Keep drumming. No matter what.

Since retiring, I've found that drumming every morning has proved not only therapeutic, but soul-restoring as well.

After breakfast, I retire to my studio and begin playing on a pad (usually one of my vintage Ludwig tunable pads, which have the most wonderful feel and response of anything I own. I start gently, playing single strokes. I may do a little work from the first page of Stick Control (the book drummers love to hate, and also love). At first, I'm just warming up my hands and wrists, so I keep it simple and gentle. 
Once I've done that for a good five to ten minutes, I'll add diddles or flams, keep an even, slower tempo and focusing on -- well, nothing at all. This is drumming for my mind, and keeping things calm and easy is key. I'm not necessarily thinking about music at this point, just movement.

By the time everything feels warmed up, I've graduated to a favorite page from the old NARD Book, and I reach for my metronome. Again, I choose a slower tempo and focus on calm and breathing, and I read through one of these short solos that have become old favorites for me. I started learning some of these in middle school and they feel like hot soup on a cold day, comforting in their structure and order, and in the way they make my hands move.

By now I'm about 20-25 minutes in, and I select a newer drum piece -- a rudimental solo or a corps-style exercise -- and focus on that for a good ten to fifteen minutes, starting slow and not forcing anything. I may gradually increase tempo, or I may stay where I am. It depends on my mood and the temperature in the studio.

Finaly I go back to my meditative warm-up and use it as a cool-down, bringing me back to a gentle present moment. By the time an hour has passed, I'm relaxed, refreshed and ready to get on with my day.

Now that I'm not performing and preparing for a performance, drumming for its own sake has become a simply joy, and a lovely way to start each day in mindful calm.

Happy drumming.

Inflation has led to deflation: Used practice pads

I've researched and collected historic drum practice pads for a long time.
When I began my deep dive, almost no one else I knew was focused on historic drum pads, so that made it easy for me to find old pads at bargain prices. 
But by 2018 or 2019, things had begun to change, as more drum enthusiasts found vintage drums increasingly unaffordable and/or unattainable. Many of them turned their attention to other drum-related collectibles, including practice pads.

Before the Covid pandemic closed down the world, a brisk trade in vintage practice pads was on the rise. Alongside that, some of the big drum manufacturers were investing heavily in marching- specific designs and throwing a lot of marketing at younger drummers who were just coming into their own in the marching arts. 

During the pandemic, the practice pad market grew exponentially, and quickly. Those with an eye towards profit were punching above their weight with new models of marching-focused pads almost every season, while older drummers who had marched in the 1990s were now selling off their own vintage pads to turn a quick buck. 

If you've followed this story, you know that tan RealFeel pads made before D'Addario acquired HQ began fetching prices in the triple digits, Xymox was running the table for a little while and half a dozen other companies were trying to catch up. It was exciting for maybe a decade at most, and then the wheels gradually began to fall off. Xymox had horrible supply issues and atrocious customer service; Drumslinger learned that a one-man shop could never keep up with the likes of Vic Firth and Evans; and Prologix basically sold its soul. Whenever I pointed out the excesses of the practice pad industry, I would get shouted down by guys who worked for those comp[anies or who had helped design some of their most-hyped models.  

The shop bosses don't like canaries in their coal mines. They serve a useful function for the minders, but they also eat away at profits by slowing down production.

Now, in late 2025, the bottom has begun to fall out of the used practice pad market as so many enthusiasts who bought up piles of cool pads woke up and realized that (a) they weren't marching anymore, (b) they had bills to pay and (c) the pads they'd paid an arm and a leg for were now worth less than a quarter of their original value. 

Suddenly, the market was glutted with more pads than drummers and prices fell like 1920s wheat prices. (Millennials, look it up.)

Today, you can find an old tan RealFeel pad for under $100 and sometimes for less than $50 on Facebook Marketplace. HUN's M-12 pad (which was rebranded for RCP as their Active Snare pad) is now selling used for less than $25 used. Evans gray pads, which were never my favorite but which are ubiquitous, are selling for as little as $5.

