Plastic covers on sustain pedals - keep? Ditch?

[ABECK]

Feels like the most ignorant question, but I realized I have never taken the plastic covers off any of my sustain pedals.  Are they supposed to be taken off?  Is it just a protective packaging device?  I always figured they provide a better grip.   What say the masses?

 

[Delaware Dave]

Mine came with the plastic on the double pedal.  One kept falling off; from the shear annoyance I yanked both off.

 

[timwat]

I always dutifully remove them, and take them to the local Steinway dealer to carefully install them on a sostenuto pedal (it's the only one that will fit...think about it).

 

While they've never come out and said it, I'm sure they appreciate me providing the pedal condom to reduce wear on that much-abused sostenuto, and I'm certain someday all that hard work will result in them providing me a piano gratis.

 

Edit: Now, honestly - I suppose the plastic provides a little more "grip", but I don't really suffer from "dammit my foot slipped off the pedal" illness on gigs. More likely it's going to be "dammit the entire pedal is creeping away from me".  So I'm not sure what the purpose of the pedal condom really is. I've been too lazy to remove it.

[Doerfler]

Mine always come off with one exception. I have left them on the triple pedal that is used with my Kawai VPC-1 which obviously is a stay at home piece of kit. 

 

Really don't know why I have left them on, doesn't matter at this point. 

[cassdad]

I always thought the cover was to protect the pedal surface from being scratched or damaged during shipment / transport.  (Heck, I would not be happy if I paid for a new pedal, and it came all scratched up.).

I remove it once I know the pedal works, then scratch it in my own unique way as I use and transport it!

[Synthaholic]

I asked this same question in 2021. 

 

 

[Jose EB5AGV]

4 hours ago, Doerfler said:

Mine always come off with one exception. I have left them on the triple pedal that is used with my Kawai VPC-1 which obviously is a stay at home piece of kit. 

 

Really don't know why I have left them on, doesn't matter at this point. 

 

My used VPC1 came without pedal covers and, trust me, they are still pretty good looking after 3 years of ownership 👍🏻

 

OTOH, I have several cheap M-Audio pedals and have not removed them yet 😅

[MathOfInsects]

I've never been clear if they are meant to stay on or not. Though one thing is for sure, when they come off I never put them back on. 

[Mark Schmieder]

3 hours ago, cassdad said:

I always thought the cover was to protect the pedal surface from being scratched or damaged during shipment / transport.  (Heck, I would not be happy if I paid for a new pedal, and it came all scratched up.).

I remove it once I know the pedal works, then scratch it in my own unique way as I use and transport it!

 

That was my assumption as well. Never occurred to me that it's about grip, as plastic isn't exactly the best for that.

 

Maybe it's to reduce the chance of static shock in dry weather? 🙂

[AUSSIEKEYS]

On my Kawai 9500 I thought they were meant to stay on but one always comes off. Its annoying

 

Its in storage now till we move so i cant investigate if they look temporary. 

 

Perhaps ill be happy to leave them off now knowing they may only be for shipping protection. I never considered that as a possibilty. They look too well manufactured to be temporary though?

[Joe Muscara]

I leave them on, but I tend to leave labels, tags, and the plastic on the screens on all the time if they don’t interfere with normal use. It drives my wife crazy. 🤪😁🙃

[Bill W]

Yeah, I've always left mine on too.

[Moonglow]

I use two sustain pedals in my rig, one for the lower keyboard, one for the upper. I keep the plastic cover on one of them, however, mine is black, not clear. I do this so I can consistently attach the same pedal to the same board (not that this functionally matters), but more so I can quickly look down and know which pedal is which. I probably don’t need to do this - one pedal is always on the right, the other to the left - but it has become sort of a comfort thing…plus I need all the help I can get these days!

[AWkeys]

It's all a money-laundering scheme by Big Plastic.

[Tom Williams]

I always take them off and keep them.

 

I figure that one of these days (I'm now in my mid-60s) I may need to construct a miniature weir -- a flat funnel if you like -- so that oil or water can go from one place to another with greater precision.  I take the pedal condoms off and put them in a little parts drawer.  That parts drawer is beside one with used wire nuts, another with caplugs left over from 12v batteries, and the little drawer with four precious strips of genuine ivory that fell off the keys of my first piano in the 1970s.