a really smooth well machined pedal. I'll play it next week when I get out of the pit.

I have 2 of these pedals.One of them ,the wire comes off the spool all of the time.The other works great,and fast.Getting it dialed in takes a bit of time but once done and you got a keeper.Matt