The only pads which seem to have retained some value are those whose supply was controlled their makers: Evans red Barney Beats pads still fetch a high price due to artificial scarcity caused by Evans decision to make it a limited run. Beetle pads are made in small batches, one at a time, using sustainable practices that would never work for a large-scale manufacturer and those pads still demand competitive prices even in used condition.

While the practice pad market was beginning to capsize, I had turned my attention to making my own pads from scrap and repurposed materials. I was also recovering from two years of Long Covid, and didn't have the money or the energy to keep collecting in the same manner as before. My priorities began to shift. I focused on a handful of older, vintage pads that continued to have lower demand among the younger pad crowd, and for which there was a lot of documentation I could research. But my pad acquisitions really began to fall in 2024.

More recently, I decided to downsize my holdings in general after being approved for Disability. Knowing that I would not get a great return on my investment, especially for the marching-focused pads I still owned, I began to sell these, mostly at a discount. (In some cases I donated them to students so the pads could still see use. I am very happy that somewhere, there are schoolkids practicing on one of my pads.)

My collection at its peak numbered close to 200 pads of all kinds. That was in early 2023. Since making the conscious choice to pare down, I'm now at around fifty pads. I have plans to sell a few more of these and get down to the pads I enjoy chopping on the most, plus a couple of really rare, old pads that I find beautiful and historically interesting.

I had a lot of fun researching and find historic pads. But as I've begun to come out of serious illness and am adjusting to life in retirement, my priorities have shifted. By making more space in my material life I'm being open to whatever comes next. 

So if you're looking for a good drum practice pad, this is a very good time to shop online and at yard sales. I'll post some of my pads soon at the Drum Pad History Group on Facebook, and donate whatever I can't sell to a school. 

I haven't give up on drumming! I still chop a little every day and get a great deal of pleasure from doing so. I'm just getting more focused about what I chop on and why.

Happy drumming.

(Photo: George Stone practice pad, 1920. Back when a practice pad was just a horizontal surface that kept the neighbors off your back, and nothing more.)

 

The beginning of the end of big-name practice pads? I’m sort of ready for that.

I am winding down my practice pad collection, probably for good.

I’ve been pondering this step for a long time. I’ve made a few halfhearted tries in the last few years. But something has changed, in me and in the world around me, and I find myself in a new place that I am finally beginning to recognize.

The fact is that I’m preparing to enter a new phase of my life, one which likely does not involve teaching or drumming professionally and one which may not even involve much drumming in public for the foreseeable future.

Since the pandemic and its related events turned my life upside-down, I’ve been floundering. Getting far enough past Long Covid simply to function like a person again took over two years, and residual issues have lingered long enough to force me into medical retirement.

I’ve struggled to find my bearings since I began to improve; not knowing where or how to be useful, not able to promise a regular schedule or a regular level of energy while I’ve dealt with various medical issues, and feeling really lost.

Last week, a local All-Age drum corps invited me to join them in the pit playing mallet percussion. Playing in a drum corps pit would require me to manage not just playing mallet instruments, but also moving them and loading them on and off trucks at performances. Add in the fact that the corps is based in Milwaukie, and I’m transit-dependent, and it would be an unworkable situation that I could not guarantee a meaningful commitment to. There was a time I might have leapt at the chance, but that time has passed. I thanked them for the invitation and politely declined.

While I am getting stronger and more functional, there are definitely limits to my functionality and my energy level that signal it’s time for me to consider other possibilities. I can still play rudimentally, but marching and performing are just not happening at this time. And without the incentive of rehearsing I admit my interest in drumming has flagged a little.

Which brings me to my other line of thinking, especially about practice pads and my interest in them.

I have a feeling that the practice pad tidal wave is beginning to fall. Too many similar designs of higher-end pads have flooded the market since the beginning of the pandemic, and not enough people or communities have rebounded financially since Covid began to recede. Add to that the struggle of so many school groups just to stay afloat, let alone field a marching band. Even if Drumpf and Co. DO get shown the door, there’s too much damage done to repair anything in a lot of what’s left in my lifetime. It’s sad. I try not to dwell on it too much.

So I am beginning to sell off as many of my pads as I can. I hope to reduce the number down to perhaps a dozen or so pads that I use and enjoy regularly. I’ll offer them at decent prices, and whatever I can’t sell I might donate to a youth group.

