Speed King Reissue? - Page 1 - Vintage Drum Forum

Greetings,

Over on the Drummerworld forum, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz (current and longtime drummer for Weird Al Yankovic) is an active member. He is also an endorser of Ludwig, Sabian and Evans heads.

Someone posted a thread about switching from long time use of a Speed King and they were just getting back in to drums after 20 years off and wanted recommendations on other pedals. Bermuda was the first to reply, saying: "Wait a little while, you might just see its return. :)". When someone asked Bermuda to clarify a few replies later he just said, "Can't say anything about anything, but if you like the old Speed King, you'll LOVE the new one! I mean, IF there is one...."

Bermuda would probably know as a celebrity Ludwig endorser, and he is a pretty straight shooter. Looks like we should be expecting one. At NAMM, perhaps?

I just hope Ludwig does it right AND doesn't price it out of the park like the DW Direct Drive Stuff, or the Tama Dyna-Sync. Remember, they re-issued the Acrolites a few years ago and prcied them over $300. We all know you can get a "real" vintage Acrolite for less than $200. I just hope they don't price the "New" Speed King at $200+, when we all know we can get a "real" Speed King for typically less than $100 or so.

This will be interesting to see what happens. Here's the thread if anyone wants to read/follow it:

https://www.drummerworld.com/forums/index.php?threads/new-pedal-for-a-speed-king-loyalist.167684/

Knowing Ludwig's reputation, it most probably will surpass the 200.00 mark, for the following reasons. Retro nostalgia, customer and collector anticipation, and of course, more importantly, for profit reasons. We're talking about a Ludwig icon that has never been redesigned so the interest for it will attract and spark curiosity. Rogers came out with their new version of the old swivomatic pedal, and it's an overpriced, ugly pedal with a single chain, no strap option, and no pedal plate. I get the fact that they were going for a retro look, but they could have achieved this even with those modern necessities. Let's just hope Ludwig doesn't screw up like Rogers did. I already thought their Atlas pro and classic pedal looked a lot like and paid tribute to the speed king, minus the direct drive link. I tried it but it wasn't for me. They claimed it was super smooth and fast. It wasn't, in my experience at least..After many years of playing different pedals, I always came back to Pearl's Eliminator pedals. You can literally adjust to any setting for all drummers of different styles, and you can switch over to strap drive, which i did. I'm curious to see what Ludwig will come out with, if in fact they do have new speed king in the works..Whatever the case, be prepared to be shocked, price wise.