I just took a look at my Standard pedal which, as far as I know, is all original and it has a metal linkage similar (possibly identical, I didn't compare them) to that of the Speed King.

Other than the footboard and the color of the paint the Standard is very similar to the Speedmaster pedals. Those pedals use a leather strap and feel pretty darn good, the Standard has the metal linkage and is perhaps the worst pedal I own (as is the hi-hat stand). Perhaps the change in the linkage is the reason.

Looking at the initial Standard catalog it does appear that these started out with a leather strap and then at some point in production switched to a metal linkage.

Dude, you need to let it go.

Clearly you didn't let it go.

Thanks KO. So the Standard started out with a strap and then evolved to the metal linkage. Mystery solved.

And you're right about the Standard high hat being equally terrible. If I remember correctly, the pedal was mounted right on one of the three flat-based legs. Every time you depressed it, the entire high hat wobbled terribly.

Mike

Thanks for the info guys.

I need to clean out the old grease on the pedal as it is a little stiff and see how it feels with the straight standard footboard without the heel plate that the speed king footboard has.

I also have the Standard hi hat you are talking about and yes the pedal is right over top of the legs. I have a couple of hi hats like that and actually like that configuration for extra room for snare stand legs and running a double pedal.

This hi hat is very sluggish so it needs to be cleaned and lubed to free it up which is fine but I'm not excited about how high the pedal is in the front giving it quite an angle and it doesn't look like there is a tension adjustment so I'm going to need to figure those issues out.

Here's another picture of the Standard pedal with metal linkage. Much better than the leather strap!

-Mark

We can agree to disagree :)

Let's just say my Standard bass pedal and Hi-Hat are "for display purposes only" (the cymbal stands work fine though, like a 1400 top and middle mated to a Slingerland style flat base ).

Hi K.O.!

I should have said "IMO"! As to the leather strap version, is the strap easy to replace?

-Mark

Beautiful set! That is what I'm looking to do with my standard lemon strata set. I now have a full set of hardware to go along with it. I do not have the matching snare yet but do have an aluminum standard snare.

Guess I'll also need to start looking for some Ludwig cymbals.