Future Vintage: Kieffa Practice Snare

 Almost from the beginning of my decision to focus on collecting and researching practice pads, one name kept popping up in my conversations with other drummers: Kieffa.

The Kieffa Practice Snare was apparently a special pad. It was in production for only a short time in the late 20-oughts to early 20-teens, and when production ceased, anyone who owned one of these pads clung to it like double-sided tape. Pad enthusiasts who'd had a chance to try one at trades hows but never bought one later regretted their decision. The company went out of business sometime between 2013 and 2014 (?); their URL is up for grabs and I can't find any info about the company's existence or Keith Pickens' whereabouts in the drum industry after 2014.

By the time I'd done some research about the design, the pad was long out production and had become some kind of holy grail among pad collectors.
So when I had an opportunity to try one myself, I jumped at the chance.

Kieffa Drums, LLC was founded by the inventor of the Kieffa pad,  Keith A. Pickens.
Here are the short descriptions of the pad and its adaptation for electronic amplification, from the US Patent office:

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Patents Assigned to Kieffa Drums, LLC:

    •    Hybrid electric/acoustic percussion instrument 

Patent number: 7179985 

Abstract: A hybrid electric/acoustic percussion instrument and percussion set containing the instrument. The instrument includes a hollow cylindrical shell having a first end and a second end and an inside cylindrical surface. A first substantially rigid plate having an outside surface and an inside surface is attached to at least the first end of the hollow cylindrical shell. A first resilient pad is attached to the outside surface of the first substantially rigid plate. An electroacoustic transducer is attached to the inside cylindrical surface of the hollow cylindrical shell. 

Type: Grant 

Filed: April 13, 2005 

Date of Patent: February 20, 2007 

Assignee: Kieffa Drums, LLC 

Inventor: Keith A Pickens 


    •    Acoustic practice percussion instrument and practice kit 

Patent number: 7429698 

Abstract: An acoustic percussion instrument and percussion set containing the instrument. The instrument includes a hollow cylindrical shell having a first end and a second end and an inside cylindrical surface. A first substantially rigid plate having an outside surface and an inside surface is attached adjacent to the first end of the hollow cylindrical shell. A first resilient pad, that provides a percussion surface that does not require periodic adjustment, is attached adjacent to the outside surface of the first substantially rigid plate. A raised rim circumscribes the first resilient pad. 

Type: Grant 

Filed: February 19, 2007 

Date of Patent: September 30, 2008 

Assignee: Kieffa Drums, LLC

Inventor: Keith A. Pickens 


And here is further explanation as to why Pickens felt there was a need for his invention:

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

Percussion instruments such as drums and cymbals have been made and used for many years to produce pleasing sounds. However, conventional drums require a stretched membrane attached to a hollow cylinder to produce rhythm sounds. The membrane may require periodic readjustment to provide the correct tones. Such drums are often rather large and cumbersome to transport.

Attempts have been made to increase the volume output of an acoustical drum without increasing the size of the drum by placing microphones adjacent to the drums. Microphone placement depends on a number of factors including room dimensions and the directional aspects of the microphone relative to the drum head. Accordingly, a user may have to readjust the microphone periodically for a particular location. Furthermore, only the vibratory sound of the drumhead is amplified by such microphone placement without much amplification of the resonant components of the sound. Placing the microphone inside a conventional drum provides amplification of a mixture of vibratory sounds that are not pleasingly acceptable to a hearing audience.

 

As electronics have become more sophisticated, synthesizers have been developed to simulate the sound of conventional percussion instruments such as drums and cymbals. However, such electronic percussion instruments require a computer and software to convert sounds produced by striking a surface into pleasing sounds similar to those obtained by conventional drums and cymbals. Typically, such synthesizers do not include acoustic components.

 

Despite advances made in the improvements in percussion instruments, there continues to be a need for simple, percussion instruments having realistic feel and acoustic sound and are adaptable for electronic amplification.

Diagrams provided with patent application:

 

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After reading through these patent applications and studying the diagrams, I think the design was intended for simplicity and ease of portability for practice drums at first; only later was there an idea that this might be useful in certain performance applications with suitable amplification.

From what I can gather, the electronic-capable pad was the first patent applied for; a second, all-acoustic version of the pad was patented later.

Since I'm no expert on electronics or amplification, I invite readers to share their expertise and further explain the function and purpose of these pads.

Here are photos and videos of the pad currently in my possession:

The gum rubber playing surface is embedded into a cylinder, with a rubberized "rim" around the edge. The gum rubber doesn't appear to be as densely filled in as, say a similar surface on an older HQ-Real Feel tan pad. If you look very closely you'll see tiny air bubbles all over the playing surface.

The cylinder is made of some kind of rigid material, which could be wood covered with plastic, or simply rigid plastic. Based on how heavy and dense the side feel my guess is the latter.

The underside of pad shows a metal panel with lots of small holes, similar to a speaker.

I was unable to figure out the purpose of this panel from my reading.

Later versions of this pad feature a wood paneled bottom with no grill, which I suspect is the later "acoustic" version of the pad.







The sides of the cylinder have four sound holes spaced equidistant all the way around.

Shining a small flashlight through a hole on the back side through to the hole nearest me on the front side revealed some kind of inner platform with threaded screw-ends protruding from the bottom. It's not clear if these are meant to receive wires from an amplifier or not; or if there's another part that's missing that was designed for that purpose.

Here are some videos of my exploration with the pad. One is taken outside to see how much volume I can get from the pad; the other two were shot the next day indoors in an effort to discern any differences in sound depending on where on the surface it's tapped, and whether or not the microphone on my camera can pick up any difference in tone. My ears may be fooling me (like many drummers I've lost some high-end over the years), but to my ear there may be a hint of a fake "snare" sound happening, which can only be heard at very close distances. It's possible this may be picked up more through amplification.

In the first video, I'm playing with lightweight rudimental sticks, Vater MV-20's. I don't think I would want to play this with anything heavier, as the weight of a full-on marching sticks does nothing to compliment the sound or feel of the pad.

In the second and third videos I'm using drum kit sticks, Vater West Side's which are similar to a 5B in feel. The smaller stick definitely allows for a little more nuance and gets a much better response from the gum rubber surface.

That said, I think this is definitely NOT a marching-specific pad, and would serve better as an addition to a drum kit and/or as an alternative drum voice in the studio.

Obviously, there's a lot more to this thing than meets the eye, or the ear. Sadly, I'm not at all set up to try it out electronically. I'm going to hang out some more with this pad; but without a way (or even a need, really) to explore the full electronic range of the design, it serves a limited purpose in my collection and at some point I may choose to re-home it. Still, it's a nice exploration into the world of what I would call a drum pad alternative.

UPDATE, 4-22-2021: I have sold this pad to a serious Kieffa enthusiast who has the wherewithal to explore it electronically. I have since acquired a slightly smaller acoustic model that weighs a lot less and feels great. I'll probably make it a permanent part of my collection.

Happy Drumming!