I know, I can sometimes be like a harpy screaming into the wind on this stuff, but if it didn't matter I wouldn't make such a fuss.
Drummer buys the newest version of the Carlos Botello signature pad, made in China and branded for Salyers Percussion (who, if you remember, doesn't actually make any of their own products).
Takes delivery, opens box and discovers that the pad has been wrecked already.
He's paid almost $100 for the pad including postage, and is understandably annoyed.
He shares his experience on social media and in less than a day, the owner of the company jumps on and promises he'll make it right.
Suddenly, other drummers are hopping on, singing the company's praises and talking about what a standup guy the owner is.
But this business model actually encourages consumers to not look behind the curtain, to not ask how the sausage is made. And this is why it's such an insidious thing.
The pads are made in China now, probably by Hanflag, which makes pads and other drum products for more companies than I care to list here. They are made in the thousands and shipped to music stores around the world, starting in the USA because that's where the real madness about marching-forward pads first took off and remains huge.
Because they are now mass-produced in such great quantities, it's no big deal from a consumer standpoint if a pad arrives damaged. Simply call the company, send photos and ask for a replacement. When the pad is made in such large quantities, there's no need to send the actual pad back, and that's probably the case here. It's a simple matter to replace it by pulling another off the stack in the warehouse. Customer gets replacement pad, which is probably okay, and he's happy. He and his buddies will continue to laud the company, boosting their image and their sales.
Fine. But what happens to the damaged pad?
That's probably up to the consumer.
If he's handy, he could remove the rest of the damaged soft rubber rim and even replace the silicon surface with something else, and keep or give away the repaired pad to a kid who's short on funds.
That's certainly what I'd do.
But very often, the truth is that nothing happens to that original practice pad. If the buyer is asked to bring it back to the retailer, the retailer will make some notes, arrange for a refund from the company, and very likely toss the pad in the dumpster.
Do you see where this is going?
Salyers and their ilk don't care.
They don't have to care, because they are having their pad mass-produced as fast as possible so they can sell them hard to as many drummers as possible.
But go wide-angle with me for a moment.
The marching arts activity is popular with high school and college-aged young people. But it's not exactly growing exponentially right now. School budgets have been slashed, music teachers have been laid off and music classes have been cut from the curriculum in nearly every state in the country. Overseas, the marching arts are very popular now in places like Japan, China and the Phillippines. But they are generally making their own drums and accessories. School bands exist in Africa too. But in places that have seen a lot of political and material disruption, kids are practicing on homemade pads, or simply on blocks of wood. They're not laying out a hundred bucks for a high-zoot pad from the US.
Add to that the disruption to the marching arts movement here in the US, with DCI trying desperately to reboot a shrinking and increasingly expensive summertime activity, families struggling to keep up (or quitting because they can't afford to send their kids back), high schools throughout the country resorting to marching in old uniforms and using old instruments because that's what they can afford to do.
What you see on YouTube and TV, and in wealthy suburbs with a solid tax base, are the cream of the crop, and make up a very small segment of what's really happening in school band programs across the country.
So at what point does it no longer make sense to mass-produce practice pads that will fall apart because they were cheaply made to begin with?
The whole thing has gotten really, silly, and really sad.
And that is why I lost interest in most modern, marching-forward pads. They don't represent reality, and they actively discourage the more mature thinking that is required of people living on a rapidly heating planet.
Eighty years ago, our grandparents who drummed practiced on wood blocks with a hunk of rubber glued on top. They focused on technique and chops. They got good.
Sixty years ago, Remo Belli made a practice pad with a Mylar head that felt a lot more like a real drum. It's what I and many other drummers of my generation learned on. By today's standards it's considered junk, but in reality it was such a good pad that Remo is still manufacturing them -- and their replacement heads -- today.
Thirty-five years ago, fancier rubber-on-wood and rubber-on-fiberboard pads entered the market. THe earliest models were not much different than their WWII forebears, except that they were the size of a drum head so you could practice zones. Zones had become a thing for marching snare drummers. Those pads weren't horribly expensive when they first came out. But as DCI drum lines grew more visible and more famous, suddenly more young drummers wanted to use the same pads those drum lines used, and the beginning of the marching-forward pad market was born.
Today it's out of control in many ways and for many reasons. You can read why in my earlier posts.
I've been selling off most of my modern marching pads. Unless they were craft made in the US, I've mostly lost interest in them. And although I may be shooting myself in the foot here, I secretly hope that there will be a great shaking out of companies selling Chinese-made pads while discouraging consumers not to look behind the curtain. We now live in an age where we can't afford to perpetuate so much willful ignorance without sacrificing our environmental and human future.
Stop worrying about whether your pad is "cool" or not. If you need a practice pad, buy it used or make your own.
Just drum on something. Make noise. Make rhythm.
Make music.
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