History

Frank Kincel began playing snare drum in 1979, the year he started band. He assembled his first drum set by himself and began tinkering and modifying his drums shortly thereafter. Frank recalls an early drum memory. While he was playing snare drum in grade school (5th or 6th grade), before he had an actual drum set, he wanted a bass drum for his contraption set very badly. As luck would have it, his neighbours were throwing out an old marching snare. He played it as a tom tom for a few months and then began asking his parents for a bass drum pedal for it. It was not in the budget. After a short time his father realised that he was not going to give up and asked him how a bass pedal was made and if he could show him some pictures, which he did. His dad then asked him if he would like to get up the next morning, a Saturday, and attempt to build a bass drum pedal. Frank was ecstatic and very willing to try making this with his father. That day is forever etched into Frank's memories. They got up that Saturday, went out to the small work shed in the yard, and began the building process. Keep in mind this was nothing polished like what you see in a store but fabricated from regular pieces and parts that a tradesman would have in their shop. Things like copper tubing, flat iron, wood, all thread, a door hinge, along with an old wooden 4 speed stick shift knob comprised the materials that went into this pedal. Frank's dad asked him to describe how it worked as they began the process. He braised together the axle and lever with a torch, and added a piece of all thread for the beater shaft. They heated and bent flat iron in the vice for the pedal uprights. Drilled holes in the side for the axle. A piece of 1x4 for the pedal plate and another for the foot "board" too, connected with a door hinge. After nearly a full day, Frank's dad asked him "how will the beater "return" after striking the head?" Frank replied "with these springs" and pulls out two curtain cord springs from a "parts" box. They talked about it and his dad finally made a suggestion, possibly because of the time they had been working on the project, to use rubber bands. It was brilliant. They slipped several 1/4" rubber bands over the uprights toward the bottom where the all thread extended. His dad then asked what would strike the drum head and frank asked if he could use an old wooden stick shift knob he had seen in a bolt box for years. His father said "sure." They placed it on the shop floor and Frank stepped on it. IT WORKED! He can't remember if he thanked his dad but he can remember scooping the pedal off the floor and running out to the recently enclosed "barn" where his "drums" were upstairs, fixing the pedal into position with that old marching snare, and playing his contraption until he was called in for dinner. He does remember thanking his dad while they talked about it over dinner. He played on that pedal nearly a year until he got his first "real" drum set. He kept that pedal until high school when his father wanted him to clean up his "space" and talked him into throwing it out, along with the old single tension marching drum.