Vintage Drums vs. Vintage Pads: challenges for collectors

I've been collecting vintage drum pads for awhile, over a decade. In my efforts to learn as much as I can about them, I've taken it upon myself to research each pad that comes into my humble little collection. Collectors of vintage drums do this too; in fact, there are a number of books published with histories of each major drum company and photos of significant drum models throughout their histories. Books are now available for Ludwig, Slingerland, Gretsch, and many more.

These histories seldom, if ever, offer photos of practice pads. This is largely because Pads hold little interest for a collector who has room to store and display full-sized drums -- and drum kits -- at home.

In fact, I am the only person I know of who has made it a point to focus on pads and, to a lesser extent, vintage sticks.

The primary reason most collectors focus on drums is that they're sexy. Like vintage cars, each make and model from a certain age has its own distinctive markings and style. They look as beautiful as they sound. And if you find one in poor condition, it's a fun challenge to try and restore it, just like a classic car. Parts are out there for the swapping.

A secondary, but no less important reason for the lack of attention given to pads, is that, unlike many drums, they are not date-stamped or utilize a serial number in the manufacture process. Taking it farther, a number of manufacturers had their pads all made by one or two factories, and simply embossed with the appropriate brand name and logo. Practice pads from the 1940s through 70s were a low-profit item, cheap and easy to make and sell, and they were never intended to be sexy. A practice pad was, and is, a simple tool that aids in drummer development.
With one or two factories cranking out cheap practice pads for mutliple companies, it was common to see the exact same photos or illustrations of a pad design in the catalogs of multiple drum companies.

1. Slingerland, circa 1938. Note the design of the bottom three pads in the photo.

2. George Way, circa 1950. Note the design of the top three pads shown here. There is virtually NO difference in design or construction of these pads from those in the Slingerland catalog of 13 years earlier. That's because there was no real change in standard pad designs during these years.




3. Here's another example. Ludwig Drum catalog, circa 1957. Note the standard rubber-on-wood pad designs shown along the top of the page. Now look at the all-rubber Porto-Pad at the far upper left, and the rubber-on-metal design just to the right of it. The "All-Metal" pad is a design that was adapted from one appearing in the 1950 George Way catalog (which had a round rubber pad instead of a square one). The rubber pad is a design first marketed by the WFL Drum Company, which was absorbed into Ludwig during a consolidation in the 1950's.

The upshot of these examples is that, with so many manufacturers offering practice pads of similar (if not identical) size and design, and with the buyout and consolidation of drum companies throughout this "golden" age of rudimental drumming, it's very hard to determine whose design came first. It's even harder to determine the exact age of a vintage pad because along with this reality, there were no serial numbers applied to pads.

The only pads I've been able to approximate an age on are two with unusual identifying characteristics and/or short shelf lives. The first was my Slingerland Radio King practice pad, which dates from the late 1940's. I was able to date this because of the unusual badge design, which was only used on Radio King practice pads for a few years after WWII and went out of production by 1950-51. The other pad is my recently-acquired Timpette, which was easy to date because of its very limited production run in the late 40s -- information which I was able to research on Google Patents.

If you collect drums and have not yet used Google Patents to aid in your historical research, I strongly urge you to check it out. Though it's generally more useful for researching innovations in design rather than researching by model and year, this site has been invaluable as I've researched the age and design of each of my vintage practice pads -- and in two cases, specialty practice sticks.

Other resources which are more helpful for researching model and year include vintage drum catalogs and individual advertisements, school music educator magazines and the occasional peer review journal (such as PASIC's Percussive Notes). Peer review journals for most musical topics can be found with the help of your public library.
You can sometimes find ads in the back pages of specialty publications like Drum Corps World, which may help you to approximate the age and model of marching percussion instruments.
Finally, always check photographs taken during the era in which you think your drum dates from, as close-ups can reveal small but important differences in the design of lugs, snare strainers and more.

As ever, I am always interested in vintage pads and hearing about what you have. Contact me through the CONTACT link at right. Cheers!

practice tools and why they matter

I collect vintage practice pads (and sometimes sticks) because they are the tools I've used more often than anything as a drummer and percussionist.
The fact is that I didn't own my first drumkit until I was sixteen, and I never fell in love with driving or owning a car. So when I went car-free in 1990, I knew it would change my approach to drumming.
I kept my drumkit for a few years but eventually I lost interest in staying up playing till 2am, and sold it. After that, I mostly taught marching drum lines until 1997, when my bike crash changed my hand and my musical life forever.

Since returning to drumming on a daily basis, I've found that it's all I can manage to play on a rubber pad most mornings. My partner appreciates the muted, quiet sound of rubber; and I don't really have room for a full-sized drumkit where I live anymore.

So mostly, it's just me, some sticks and a pad.

