Collecting: fish grow to the size of their tank.

I wasn’t immediately convinced that drum keys would open a new area of drum interest for me.

A lot of what I saw online included keys that were mass-produced as intentional souvenirs, mostly honoring musicians I didn’t know about and wasn’t especially inspired to listen to.

But when I scored a vintage WFL drum key in a junk pile at my local thrift store, I got interested. Now, I look mostly for vintage drum keys, plus anything unusual that catches my eye.

I started with an old cigar box I paid a buck for at Goodwill. One of the hinges needed repair, and the latch needed to be replaced, and tiny handles installed on the ends made it easier to lift when containing keys. I thought it would keep me awhile.

Five months later, I ran out of room, largely due to an unexpected windfall of old keys. So off I went to the thrift shops again, in search of a larger box. I found a nice old wine presentation box for a dollar, along with some leftover drawer handles (50 cents) that I installed on the ends.

To reduce rattling, both boxes are lined with thin mousepad material. I’m not in a rush to fill them both up, but I’m glad for the additional space.

If the drum key thing keeps catching my imagination, my next step will be to replace these two boxes with a small, multi-tiered sewing box with drawers. I’m hoping I don’t have to go there for quite awhile.

Verisonic sticks UPDATE

Before anyone tries to order from the Verisonic website, be advised that both Firefox and Safari indicate that this is NOT a secure website from which to order online.

I have reached out to the email address provided on their "History" page and will hope for a timely and helpful response.

Future Vintage: Verisonic aluminum drum sticks

When I was in middle school, I couldn’t afford many sticks of my own. I had a couple pairs of 5A for most concert work, 2B for practice (mostly on a pad, at home), and by eighth grade I’d added a pair of wire brushes. By high school I’d added a pair of 3S marching sticks and a pair of general timpani mallets. I carried them all in a stick bag I’d sewn myself from an old pair of jeans.

My classmates mostly had a bit more spending money than me. In their store-bought stick bags I’d see a full compliment of concert, jazz and marching sticks. (Almost none of them had brushes except the section leader, a senior who played really well.)

A couple had sticks made of aluminum and plastic, which they used in concert band until the band director asked them to switch to wooden sticks. I tried a pair a couple of times and found them to ht for my liking. Plus, you couldn’t really play rimshots with them because if you did, they made a hideous sound that felt like nails on a blackboard. And they were more expensive than wooden sticks. So I never owned a pair.

Until recently.

Those sticks, and the ones I just got, were all made by a company called Verisonic. They started making aluminum sticks in the late 1970s and early 80s, when I was in high school. They are still making those sticks today, plus a few other models that didn’t exist back then.

Here’s a little blurb about the company’s history (from their website):

VeriSonic Inc. was founded in 1960 by Albert S. Robba and for 43 years has manufactured innovative percussion accessories. VeriSonic's patented "Classic Line" of Aluminum Drumsticks was the first non wood alternative and made VeriSonic the pioneer of the now well established alternative drumstick industry

With the addition of VeriSonic's wide variety of high quality brushes and "RockStick" line, a percussionist will find a broad selection of products to choose from.......and all of VeriSonic's products and components are manufactured in the U.S.A., more specifically Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In addition to their “Classic” line, they offer Rocksticks (whch appear to be slightly thicker-walled and are also advertised as being a few decibels louder), brushes and accessories. 

The part that I thought was cool when I was young — the anodized color choices — now gives me pause. Through my years working in the bicycle industry, I learned that the process of anodizing metal can be wasteful and polluting because it uses a lot of can produce hazardous waste that may or may not be disposed of properly. This has especially been a problem with bike components manufactured overseas, where environmental regulations are seldom enforced (if they exist at all).

Because Verisonic sticks are manufactured in the USA, there’s a much better chance that their anodization process is carefully monitored and that waste is disposed of safely. I’ll research further to make sure.

I got a pair of Classic “Parade” sticks which was advertised as NOS. Judging from the wrapper, though, they may not be so old. No matter, the price was right and they’re brand new. These Parade sticks are similar in diameter to a wooden pair of 2B sticks (5/8”), measure 15.5” long and weigh in at 3.25 ounces per pair. The other version of this model appears in their RockSticks line and weighs 3.75 ounces a pair. I believe the RockSticks are thicker-walled, making them sturdier. I still wouldn’t want to play a lot of rimshots with them, though.

