Pad Du Jour: repairing/restoring an old Aquarian Tru-Bounce

This pad is one of the more underrated -- and overpriced -- on the market. It's not bad, and has some possibilities for extended creativity.
Aquarian's 12" Tru-Bounce practice pad sells new for between $40 and $45, and comes with a pair of 5A nylon sticks and an exercise sheet. The sticks are, in my humble opinion, just this side of worthless; give them to your favorite toddler and walk away.
The pad is unassuming, a simple sheet of black rubber glued to a plank of wood that's been painted bright red. It looks like something that could be made at home.

If you find one used and cheap, snap it up and have some fun with it.

I scored this at my local thrift shop for five bucks. There was no non-skid material on bottom, and the top had been scored with some kind of knife. But it was still playable, so I bought it and took it home.

First, I restored a non-skid surface underneath by cutting a circle out of a large piece of very thin mousepad material (often found with cup-stacking games or by itself; get it used for pennies on the dollar and you'll ghave enough for several pad repair projects).

Then I glued that down to the underside of the pad (I used super-glue gel and did this outdoors to avoid breathing in off-gases), and stacked a bunch of other pads on top while it dried overnight.

The next day I had a very functional pad that's probably worth about... 8 or 9 bucks.

It plays fine. There's enough bounce for it to feel satisfying, but not so much that the sticks rebound wildly off the surface. A nice pad for a beginner.

If you want to get creative, find a laminate to attach to the top and you mught be surprised by how good it feels. A friend suggested I look for the clear plastic disc from the Movement Drum Co. pad, and he says it turns this ordinary pad into something amazing.

I actually did this with a piece of thin plastic notebook material on another pad and it was interesting, but not useful for my purposes. I gave that pad away to a kid who needed one for marching but couldn't afford anything fancy. He made do and is now marching in his college drumline. I'd like to think it was more a result of practicing than of the practice surface.

The truth is that many of today's modern drum pads are copies of each other on some level. After all, how many different ways can you mix up a rubber-nylon-neoprene compound and have it be something "new" and worthwhile? After awhile there's so much overlap between products that it can make your head spin while it's filling the world with More Stuff.

So these days I am more interested in finding and researching the historic pads that illustrate the development of the practice pad, than I am in comparing newer "modern" pads. The newer pads act like they're purpose-driven (particularly for the Marching Arts), when in reality most are simply copies of each other built around a marketing approach that's tied to getting more kids to buy practice pads.

..::ducks to avoid being pelted with rotten tomatoes::..

If you can choose between shopping and drumming, drum. You'll accomplish more and save money and time.
Happy chopping.