who was the first drummer to use a double bass pedal and make it popular?
Double bass pedal, or double bass? I think the two are interchangeable from a musical standpoint, but not if you’re speaking about the technical aspect of equipment. I think “first to use it” and “make it popluar” are going to be two different things.
There were lots of drummers who would use two basses, like Ginger Baker of Cream. Even modern drummers like Lars of Metallica used two bass drums, as opposed to a double pedal. There are also drummers that use a double pedal, but you barely notice it because it’s used so sparringly (like Carter Beauford of Dave Mathews Band). There are also drummers who can tear it up so well with a single pedal that few can recreate it without a double (like Michael “Nicko” McBrain of Iron Maiden)
Speaking as a 32 year old, I would say Lars, for better or worse, defined what double bass drumming would be for the next few years. Namely, “chugga chugga chugga chugaa”. He made it popluar in that non-drummers recognized it, and that’s what people think double bass drumming is now. But there were tons of bands using double bass twenty years earlier, from Zappa to Cream to Pink Floyd. Just my barely-informed two cents.
A double bass kit or just the pedals? I’ve known a few who’ve used one bass drum but two pedals to make that sound.
I first remember seeing one in the 70s…
But…
I remember seeing a still photo of an old King Biscuit Time show (differed from the later King Biscuit Flower Hour) from the 40s or so in which a jazz kit was set up this way.
So God knows how far back it goes. Maybe someone formalized it and some firm started making gear with it in mind…but the practice goes back quite a ways.
I do believe that Louie Bellson is generally agreed to be the first double-bass drummer, if the most popular type of drummer. Buddy Rich saw this and, being Buddy, proceeded to give a solo with only two bass drums sometime after. This is difficult, though; I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar happened earlier.
The first double pedal is arguably the Sleishman Twin pedal by Australian drummer Don Sleishman in 1964. This pedal was a bit different in that the pedal was designed to be mounted centrally to the bass drum, which made sitting directly in front of the bass drum neccesary.
A similar effort can be seen with the Trixon Speedfire kit, which allowed two pedals to be mounted on the same drum. While this was most probably intended for more dynamic use, it could be used as a double bass drum provided two different sounds didn’t bother you.
Later on in the late 60s, we see the actual precursor to the modern double pedal: the Zalmer Twin, which had a cable for a drive shaft. It didn’t take, and the idea was batted around aimlessly until DW invented the 5002 series pedal in the early-mid 80s. I do remember seeing a picture of Kenny Aronoff with a Tama pedal in the early 80s; he was surely among the first to use such a pedal and make it popular. I’ll hazard a guess and say that it was most likely a studio drummer (which Aronoff no doubt is) who popularized this new invention, as is usually the case with new percussion technology.