I like the balance in my hands. They are lighter and shorter than a comparably-sized set of wooden 2B sticks (see photos), but pleasing to play on a tensioned drum head with. I haven’t tried them on a rubber practice pad yet.

I’m intrigued enough by these that I might spring for a heavier version in the RockSticks line.

As a kid, I remember that my friends’ Verisonic sticks were scarred from too many rimshots, and sometimes the plastic ends got knocked off. (If you ever want to put percussion equipment through a thorough durability test, give it to a middle school drummer for a couple of days.) Let’s hope the new generation of Verisonic sticks proves more durable.

Another look at Formaldehyde (found in MDF)

A few months ago, I took a peek under the hood to learn more about MDF, a popular material used in the bases of many mass-produced practice pads.

Last night, the PBS News Hour released a short article about Formaldehyde, a key element of MDF, and why we should all be concerned about Formaldehyde exposure, especially indoors.

I invite you to check it out here, and then consider whether your practice pad purchases (from Vc Firth, Zildjian, Vater, Evans and many other major drum companies) are increasing or reducing the harmful effects of Formaldehyde at home, work and school.

I don't plan to purchase any more pads or other drum equipment that includes MDF.

If you’re concerned, consider helping your students make their own pads from recycled, repurposed materials (like used wood and rubber sheeting) that won't emit off gases. Support companies which use more sustainable materials in their manufacturing processes. Also consider how far your practice pad had to travel to get into your hands, and think about sourcing pads that are made closer to home to reduce your carbon footprint too.

Product Review: Beetle Percussion Last Pad, Part One

(This review will be delivered in multiple parts.)  

Beetle Percussion, a one-man show delivering beautifully crafted and sustainable practice pads made entirely in the USA, has entered the world of high-zoot, tunable practice pads with something called the Last Pad.

Though a carry handle has been incorporated into the design, this is a pad that’s intended for stationary use in the practice room or studio, and not meant for easy and regular transport. The assembled pad weighs just over sixteen pounds, making it even heavier than some entry-level, “Junior” marching snare drums. More on the weight later.

It’s a double-sided pad that allows the player two different surfaces and tensions: the primary side takes a high-tension marching drum head and offers a feel similar to that of a modern, Kevlar-topped marching snare drum. The other side can be set up with a standard coated head and softer feel, great with concert sticks and brushes (the 14” head allows the full size desired for brush work).

As explained at the website for the pad, the small pucks and larger inserts can be utilized in multiple combinations to give a range of responses and feels, especially on the lower-tension side. This flexibility is one of the most interesting and enlightening features of this design. The patient drummer will enjoy exploring different ways to enjoy this pad. However, with twelve tension points, you’ll spend a fair amount of time assembling, dismantling and reassembling the pad until you arrive at the combination that’s optimal for you. So be prepared to set aside some quality time with the pad on a rainy afternoon.

The pad arrived at my home carefully packed and unassembled, with individual pieces wrapped in packing paper and the small pucks and tension hardware in little cloth bags. The box also included an envelope with printed instructions and pictures. The instructions included a tip to check the website for further information. The instructions are clear and helpful, but a glance at the website was also useful. My pad came with two heads: a Remo Falams II for the hard marching side and a Remo coated Emperor for the softer side. 

There are two hoops, one for each side. Standard models come with S-Hoops. My pad came with less costly and lighter triple-flanged hoops, and I confess that I prefer these to the S-Hoops. They’re not only lighter in weight, but give a standard rim height above the head that makes it easier for me to find and place rimshots. S-Hoops are stronger, heavier and sit lower to the head, none of which I especially need.

The base of the pad is a solid piece of molded Valchromat, pre-drilled for the tension rods and inset on the harder marching side with a layer of Beetle’s well-known recycled tire rubber. This is the side for the Kevlar head.

The other side of the pad has smaller concave areas drilled out to take the little pucks. There are three sets of pucks, and you can glance at the website to see how they work. Choose your pucks and the arrangement on this side, then cover them with one of the three separate inserts (3/16” rubber, 1/4” rubber or 1/2” foam) to achieve the desired density under the second head.