I’d hang onto them, but I’ve encountered a lot of apathy in my attempts to spark interest in Rudimental drumming locally. Portland just leans way too far to the hard left on so many issues, for there to be much purchase beyond well-funded suburban schools.

At the end of the day, it’s just a practice pad. And maybe someday it will be just that, and no more, again. More and more, I think that would probably be a good thing.

Pad Rescue: Vic Firth basic pad, much improved

Early last month, I scored a bundle of old practice pads and mutes. Among them was the baseplate of a Vic Firth student pad. This pad is still being sold by Vic Firth and it basically sucks. The grey side is softer rubber with a muddy rebound that is unsatisfying. The black side is much harder and equally disappointing to play on. The baseplate is MDF with a heavy coat of black textured paint. The rubber pieces are applied with thick double-sided tape. It’s a perfectly horrid practice pad, and most of them wind up for sale on eBay or elsewhere after they’ve been used and abandoned.

What came to me was the baseplate with the black rubber still attached. It was pointless and sad, so I pulled it off.

Then I removed as much of the two-sided tape as I could. The shiny stuff under the black rubber was easier to remove; the tape on the other side had been exposed for so,e time and was gross and sticky, but I got an awful lot of it off.

Then I looked around for something to glue on in its place. What surfaced was a 1/4” thick round of hard rubber with a surprisingly pleasant, sharp rebound. Certainly an improvement over what had been there before. I took it out to the shed, propped open the door, donned gloves and safety glasses, and opened a new bottle of superglue. 

I roughed up the opposing sides, carefully applied the glue, laid on the rubber round and held it in place long enough to stick. Then I took a drumstick and used at as a rolling pin to roll out any gaps or air bubbles. After I wiped away the excess, I weighted it down and let it dry overnight.

The next day, I tried it out. It was hard, but with a nice rebound. Still, it felt like something was missing.

So I looked around my stash and found an old drum head with a slice near the edge. I traced a circle around the undamaged portion, cut it out and took it out to the shed, where I glued it on,top of the rubber round. After rolling a drum stick over it and wiping away the excess, I weighted it down and left it overnight. It wasn’t my most careful work and there were a few little splotches of glue left.

But when I took it out to chop on it, I was happy with w the result.

Adding a laminate added a snap to the feel and tone that, in spite of my general bias against laminates, was actually nice to chop on.

I glued a round of yoga mat material and glued it on the bottom as a nonskid surface. Perfect.

As MDF baseplates go, this one isn’t bad. The heavy coat of textured paint helps solidify it.

I’m happy with how this turned out. It has applications for modern marching drummers, and possibly for pipe band drummers too. And honestly, from what I’ve seen in the last few years, Vic Firth couldn’t bring out anything even this nice.

Full Review: Loyal Drumsticks, M1 and Mason models

Loyal Drums, long known for fine rope drums hand crafted in the USA, has recently released two models of drumsticks in hickory. I took delivery on one pair of each model and hung out with them here at home.

The Brendan Mason signature model was designed in collaboration with Brendan Mason, a champion rudimental drummer, arranger and instructor in the ancient/rope style. It’s a big, bold stick that’s ideal for rope drumming. In fact, small hands may struggle to maintain proper control of these sticks. My hands, although larger for a woman, found it difficult to play with these for more than ten minutes after a good warmup.the tips are somewhat pedestaled, though not sharply, and I’d consider the taper to be moderate. They’re well balanced, and even at the relatively light weight of 84 grams they have an authoritative feel. Because of my arthritis and smaller hands, I may reserve these for “good” days as a slow warmup stick.

The M1 model has the same butt diameter and a moderate taper that narrows just a little more than the Mason model, with slightly larger tips. My pair weighed in at 82 grams and I found these easier and more comfortable to play for a longer period after warmup. They’re also well-balanced, and are recommended by Loyal as an ideal rudimental stick that’s especially good for those who use the Moeller technique of playing. With a proper warmup, I find these sticks comfortable for regular practice.

Both models are made from hickory. The finish is good, though not quite as fine as that found on, say, Cooperman hickory sticks. The grain is straight and the sticks are matched and packaged in pairs.

