pad du jour: 1955-ish WFL aluminum pad ("Way Best")

While I await the arrival of my Slingerland pad, here's another tidbit from my existing collection. WFL pad, mid-1950s. It's hard to confirm an exact year because a practice pad design would be carried over (depending on its popularity, materials on hand needing to be used up, etc.) for a few years. The earliest example of this exact design I could find was in a 1955 WFL catalog (courtesy of the growing files over at DrumArchive.com). My pad does not include a mounting bracket. Another of this design include a fixture for attachment to a stand; presumably a second, perhaps newer mold would have needed to be made.

One-piece aluminum molded construction makes for a lightweight but reasonably strong framework on which to affix a rubber playing surface.

The tiny rubber feet on my pad are still in great shape, allowing me to use this pad on a tabletop.

The page below, from the 1955 Slingerland catalog, calls the pad (upper right corner) by the name "Way Best," probably a reference to drummer George Way, who worked for Leedy and Ludwig on and off and on again from the 1920s through the 1950s. Way was known as an innovator of drums and drum technology; one of his most famous contributions was the invention of the floating head hoop, a design still in use today.

WFL was a separate company founded by William F. Ludwig; when Leedy and Ludwig was let go by its parent company in the late 50s, William Ludwig and his son bought the trademark to solidify his hold on the brand and eventually changed the company name from WFL to Ludwig.)

It's not clear why this pad was named "Way Best" in the catalog. It may have been a nod to Way, which in light of the way he was treated seems unlikely; or it was a way to add the cache of the Way name to a product to boost sales without having to pay Way anything for the use of his name. (If you're really interested, you can read this version of how Way got screwed by the drum industry. It doesn't put the industry in the best light, but retail in general has been something of a quagmire for centuries anyway.)

(Note: The name "Way Best" only appears in the catalog and not on the pad itself.)

The video I took shows what the pad sounds like on the tabletop, and also on top of another pad (which also prevents slipping).
It's a fun little pad to play, though the hardening of the 60-year-old playing surface makes for a less forgiving experience. Not a daily player by any means.

Fellow vintage drum enthusiasts will find the web site DrumArchive.com a great resource for filling in blanks about make and model of many drums. For practice pads, it's not quite as reliable due to both the overlap of manufacture dates and the number of companies making pads and stamping them with a larger companie's logo), though it can be helpful from time to time.

Happy drumming!