In the mornings, I start with some eights and sixteens, slowly and with a metronome. After awhile, I open up my dog-eared copy of Stick Control (the book every single drummer should own) and play my way slowly through a page, or maybe two. The opening pages of eighth notes are great for morning meditation and also for warming up my arthritic hands and wrists very gently.

Finally, I'll switch to some easy corps-style warmups and street beats, and then if I have time I'll cool down with a few eights and sixteens again.

My regular tools for this:

Sticks -- Vic Firth Jeff Queen model -- my go-to stick most of the time. If I'm preparing for an indoor gig I'll switch to a 2B or maybe even a 5B on a muted snare drum.

Pad -- My primary pad is an Offworld Invader. On days when the arthritis gets too intense I'll switch to a homemade pad with 1/4"-thick gum rubber; or a Real Feel rubber pad.






Books -- I don't have a ton of these that I use often (though my rudimental drum library is pretty extensive). Here are my favorites:

-- Stick Control for the Snare Drummer (G. L. Stone)
-- Accents and Rebounds (G. L. Stone)
-- Syncopation for the Modern Drummer
-- America's NARD Solos (ed. W. Ludwig)
-- 128 Rudimental Street Beats (John S. Pratt)

I also like the warmups from Donka Drums. Kevin Donka is a world champion rudimental drummer who marched with the Blue Stars, currently marches each summer with Pacific Alliance, and went on to create an online resource of snare drum music for students at all levels. He also offers online coaching.

Metronome -- this is an absolute necessity for any drummer. Regular practice with a metronome improves timing and forces you to slow down when learning a new skill (drummers are notorious for rushing the beat, especially as they grow more confident with a musical passage. That's not necessarily a good thing.)
There are so many kinds of metronomes on the market that there is no one "best" model. Modern metronomes in use by marching drum lines utilize complex patterns of multiple pitches, and most drum lines swear by them. I continue to use the simple, reliable Seiko metronome I've had since college. It gives a single pitch at a variety of tempi, gives a concert "A" tuning pitch, and offers a light-only option for those who want to try keeping time visually.
Various versions of this type are available used on eBay starting at less than ten bucks. They take a 9V battery, can be used with a earbud, and they work just fine.



Even if you are blessed with room to store and play a full drumkit, it's good to get back to basics and woodshed on a pad regularly. Happy drumming!

The Timpette: an odd little practice pad kit

This is my most recent find. It's a little practice pad kit from the late 1940s called a Timpette.

It's not designed to be anything except a practice aid.

The manufacturer and sole distributor was a small company Called General Music Company in Los Angeles, owned by Lee Lockhart and created to market his pad design.

Mine came in virtually mint condition in its original box, complete with drum sticks and a little instruction book.

















Below: the label inside the box, showing a class of students all learning together on their Timpettes, and a folio-sized instruction booklet.

 

 The glass bowl gives a tremendous amount of resonance for the size, which is part of the pad's uniqueness. I imagine breaking it would be a disaster; there's no indication that replacement glass bowls were made available, and the bowl in mine looks like it could've served as a candy dish first.

 

The other interesting feature is a small hole drilled near the edge of the underside, which then accepts a small wooden dowel (provided) to til the pad for practicing as if it were a tiny snare drum either resting on your leg or situated behind a drum kit.

 

It works pretty well and provides enough stability for the pad to be played at soft to medium volume, which is all it's meant for anyway. And if you lost the wooden dowel, another could easily be made in your garage. This was back in a time when most Americans still knew how to do their own small odd jobs around the house. Even whittling a twig into the desired size and length could be done easily with a pocket knife.

The pad was meant as strictly an instructional tool, not a replacement for an actual instrument; and the maker recommends buying multiples for use in a class setting for beginning drummers.

Here's a little video of the pad, with the original sticks that came in the kit.

It was patented by Lee Lockhart in 1943. I was unable to find any sale history on this item abut I'm still researching that. The initial patent expired in the 1960s and according records an extension was not applied for. I would guess that this was owing in part to the fact that by the mid-60's, Remo Belli had all but sewn up the practice pad market with his tuneable, Mylar-headed drum pad, and there was no point in extending the patent on something that was by then obsolete (and nowhere near as durable).

I would also venture a guess that making the Timpette was not inexpensive. If the glass bowl was actually manufactured to spec, that had to be a costly component; and heaven help the student who dropped a Timpette and broke the glass bowl. This does not look like it would have been a promising desgin in the long term.

The description in the patent records suggests that a strap could be inserted through the wooden frame to allow the student to tie the pad to his/her leg, but no strap was ever commercially patented or released by Lockhart or his music company.

All in all, this was a really cool find of a practice pad that probably didn't go very far in terms of marketing or manufacture. The fact that I have yet to find it distributed outside of the Los Angeles area suggests it was a short-lived enterprise.

Still, I'm very happy to have added this to my collection, especially n near-mint condition with all the original pieces.
It's an odd, quirky little thing that's like nothing else I've ever seen.