The design is meant to avoid the pitfalls of other tensioned marching pads currently available. Rather than tensioning only one side of the pad and risking warping of the wood base — something I’ve seen with such pads — the tensioning of two opposing heads with longer rods means that the tension of all pieces being held together takes the pressure, rather than a single surface which can warp when over-tensioned.

My first assembly of the pad utilized: 

Marching side: 3/16” insert and Kevlar head

Concert side: midsize foam pucks, 1/4” insert and coated Emperor head.

Assembly is best done on a table. Use the enclosed cardboard separators as a work surface to avoid scratching your tabletop. Use the regular hoop for the marching side, and the larger-drilled hoop for the softer side. Be patient and follow the directions. I used a drum torque key and a small crescent wrench to do this work, but you may find it easier to use a drum key drill bit (carefully!) and a fixed size wrench.

When everything is together, it will take multiple turns by hand to get the tension where you want it. Note: The hoop on the softer side should end up being flush with the base.

 

After assembling and tuning, I looked through my gear for an appropriate stand to handle the weight of this behemoth.

For now, I settled upon using my practice station, a 15” wooden platform covered with drum mute material and mounted into a Hamilton concert stand. It’s the strongest drum stand I have, and is perfect for using a single pad on a platform.

(Unlike many younger drummers, I don’t especially like putting a pad on top of a stack of other practice pads.)

Here’s a short video of my first test run.

As you can hear in the video, there is a small difference in tone. There’s also a slightly greater difference in feel, with a recycled rubber insert under each head.

I spoke with Bradley Lomax, the maker of the pad and the founder of Beetle Percussion, about my initial findings. He agreed with my assessment that this is basically a marching-specific pad, and suggested that on my next go-around I swap in the thicker foam pucks and foam insert under the coated Emperor head for a “buttery feel more like a lower-tension or even a rope drum”. 

I’m also going to swap in a Remo Pinstripe head where the Kevlar head was, because I think that might make a small difference as well. I may also experiment with adding a thin layer of rubber under the Pinstripe so that both sides are more useful for a drummer like me. The beauty of this design is that, in line with Beetle’s ethos, it invites a bit of experimentation for the patient drummer.

I think I’ll need to hang out with this pad for awhile before I know enough about it and its potential.

Stay tuned for Part Two next week. And happy chopping.

I still love drumming, but I’m burning out on the hype.

The pandemic sent everyone indoors and into themselves for several years, including me.

During my time shut up in the house, I dove harder into the things that brought me pleasure, especially drumming and my fascination with practice pads. I’d been into pads for over twenty years, and when I couldn’t work and had too much time on my hands, I spent a lot of it researching the history and development of drum practice pads. I went down all sorts of rabbit holes to find out the history of pads, which led me to the history of pad-making companies, and along the way I spent a bit of the money from the Covid relief checks on some very special and rare pads. 

I enjoyed my adventures in research and all that I learned along the way.

I also enjoyed learning from each pad too, playing them gently and educating myself about which materials lent to the more realistic drum feel, and why.

I was also invited to share what I learned with others, by way of an interview on a drum podcast and by joining a Facebook group devoted to drum pad history and development.

But things change, and evolve, over time. During the lockdown, I got Covid and later on, Long Covid. I also developed worsening arthritis and exacerbation of other autoimmune issues. In the end, after three frustrating years of waiting for treatment and results, I had to concede that I wouldn’t recover enough to return to work. 

So now, I’m moving into a new phase of life, as a person, a retiree and a musician.

The truth is that I can’t make my living from music anymore, and haven’t been able to for some time. So now I drum for pleasure. I do some easy warmups, then sight-read a little something and then, if my hands don’t hurt too much I might play through some familiar things.

I’ve also found less and less satisfaction following the Facebook Pad group. I was an admin for a time, but found it harder to enforce the goal of history and information-sharing when more and more young, marching-focused drummers joined the group and wanted only to blather on about the new crop of marching-specific pads being sold by ten different companies while being made unsustainably by only one of three different Chinese factories. And the truth is that, aside from a handful of older adults, almost no one else in the group really cares about any of that. They just want the coolest pads that the top DCI drummers are using — and of course, whatever they’re given to chop on by former DCI drummers who’ve made it “big” in the marching arts as instructors and arrangers.