The sticks can be ordered in a range of gram weights from the high 70s/low 80s up into the upper 90s (per stick).

Photos and videos below.

Photos showing the grain, and a chunk of wood knocked out of the butt end of one of the sticks (perhaps during shipping?).

Here are a couple of videos demonstrating first the Brendan Mason, and then the M1 sticks.

Loyal hickory sticks retail for $38 a pair plus postage and can be ordered from the Loyal web site.

Spolier Alert? PadParts.com coming soon

Bradley Lomax, the brains and brawn behind Beetle Percussion, is launching a new enterprise called PadParts. After years of  talking with folks who make their own practice pads, or who would like to, Bradley is preparing to set up a supply house that will make various parts of a practice pad -- baseplates in solid wood and MDF, various playing surfaces from recycled tire and gum rubber, in different thicknesses and more -- available for purchase so anyone can make their own practice pads at home.

[Disclaimer: I'm one of the folks he's been having conversations with, because as regular readers here know I've made a ton of practice pads at home. I am not being paid to endorse the site or any of its products, but now that it's happening I can talk about it.]

The actual web site isn't live yet, but here are some sneak peeks from the Instagram page.

As you can see, multiple options will abound for anyone wanting to make their own practice pad. Included at the upcoming site will be suggestions for adapting these designs to include materials you may already have on hand.

Obviously, there is not a little controversy around this project, at least where mass producers of commercial practice pads are concerned. After all, why pay a hundred bucks for one of their pads when you can make something very similar in form and function yourself for a fraction of that?

Any large-scale commercial pad maker may cry foul if they feel like their designs are copied too closely; but in a time when the whole concept of design and intellectual property is being challenged legally and technologically every day, I think that ship has sailed.

Even as I type, someone on eBay is selling the top rubber part of an old Cappella practice pad with the wry tag, "IYKYK" in the listing title. I think they're asking too much money, but whatever.

And if you're feeling really inspired, there's also a listing for a homemade pad that is shaped exactly like the Capella, so if you really want to get wacky, you can buy both items and glue the Cappella rubber to the underside of the complete pad.

Make a statement. Go crazy.

An added benefit of making your own pads is that you can learn a lot more about what works and what doesn't, using your own experience to inform your choice of materials and construction; and I think you might be more likely to use a pad you've successfully made yourself.

Since Beetle Percussion began as a way to make drum practice products more sustainably, I feel this falls in line with their existing modus operandi.

Personally, I hope it's a successful venture. I think the whole world of mass-produced practice pads -- especially marching-specific pads -- has gotten overhyped, overpriced and way out of hand. In a time when climate change from increased industrial output has become, as the kids say, a thing and consumerism is out of control, I think a return to homemade pads is a good thing. I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in that opinion.

Happy chopping.

Drumming is good for you. Here’s proof.

During the Covid pandemic, I lived with roughly 3 years of forced inactivity, brought on mostly by the onset of Long Covid and the time I spent too weak to do anything after I developed it. That resulted in high blood pressure, increased depression and other issues. It took time to sort all the pieces, and longer still to figure out how to begin recovery, especially because trying to do too much too fast could be dangerous for my heart and lungs.

Now that I’m past the worst of it, I’ve begun moving again. Not a lot, and not all day every day, but enough that I’m beginning to see a difference in how I feel. I’m sleeping better most nights, and my blood pressure seems to be falling a bit. Arthritis is still an issue, and so is my gut; but I can walk mostly in a straight line now, and I have fewer moments of dizziness.

Today I went outside and played. Demonstration below, followed by a full circle round the block at something like 100-110 bpm. It felt okay.

The plate that holds the practice pad is made of metal, and it’s heavy. Still, even with a pad sitting on in it’s lighter than a drum, and my back is getting used to the weight. At some point, perhaps in a few weeks, I might try carrying a drum with a sling and leg rest and see how it feels. 

Of course, at some point it will get too cold and wet to do this outside every day, but that’s eight to twelve weeks off at least.

I’ll still want to fiddle with the carrier a bit, but it’s reasonably dialed in for my purposes for the time being.

