THE FUTZ

The Hansen Futz pedals (or just Futz, as Hansenfutz – the company- calls them), are made from black plastic
and have a slightly delta shaped footboard which hinges over a floor plate which has industrial Velcro on the
bottom. You have to use the Futz on carpet – wooden floor are NOT an option. The hinge has a spring mounted
inside which is adjustable with a large flat blade screwdriver and the angle of the footboard is adjustable by
repositioning a crosshead screw into one of three locating holes. You have to be careful while adjusting the
spring tension and angle to prevent injury from twanging springs, but the pedals come with very clear instructions
and you can be set up in a few minutes. The actual pedal plate is 10” long by 5” at its widest point and has six
raised ‘V’s and the Futz name which provide a bit of traction. Everything is reinforced and despite being plastic,
the pedals are quite sturdy. They do feel quite light but they have stood up to me stomping on them with my size
13’s, and as long as you pick them up correctly (to avoid damaging the spring), I can’t see why they wouldn’t last.
If you do manage to damage them though, they are cheap enough to buy replacements without the bank
manager worrying.

The floor plate has a tubular tower section on it that hits the underside of the footplate when it is pushed.
There is a section on the underside of the footplate into which foam discs slot. Each foam disc has a
hard rubber circle attached to it and which foam disc you put into it determines how noisy the pedal is.
There are three different discs available – the solid foam one (soft) is pretty much totally silent, then
there is a thin plastic one (medium) that makes a quiet click sound and a thick plastic disc (hard) that
is the loudest.To be honest there wasn’t much difference between the two plastic discs and I preferred the thick plastic
one, as it made sure that I could really hear exactly what I was playing.

Now, I am guessing that most, probably 90%, of bass drum pedals have a footplate that is hinged to a heal
plate. The heal plate rest on the floor and so your heal is only a centimetre above the floor (depending on how
thick the soles of your shoes are – if you regularly play in high healed shoes or boots, you can forget about this
bit). Now, as the hinge of the Futz contains the spring, it is quite chunky, so the sole of your shoe will never be
closer than 4cm from the floor. This might not sound much but it does feel different from a ‘normal’ bass drum
pedal, as the pivoting position is slightly different. If you only ever play heal up, this wont be so much different
for you, but you might notice it if you play heal down. For those players out there who remember them, it feels
like an old Premier 252 with solid footplate.

Another thing to bear in mind is that when you push a standard bass drum pedal, you are causing a fair bit of
metal and felt to move and gain momentum towards the bass drum head, and this is what gives each bass
drum pedal its individual feel. On the Futz, the only thing that is moving is your foot and the plastic footplate.
You are pushing against a spring but on a standard pedal, once you have got the beater moving towards the
head, it will continue, to a degree, to carry on moving by itself. Not so with the Futz. What I am trying to say here
is that the Futz does not feel like your favourite bass drum pedal for quite a few physical reasons.
So, as a practice pad, how does it feel?

Honestly?

Well… once I had got the pedal angle and spring tension right, I put the pedals down on to a carpet (got to be
carpet, they don’t stick to wooden floors like I have in my practice room) and started to play and immediately
realised that I couldn’t play any doubles. This came as a bit of a shock as I know I can on a conventional pedal.
When I got to think about it though, it made sense. When we play doubles on a normal bass drum pedal, we
tend to rely on the bounce back from the head to push the beater back so we can play the second beat. Or at
least I do. It’s the same as when we first learn to play double with our hands – we reply on the bounce rather
than on actually playing both notes. However, when you learn to play both notes and not rely on the bounce,
your doubles leap ahead in power and speed. Once I had got my head around that, I went back and started to
play doubles by actually playing them, it all worked and my feet really came together. Don’t expect to sit down at
these pedals and not work at it. You need to work at them with good technique and your feet will really
progress.
Now I didn’t have a gig on the first night so I decided to set up a little practice kit with the two Futz and a Real
Feel pad (reviewed elsewhere). I went to a local DIY store and bought a rubber backed, carpet top doormat and
put that on the wooden floor of my practice room. I then put a Futz into the far corners, Velcroed to the mat, and
put the Real Feel pad on a snare stand in the centre, which helped to hold the mat in place. I then set up a
cymbal pad from an electronic kit on a cymbal stand, and Voila! A small practice kit.
I really worked on my feet and after a while was really getting on well with the Futz. I was really curious to see
how the workout had affected my foot technique and at the gig the next night, I have got to say that my feet
were REALLY comfortable. Now, I cant say that this was totally down to the Futz as I don’t often spend that
much time concentrating mostly on my feet, but as it made foot practice much easier and more portable, it’s got
to take some credit.
At first I really didn’t like the Futz, but with a little perseverance I now love them. I am a little bit of a glutton for
punishment so perversely, I enjoyed the fact that I couldn’t play them well at the start. If you sit down in a shop
and try these, you have got to appreciate that they will feel weird and awkward, but it’s like anything good in life
- you will only get out what you put in.

source: www.mikedolbear.com. a review by Simon Edgoose