I feel like that's the worst place in the world to put a key holder.

Perhaps, but where else would you put it on a compact folding pedal. Frankly, I would have preferred it if they retained the wing bolt to tighten the beater. If they had, the key wouldn't have been necessary.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfYLFOxmPX0"]Carter McLean[/ame] just put up a review of the Speed King and Speed Flyer.

Thanks. Very useful. Is that you in the video? If so how did you get the prototypes to test?

Ha I wish! That's Carter McLean, drumming extraordinaire. He's absolutely incredible and happens to be a Ludwig endorser so I imagine that's why he got it early.

I believe he's the set percussionist for the Lion King on Broadway.

I know who he is, but I don't know you, and when you said "just put up a review" I thought it might be you. We have some well known people here, and based on other videos on his YouTube channel showing him playing a lot of vintage gear, and wearing a Hawthorne Drum Shop T shirt, it wouldn't be surprising if he was a member here.

There are a few issues I think with the new Speed King mainly some of the fasteners and use of plastic vs nylon bushings, etc, etc.

If you are looking for a Speed King to gift to your son, I'd find a local used $20 Speed King, then send it over to Vincent over at Vitalizer Drums (https://polyphonicdrums.com/) and have him do a restore or resto-mod. I recently sent mine over to just do a functional restore (replacement of the squeaky/failing parts) as a back up to my Camco and I couldn't be more thrilled with it. Or, he has enough inventory that you could probably a freshly resto-modded one from him direct for the price of a new one.

We met Vincent at the Delaware show a couple of weeks ago. However, my son already has a Speed King from the '70s in excellent, lightly used, condition which has a permanent place on his 1962 Super Classic set. The new one would be used with his primary gigging kit, a circa 2008 birdseye maple Ludwig bop kit. I haven't read anything about the issues you mentioned. Did you have access to the pedal yourself or can you post a link where those issues are discussed?

It would be interesting to see a side by side comparison of the new Speed King and the Vitalizer.

Vincent has two levels of refurb. The more expensive level is $150 and along with the cost of a pedal in decent condition will exceed the cost of the new version. He runs a great service, and I would not hesitate to use him to get the best from the original version, especially for a vintage kit. But, on an absolute basis, the new pedal might be a better value, especially if it is smoother with better bearings. Vincent indicated he is so busy right now that he's telling customers that it'll be a six-month turn around although he hopes to get them done sooner than that. He indicates 6 months to set expectations.