The whole thing just feels like a fake universe, and I suppose I can see that because I’m on the outside looking in. A life on the margins can, after all, give one an interesting vantage point from which to watch what’s going on in the cushy center.

So today, I find myself wondering what it’s all for these days, and whether or not I need to be involved anymore. 

I still enjoy drumming, and all that I’ve learned from my research and testing of practice pads. I suppose I’ll still enjoy it for awhile to come. But I’ve definitely shifted my focus. I’m mostly just interested in small-batch, sustainably made pads these days, and not so interested in the gajillions of pads made on the cheap from formaldehyde-laden crap being churned out overseas. Whether or not I’ll ramp up my calling out of that crap remains to be seen. But I’ll definitely continue to hurl interest and love at the craftmade pads being made here in North America, and shine a light on the best ones I find.

My blog posts won’t make a difference in the big picture. A few guys in the mass produced pad universe already resent me, and have made their displeasure known on and off Facebook. I may continue to call out the naked emperors where I find them, until I tire of the game. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I’ll continue to share here whatever I continue to find interesting and worthwhile.

Happy chopping.

Probably my last marching snare drum

The CB700 snare drum was fun to set up and make playable, and it sounds nice. But the short lugs meant I couldn’t tune it as high as I’d have liked, and I didn’t want to risk breaking anything. So I’ve tuned it as high as I safely can and put it up for sale cheap.

Enter what will probably be my final marching snare drum purchase.

The truth is that I want to have a marching snare in my collection, and I want it to sound and feel decent. I also won’t be marching a whole lot in the future — Long Covid has made things more challenging and reduced my stamina — but it would be nice to have one on hand when I want to set it up in a park and chop. I found an older Pearl snare drum from around thirty years ago. It needed some parts and I got it very affordably. Best of all, it came with the throw-off hardware and original nylon snares intact. (The nylon snares alone retail for nearly $90 new, and I wasn’t up for paying that much. I could have swapped in wire snares but they would sound very different.)

After adding replacement heads and tuning it up, I’m pleased with the result.

I’ve been wondering about the state of marching percussion these days. Not the high-tension or the Kevlar heads, those things are what they are. But the idea that the top drum lines in DCI, WGI and BOA can march a brand new line of snares, tenors, basses and all the carriers and stands, and then turn around and sell them to another group for two thirds of their original and very high price. Meanwhile, the poorest schools go begging for scraps and are forced to use forty-year-old drums that are literally falling apart, because they cannot afford to repair or replace them. 

Modern marching snare drums can retail for between $400 and $2,000. Tenors and bass drums cost as much or more. Consider the average number of drums in a marching battery and the cost of outfitting an entire drumline can go into the tens of thousands of dollars. 

The average DCI drumline changes drums every single season. That’s $20k to $35k every single year. And while I can appreciate that marching drums get heavy use, I cannot imagine why any corps or band would need to replace an entire drumline every year. Heads, rims and bolts can be replaced. And while there’s often some scheme involved whereby a DCI drumline can buy drums partly on time and then sell them to pay off the remaining balance, it all still seems so wasteful. It runs along the lines of DCI corps and the top BOA bands ordering new uniforms every year, a trend that did not exist until roughly ten years ago and which is now standard practice.

(Keyboard percussions can also be changed and upgraded, though I can’t imagine it’s on a strict yearly basis. A new marimba can cost upwards of $10,000 and most DCI pits have at least five or seven.)

The degree of waste in the modern marching arts is appalling to me, and it should be appalling to anyone else with a pulse. With so many schools struggling to serve low-income communities, it seems patently unfair that things should be so out of balance and so wasteful. I think that’s part of why I’ve had a hard time relating to the modern marching arts, and why I probably won’t follow them so much anymore. I’m content to play for my own pleasure and let the whole scene move on without me. 

I was able to find most of the marching snares I’ve had over the years for anywhere from $0 (the Slingerland single-tension I got a few years ago) to $100 (this Pearl marching drum). Depending on condition, I’ve been able to get them all working again for anywhere from $10 to $40 in replacement parts and some elbow grease.

I’ll try to find some time and space to chop on it tomorrow during the day, and post a video later.