Future Vintage? Hot Sticks “Bully” marching sticks, circa 1980-84

Once upon a time, there was a company called Hot Sticks. Founded in Mississippi in 1979, their painted drum sticks made a splash among younger drummers through the early 1990s. Then business fell off, and the company closed for awhile in 2018. They resurfaced in 2022, and now offer painted and imprinted drum sticks, pens and baseball bats.

I remember these showing up in my high school band room around my junior year. A couple of freshman drummers had bought them at our local music store. They were purple and red and they didn’t really impress me. By then, though, I’d been introduced to much better sticks and I guess that made me something of a drum snob. To be fair, no one in my college or professional ensembles used them, so I felt somewhat vindicated. 

I was never able to determine if the company ever made its own drum sticks. I suspect that they probably did not. It was too easy, even back then, to job out the drum sticks from another maker and paint and imprint them in-house.

For a few years Hot Sticks followed the new marching percussion craze and tried to make their entry into the market with the Bully sticks. They were painted white (to avoid having to tape them) and were meant to compete with Promark and other companies.

The sticks were not anything special, even for the time. CB700, Fibes and other companies also had their sticks made elsewhere and branded accordingly. But based on what I could research, the Billy sticks we only offered for a few years, and then quietly discontinued before 1990. Since most marching sticks were destroyed through use, surviving pairs are harder to find.

So I scored these on eBay. They’re in good shape, though they’re certainly not pitch-matched. (Almost no mass-produced sticks were back then.) They’re a great example of how a company used appearances to sell a sub-optimal product, and for that alone they make a nice addition to my collection of vintage marching sticks.

Vintage Corner: my oldest sticks

I’m more into pads than sticks, but I do have a number of really cool sets in my collection.

Here are the two oldest sets I own:

1. Ludwig & Ludwig 5S, early 1920s. These came in a large pile of various used sticks, and they weren’t even why I bought the lot, but they turned out to be the nicest find. The 5S size was made by Ludwig up through perhaps 1923 or 24. By 1927, the stick shape still appeared in the catalog but the number and other markings had been whited out in the illustration, which likely means the size had been discontinued by then. I found documentation in a 1922 catalog.

The stick shape is very stout until you get to the end of the taper, and then it narrows down considerably before ending in a sizable tip. The 5S size was likely a “junior” sized marching stick for smaller, younger hands.

The sticks are hickory and are not cracked (amazing for sticks this old), and they feel quite nice. I only use them very occasionally on my Ludwig tunable pad and nowhere else. 

2. George Stone ”Master” model #11 sticks, circa 1925. These were made by George Lawrence Stone’s workshop, and are even rarer than the Ludwig sticks. George Lawrence Stone (who wrote the seminal “Stick Control,” which is still in print today and still used by millions of drum students) inherited the workshop from his father, George B. Stone, and continued to make sticks and drums through the mid 1930s. By 1938, the workshop was closed down due to flagging sales, and to divert more resources to the drum school, which was quite successful at the time. Thanks to Ting at King Louie Music, I was able to confirm that these sticks appeared in Stone’s 1925 catalog. They’re unusual, very old and very rare. They’re also in good used condition for their age, with no cracks or gouges, and they’re also hickory. I’m told that the odd taper was not uncommon for sticks of this era. These were designed for concert band use.

Again, because these are so rare, they’ll mostly hang on my wall display rack and I will only bring them down on extremely rare occasions to tap on my old Ludwig pad.

As I said earlier, vintage pads have long been more my thing than sticks. Pads are still easier to find, even with the increased hype of the last few years, and they tend to last a lot longer than sticks, which were made to be used, broken and replaced often. Still, when the opportunity arises, I won’t turn down a pair of cool, old sticks.

Happy drumming.

Pad carrier, redux

During the pandemic, I cobbled together a practice pad carrier, and used it to help with my lockdown boredom. I didn’t know that I’d gotten Long Covid at the time, and I ended up only being able to use it for a few months before becoming too ill to walk in a straight line.

I ended up selling the carrier with a marching drum, and the scrap wood for the platform eventually ended up being broken down and used for other projects.

