The most important Rock Band Drum mod, in my opinion, is definitely putting neoprene or gum rubber covers on the drum. But the second most important Rock Band Drum mod is a big one, too — reinforce the bass drum pedal.

The bass drum pedal is often the “weakest link” of the drum kit; it tends to crack or even snap in two under heavy, prolonged use. It probably doesn’t help that as you move from Hard to Expert, the amount of bass drum goes up dramatically — double kicks turn into triple kicks all over the place.

Play Rock Band drums long and hard enough, and you’re likely to end up with a broken drum pedal!

The current theory is that the pedal, since it’s made of plastic, flexes when you depress it with your foot. There are rubber stoppers at the top of the pedal to prevent the pedal from hitting the plastic base, but there are no stoppers lower down on the pedal. As a result the pedal can flex because it’s hitting the base unevenly. After enough frantic foot pounding, it’ll inevitably crack at the flex point.

One cheap way to prevent cracking is to add some additional rubber stoppers to the bottom of the pedal so the pedal presses down evenly across the entire base — and has no opportunity to flex when you stomp on it. Your local hardware store has rubber stoppers of various types, or you can make your own out of balled-up duct tape. Improvise, but make sure the pedal is supported evenly against the base when pressed down hard by your foot.

If you’re willing to spend 20 bucks to get a cooler looking pedal, and fix the flex issue at the same time, you can buy an aftermarket pedal reinforcement made of sturdier material. The most inexpensive one ($14.99) I’ve found is the Pedal Metal. It comes in a variety of styles and colors, but they’re all essentially the same thing: a thin aluminum reinforcement plate that you attach to the top of your pedal. It’s very easy to install — just hold it in place and press down firmly as you screw down the self-tapping screws.

As you can see if I turn the pedal over, the self-tapping screws go through the pedal and poke out a bit. I have since removed the two middle lower screws (out of eight) because they came too close to the base. The rest of the screws don’t even come close to hitting the base when the pedal is depressed. I figure if six screws won’t hold it on there, I’ve got bigger problems.

There are actually two versions of the Rock Band drum pedal, but it’s very difficult to tell them apart. My pedal (above) is a V1. From what I read, the V2 pedal has these changes over the V1 pedal.

• thicker hinge pin
• two extra reinforcement ribs in the bottom of the pedal
• orange pedal guide has the front magnet location moved downward
• the screws for the sensor enclosure in the base of the pedal are no longer covered by rubber feet

Pretty minor tweaks, all, compared to the major differences between the drum versions.

Some people drum for months without ever breaking or even cracking their Rock Band drum pedal. But it never hurts to be careful, so if you’re a serious drummer, I recommend putting additional rubber stoppers on the base of the pedal, or looking into aftermarket Rock Band pedal reinforcement solutions.