Pad du Jour: Cappella "Rite Touch" pad, 1980s (?)

Cappella was a company based in New Jersey. Between the 1960s and the 1980s they manufactured sticks for many companies, including Rogers, Slingerland, Gretsch and Ludwig; sticks made by Cappella on contract would simply be stamped with the desired brand name.
They also manufactured sticks under their own brand name, which were fine in their own right. A number of pro players had signature sticks made by Cappella, including Joe Morello, Jeff Hamilton and Bun E. Carlos.

Cappella also made practice pads, both under their own name and also branded for Beato (another stick company).

(The company was acquired by J.P. Loria Musical Products in 1999, after both of the original owners had died. Since then, production of Cappella products has gone from spotty to nonexistent; I suspect that the company was eventually phased out under the new owners. I haven't heard of any new Cappella products being manufactured in awhile.)

I came across this Rite Touch pad, which I believe was made in the 1980s.
It's really a quiet practice pad, designed for hotel room warmups on the go. For a two-sided pad it's very lightweight, weighing less than my single-sided Real Feel pad of similar size.

Because it's lightweight, I set it on a larger, heavier pad and that helps a little bit with skidding.

The playing surfaces on both aides are of different thicknesses, but both use a close-cell foam instead of a harder gum rubber. As a result, this pad will make you work a little harder to get diddles and double-bounce rolls even and smooth. That's not a bad thing.

 Below: A little vid of me playing Muhammad Ascik's Triplet Diddle exercise in each side of the pad. Even the thinner side, which offers just slightly more rebound, still makes me work a bit for even bounces. Sometimes I like to slow things down and rebuild them stroke by stroke.

 

Because this is a thirty-year-old pad, I'm not inclined to travel with it; but I do like pulling it out now and then to give my hands a change of pace.

Cappella also manufactured special aluminum "practice" sticks, designed to strengthen the hands during practice pad work. I'm on the hunt for a pair of these for my collection. Stay tuned.