But I missed having it. So when someone listed a pad platform for sale in Marketplace, I kept an eye on it. A year later, he still hadn’t sold it, and was now offering it for free. I arranged to pick it up from him on my way to the Hillsboro drum corps show, then scored a cheap carrier that I adapted. Now that I’m recovering from the worst of the LC symptoms, I’m ready to get back to chopping and walking at the same time as part of my physical therapy.

It’s not the most comfortable carrier, but for a total cost of ten bucks for both it’s more than adequate.

Tama True Touch snare drum practice pad

I scored this at a thrift store. They didn’t know what they had, and I paid far less than retail for it.

The original Tama True Touch snare drum practice pad comes with a fine mesh head and a quiet snare sound cartridge that is sealed inside a chamber. It can’t really be removed or adjusted. As it comes out of the box, it has a distinct feel and sound.

When this pad came out several years ago, I felt it was slightly overpriced for its design. I mentally filed it away and mostly forgot about it.

Then, Rick Dior tossed up a video on YouTube in which he took apart the True Touch pad and reassembled it using thicker inner foam and a regular Mylar head, and the difference was noticeable.

So when I found this for sale, I decided to buy it and see if I could make the same modifications and get a better pad out of it.

I couldn’t take this pad apart before buying it, but at a price of less than a quarter of new I figured it was worth the cost of the experiment — especially since it already came with a Mylar replacement head.

I took it home and took it apart. The foam insert was missing, and in its place the previous owner had put a folded black washcloth, which barely muted the pad at all. So I cut out two pieces of material, one from a yoga mat and the other from a thicker, firmer ensolite camping pad, stacked them on top of each other, replaced the head and reassembled it.

Interestingly, the snare sound was barely perceptible when I tested the pad before my modifications, and disappeared almost entirely when I reassembled the pad. But the feel was greatly improved, and I don’t miss the snare sound at all.

I’m not entirely thrilled with the tone of the pad, and I suspect that may have something to do with the head. I will likely swap in a Remo Ambassador had and see how things improve. I’ll probably experiment with a couple of different inserts too, before settling on a combination that makes me happy.

The pad is heavy, owing in large part to its metal and rubber construction. There’s no discernible difference on the platform or on a drum stand, and that may also be due to the weight. I like it and will hang out with it awhile.

The ages of Sabian Quiet Tone pads, revisited

The original Quiet Tone pads were made in New Jersey and were popular among concert and jazz drummers and studio teachers. Those original Quiet Tone pads are very hard to find, and insanely hard to find in still-playable condition. 

In the 1990s, Sabian bought the rights to make and sell the design and moved manufacturing to their Canadian cymbal plant. These Canadian-made Quiet Tone pads retained the white rubber feet and a very similar base compound to the originals. They were quite nice, a little sturdier than the originals with a great feel.

In the later 2010s, Sabian outsourced the manufacture of the Quiet Tone pads to Taiwan and eventually to China. Adding black mesh models to the line required Sabian to designate the white-headed, solid pads as “Classic.” The Asian-made Quiet Tone pads are, in a word, junk. The base compound was changed to save costs and the fat white rubber feet became smaller black rubber feet.

Generally, speaking, there are two ways to discern between the early and current Sabian Quiet Tone pads.

First, look at the label on the underside. 

The earlier versions of this pad will indicate a Canadian address and a model number ending in either TT (for “Tom Tom,”) or SD (for “snare drum”). The older “TT” pads were available in sizes t 12”, 13” and 16”. The “SD” pads came in 10” and 14” sizes. I believe this wider size range had once been available before the pad design was bought by Sabian; it’s highly possible that Sabian simply changed the labels and continued to sell off those older sizes until they were gone, but I can’t be certain.

The newest Asian-made Sabian Quiet Tone pads have added the letters “CL” (for “classic”) to the end of the model number, and only the 10” and 14” size are available.

The other distinct feature is that, on the earlier Sabian pads, the Quite Tone logo was designed with the words, “by Sabian” added to the right and outside of the logo. The Asian-made pads incorporated an even smaller Sabian logo just below the Quiet Tone logo. And of course, older pads should have larger, white rubber feet.

Below: a full set of early Sabian Quiet Tone pads in the full size range, and the bottom of a 12” pad showing the old label and white rubber feet.

