For those of you who have already had the problem of your Rock Band drum pedal snapping in half right in the middle of your best shot at Gold Starring “Run to the Hills”, you know how frustrating it is that the pedal is made of plastic and somewhat poorly designed. We recently had the pleasure of testing an aftermarket product called Mega Pedal and our experience was a good one (mostly anyway).
Two pedals were sent, the billet repair plate (pictured left), as well as a full billet replacement piece (right). The first one attaches to your existing plastic kick pedal. The second one completely replaces the plastic pedal and works with the spring and magnets etc. on its own. I tried the repair plate since my pedal was cracked but had not yet completely split in half. Here’s what they look like after install.
The Install
Installing the pedal was a much bigger chore than I expected (and this is not Mega Pedal’s problem obviously). According to the directions supplied, you are to remove the original pedal by removing the hinge pin that holds it in place, then drill in the self drilling screws through the top of the plastic below, then re-attach with the pin – voila!
However, after much hammering, the breaking of a few small drillbits, screwdrivers, an awl, and 
almost pulling a Kathy Bates on my ankle while trying to brace the base during hammering, I was unable to get that stupid pin to budge. Period. Nor was my very strong, very mechanically inclined friend with vice grips and other heavy duty tools. So, you can expect you may have some trouble there unless you are lucky enough to get the “easy” pedal with the pin that my friend had which came out with a small tap like it had been buttered on a hot summer day .
Luckily, since my pedal hadn’t split in half yet, I decided to just ignore that step and skip to the step telling me to drill (well, not me at this point, my mechanical friend) so we drilled the plate on while leaving it in place and that worked excellently.
The Customer Service
I received the package within a day or two at most of ordering it. The pedals came individually wrapped in plastic to protect the finish, and the screws were included in that plastic wrap in a separate sealed area so they can’t be forgotten. When we emailed that we were having trouble with the pin, we got a quick response telling us that some pins are sticky and to use more force. The following day we got a follow-up email asking if we had resolved the problem. Even though I never got the pin out, I thought it was nice follow-up on their part!
The Product during Game Play
Bottom line is that this is a must have item for any of you hard core drummers that really stomp that pedal. (You know this is you Inga.) I’ve seen people kicking away at these things and have witnessed them splitting in half. Drumming technique critiques aside, if you’re gonna hammer these things like an Animal, you need this plate before yours breaks.
Endorsement
We have interviewed Azuritereaction whose YouTube videos are widely watched and he uses a Mega Pedal from this same company as well.We agree with his comments that it just lets you forget about how the pedal feels and you can focus on your hands and sticks. It also adds extra weight to the pedal which means you don’t have to kick down as hard to hit the note.Overall, it improved my accuracy noticeably.
RockGamer.com suggests that for the reasonable price ($18.99 for the repair plate, $29.95 for the full replacement), great customer service, and better gameplay, that you should go ahead and shell out the money to get this product now, rather than wait for the break and go through the hassle of returning yours to EA and getting another crappy plastic pedal that will break again. Like their website says “this is the only pedal you’ll ever need” and we agree!
More Information
To get more information or to purchase these products, please go to megapedal.com or contact Brent at sales@tunerheadquarters.com .
Please tell them you saw this review on RockGamer.com and email Jen if you have any questions or comment about the review.
Rock on my friends
Jen
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1Chicago Horde
on Feb 29, 2008 at 3:36 pm:
Convincing enough for me! Gonna order the replacement next week sometime. Hope the install goes smoothly…..
2Corrie
on Feb 29, 2008 at 11:01 pm:
[Deleted and Edited by Mike:]
If you would like to advertise competing products do it in the forums, not in the comment section of another product.. If you want us to review a competing foot pedal have the manufacturer contact us.
Thanks.
3Corrie
on Mar 1, 2008 at 12:47 pm:
Anti-competitive are we?
Just wanted to get a name of one I knew was very popular and well-made out there.
This site is to help rockgamers right, not to make you money and promote products you have affiliations with?
4Jen
on Mar 1, 2008 at 1:01 pm:
Corrie - No worries, we don’t have any affiliation with Mega Pedal, it was just a review of a product I really liked.. I think Mike was just trying to be respectful of Mega Pedal since they were nice enough to send us one to try out. We’re not making any money on any of this.. speaking of which - would you like to donate to help us out?? LOL
Rock on
Jen
5Corrie
on Mar 1, 2008 at 1:03 pm:
Haha sorry, I didn’t realize they had sent you one to try/review, I can understand why you don’t want to be pushing other products in the review of theirs, sorry.
