Perfect Balance by Jojo Mayer
Over the past two decades, I acquired and played pretty much every pedal on the market. Unfortunately, I could never find a pedal that really worked for me. I found that compared to some legendary vintage pedals from the fifties, most contemporary pedals have plenty of speed and throw on the forward motion, but sluggish response on the beater return.
Once the original vintage designs were altered to meet the demand for more striking power, the perfectly balanced action got lost and became top heavy. Like an unbalanced stick, this becomes a considerable disadvantage to execute many of my pedal techniques which allow me to generate effortless speed without sacrificing power. Many pedals try to compensate for this problem with elaborate adjustability but only with limited success.
So I started my quest to put together a perfectly balanced pedal that matches the requirements of todays music. For about six years I experimented with different parts,drive systems and footboards until I had the blueprint for the pedal that you have in front of you. Other than the action, easy portability and quick set up was a main concern to me. At that point SONOR joined the project and contributed their German precision engineering and an innovative solution for the folding mechanism and self-mounting hoop clamp that works at the push of a button.
The Perfect Balance Pedal is a carefully calibrated system that optimizes the linear translation of your foot movements and makes many adjustments expendable.It was designed with a principle in mind that reflects ultimate sophistication to me: Simplicity.
Essentially, it could be described as the soul and feel of a vintage pedal reincarnated in the technology of a 21st century body.
The main philosophy
The main philosophy behind this pedal is to achieve perfect harmony and interplay between the pedals moving parts and your foot. Due to careful design and perfectly balanced linear action any non-vital adjustments are obsolete and omitted on purpose.
Other than the pedals folding and mounting mechanism, all adjustments such as spring tension, footboard height and beater angle are classic, industry standard solutions.
Low mass drive system
The drive cam and beater hub are streamlined into a single unit for low mass and carefully calibrated for perfectly balanced strokes. Round cam design creates linear acceleration which is a major advantage for many hybrid techniques.
Ballistic fiber strap
minimizes inertia of the drive system and offers a quicker and smoother response than chain or solid drives.
Elongated board
Elongated and smooth footboard adds more leverage to the stroke and allows extended range of movement for heel toe and sliding techniques.