A newer Sabian pad with the newer logo and black rubber feet. Also note the difference in the shape and width of the metal struts. They’re slightly thinner on the newer pads and may be more prone to bending out of shape if dropped or knocked about.

To find the earlier Sabian Quiet Tone pads you’ll likely have to look for used models online. The new, Asian-made pads are available in music stores and are, in my opinion, overpriced for what they’ve devolved into.

If you end up with a newer Sabian Quiet Tone, you can experiment with adding a thin layer of mousepad material under the head to see if it improves the feel and tone at all. I can’t guarantee the results.

Here’s my early Sabian Quiet Tone in the 10” size. It feels and sounds lovely, especially with concert sticks.

I continue to search for the earlier Sabian Quiet Tone pads in other sizes, especially in 12”.

Happy drumming!

Full Review: Aquarian Balance Pad - now you see it, now you don’t

Someone posted photos of this pad on the Drum Practice Pad History group on FB, and I was intrigued. 

I had a couple of pre-2020 Aquarian Super pads and liked them. I tried a couple of their Super Pads after a redesign that had been brought about by pandemic supply issues, and didn’t like those at all.

I was hesitant to consider buying one of these, until I read that the pad was not being brought to the retail market and that Aquarian was selling off the limited number left in their warehouse. So I went to their web site, saw that they still had a “limited” number available at a discounted price, and ordered one. It arrived in just a few days.

It’s made with an eleven-inch baseplate of MDF that’s been finished with smooth, rounded edges and sealed with a clear coat. If a company insists on using MDF for their pads then I think they should seal the MDF like this, it adds durability and a cleaner, more polished look than bare MDF does.

One one side, there are two layers of very fine, close-cell foam; the layer next to the base is a bit firmer than the layer that lies at the surface, and the surface is finished with a semi-gloss appearance. The very thin layer between the two foam layers is difficult to identify, but doesn’t seem to add much substance to that side of the pad. There is a center dot which appears to be a decal, made of black woven material similar to the white woven material on the pre-2020 version of the Super Pad. This softer side is for warming up and working on hand and wrist muscles. The center spot offers slightly more volume than the rubber around it. and both surfaces are quiet. 

The other side is made from two thinner layers of fine, closed-cell foam and the line between those layers is even harder to see, but it’s there. This side is then covered with a thin, soft plastic and topped with the same material found on the playing surface of the post-2020 Super Pad. It makes for a firmer and louder surface, and is more ideal for working out technical material.

I think putting the Aquarian foam layers on top of a thick MDF layer helps to give the pad more stability and a better response. (Aquarian Super Pads used a thin layer of MDF entirely encase in foam rubber, which may have inspired their thinking in this design.)

NOTE: this pad offers the best response and feel with concert or jazz sticks. I wouldn’t use heavy marching sticks on it at all.

The pad originally retailed for $89.00 plus postage. I bought mine at a discount for $59.00 plus postage. At the time, the web store indicated that there we a “limited” number of pads left. When I checked just now, the item had disappeared from their web site, meaning they are now sold out. 

I’m glad I managed to obtain one at the discounted price. With other “warmup” pads already on the market (Revolution, Meinl’s Marshmallow pad, Zildjian/Reflexx and others — none of which I liked as much as this), I wouldn’t have paid ninety bucks for this. However, I do like this pad better than those others I’ve mentioned because the firmer side offers more definition, and because the MDF has been sealed with a clearcoat. 

I’d be curious to learn why Aquarian chose to bring this pad out for a short test period and then not bring it to market. 

Curiously, the Super Pads are not currently listed at all at Aquarian’s web site, which makes me wonder if those might be discontinued as well.

Aquarian practice pad NewsFlash: Limited Edition

Aquarian Drum company, known for a wide variety of drum heads and a series of practice pads called Super Pads, tried to make something different called the Balance Pad.

For reasons I can't identify, they tested it at a few trade shows and ultimately decided not to move forward with the project.

There are a handful -- and I mean a handful -- of Balance Pads available in their online store, discounted to sell and labeled as a "limited edition" item. When they're gone, they're gone.