6Rockin Art
on Mar 1, 2008 at 2:37 pm:
I think Mike is right, if Mega Pedal were to post in the comments of a Super Pedal review, Super Pedal wouldn’t be happy about it.
7Mike
on Mar 1, 2008 at 2:40 pm:
I think if it’s a big deal, we should talk about it on the forums. I dont want to step on anyone’s toes, I dont know what product is the best, cause I haven’t tried them all. However, I personally thought it bad taste to smack it in the middle of someone elses product review. If the majority thinks otherwise, I’m all about doing what the community thinks best.
81shot1kill
on Mar 1, 2008 at 11:13 pm:
Honestly, I don’t see the point in getting this product. Sure it may look cooler than what I did, but how much does this thing cost? $20-$30 as well as frustration and time (as it seems by your description) of installing it?
All I had to do was duct tape the pedal back together - it works just as well, it’s been like this for about a month and a half now and seems like it won’t break. The only reason I’d see you’d want to buy a $30 replacement is if you don’t want an ugly little strip on duct tape on your foot pedal - you definitely don’t feel it, and it plays like new.
Just my $.02
9Jen
on Mar 2, 2008 at 12:06 am:
I think what I like about it is twofold -one is how solid it feels - I don’t have to think about whether or not its going to break. That would be literally impossible - its amazingly solid. Second - it adds weight to the pedal which actually works better with the factory installed spring - it makes it less work having to hit the notes because you’re not fighting the pedal. It also has a nice surface that doesnt slip at all. Overall, TOTALLY worth the 18.99 to me because I know I’ll never need to worry about the pedal again. Then again, I’m not good with duct tape so who knows
I would have ended up having to send it back to EA (like I did with the Strat) and waited all that time for another cheap crappy one… Thanks for adding your $.02 tough 
Good to know someone out there had success too!
101shot1kill
on Mar 2, 2008 at 1:07 am:
I’m awful with duct tape too, but it’s as easy as wrapping it around the pedal a few times
(By the way, “Matt” was me before I registered)
I understand where you’re coming from about the solidity, but to me that feeling can’t be worth the money, can it?
Oh well, that’s why you have one and I don’t, eh?
111shot1kill
on Mar 2, 2008 at 1:09 am:
Wait, I notice for this reply box it says I’m logged in as ” “. There’s just a blank space where it would put my username, and same for my reply above.
I’m 1shot1kill, I registered for the forums recently, and it says I’m logged in here yet it also says I’m logged in as… ” “
12Mike
on Mar 2, 2008 at 7:53 am:
Not sure why it did that, but I fixed it bro. Sorry bout that. Jen’s point is well taken, and I agree wit her, it not only fixes the foot pedal, but it makes it better because of the added weight and stability
13VorpalK
on Mar 3, 2008 at 10:56 pm:
Weight is good, solidness is good. As one who has experienced the “breaking while trying to five star Run to the Hills” moment(Literally. I was singing it new years eve in presece of both Mike and Jen when the moment mentioned happened), I heartily endorse anything that can avoid such an event.
14turbopunk
on Mar 4, 2008 at 4:24 pm:
I must partially agree with you about removing the pin. For me, it took about an hour before i broke down, got the leather punch out of my leatherman, a 10 pound rubber mallet, and a *beep* it attitude before i managed to get my pin out.
However, you’re assessment of the product could not be more accurate. I made it all the way through easy, medium, and hard before breaking my pedal part of the way through expert. This doesn’t even include all the World Tour mode playing with family and friends.
After using the thing for a week, I noticed a strong improvement in my playing. I’ve also been unfortunate enough to play on a friends set after installing the mega pedal on my set. You’ll wonder how you ever did it before you got the Mega Pedal.
15Jen
on Mar 4, 2008 at 7:17 pm:
Glad I’m not the only one with pin problems and probably good feedback for the MegaPedal folks so they could add something about that in the directions. I, too, played on someone else’s drums last night and I felt EXACTLY the same way - how on earth did I play without this.. totally different!
16Basil
on Mar 26, 2008 at 4:27 pm:
Took me a while to get the pin out, with a 2 screwdrivers! (like a hammer) but finnaly it came out!