I was a big fan of their Super Pads before they did a redesign during the Covid pandemic, and I'm happy to own a couple of pre-2020 models. During the pandemic, owing largely to supply issues, they redesigned the pad and made it, well, worse. Not worth my money or time now.

Knowing that this might be an opportunity to snag an oddity, I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I bought a Balance Pad before they disappeared.

I've also copied and pasted their photos and their ad copy about the design and purpose of the pad below, in case they pull the web page when they run out.

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• The Limited Edition "Perfect Practice" Balance Pad by Aquarian Drumheads is a versatile, two-sided, three-zone practice pad designed for stand-alone use. This innovative practice tool simulates the feel of both "Tight Tuning" and "Loose Tuning" on drums, providing the right amount of rebound for effective workout sessions.

  The Perfect Practice Balance Pad features the same core playing surface found in the renowned Aquarian Super Pad line of practice tools.

  "Side One" mimics the tight tension of a snare drum head, making it ideal for buzz strokes and precise rudimental sticking. In contrast, "Side Two" offers two distinct zones that replicate the looser tuning of tom-toms, providing a greater challenge for building hand endurance and strength.

  In addition to varying feels, the two sides combine to create three distinct tones and volume responses .

  The Perfect Practice Balance Pad enhances your practice experience and makes your workout routines more enjoyable and versatile.

  This model is very limited in availability.

• Two sided, multi-zone practice surface
• Tight and Loose Tuning Response
• Create effective workout  routines with 3 different rebound Zones.

*******

I'll do a full review when it arrives.

Vintage Corner: That time when Remo made a rubber practice pad

Remo, known for Mylar drum heads and tunable practice pads, broke from their own tradition for a brief time in 1963-65 with a practice pad made of white rubber affixed to Masonite. Remo made this pad in a couple different sizes: this larger one (7.5” base, 5” rubber surface), and a smaller one (5.5” base, 4” rubber surface). I’d seen the smaller size a few years ago and was told it came from a trade show. Then I acquired this larger version. The rubber is still bouncy, but firm.

Not sure how many they made, but it can’t have been too many; it only appears in the bigger drum catalogs for a couple of years.

Vintage Corner: mid-1950s WFL Keystone pad

This was a lucky score from the nice guys at Drugan’s Drums.

From 1937 to 1955, the Ludwig Drum Company was owned by Conn Music, which also owned the Leedy Drum Company. During this time, William Ludwig was not allowed to use his own name, so he founded a new company called WFL (for his initials). Conn eventually realized it made no sense to manage two drum companies, so from 1948-54 they merged the two and called the restructured company Leedy & Ludwig. This venture was short-lived, though some very nice drum sticks came out of it and are desired by collectors today.

In 1955, Conn sold off Leedy & Ludwig (with all the Ludwig dies and parts going to to William Ludwig, Sr. and the Leedy dies and parts going to HB Slingerland), meaning that William Ludwig could once again make and sell drums using his name.

Through 1958 or 59, Ludwig included WFL branding in its catalogs. They did this to reduce consumer confusion, reassure retailers and sell off any remaining WFL stock in their warehouse.
By 1960, the WFL brand had disappeared from the catalog.

This is a somewhat rare pad from that transitional period. Called the "Light Duty" pad, it featured dark-stained wood and the a keystone-shaped rubber surface nailed on top. Metal hardware was attached underneath for mounting the pad to a stand. Based on the darker staining of the wood (a feature found in some older WFL pads but not in the Ludwig pads that followed) and the font on the decal, my best guess is that this pad was made between 1955 and 1957. In the 1960 catalog it was replaced by a new version of the "Light Duty" pad, a double-platform model painted red and white. In the mid 1960's another version of this pad (with a double platform) featuring clear-coated oak came out, which appeared in catalogs through the 1970s. All three pads bear the red keystone rubber surface. (I've seen a red and white pad in this style that used a leather-rubber composite, but I don't know if that was a one-off. I'd love to try it out.) Thanks to the folks at DrumArchive, I was able to arrive at my best guesses. If you haven't checked out that site, do so! It's a treasure trove of catalog reprints from dozens of drum companies dating back to the 1920s and makes for fascinating reading.

The rubber is still bouncy and has a great feel.