A big, old Xymox pad. I kinda like it.

Since the shutdown began a few weeks ago, I've been stying at home and woodshedding on various practice pads pretty much every single day.
This week, I snagged an early-days model from Xymox Percussion. Now, I already own a few pads from this company, and I will admit I have another one on order. (I know, how many pads does one drummer need? That's hard to answer definitively.) It's all good.

This pad caught my eye because it was a light gray rubber VERY similar to what's been found on the Real Feel pads (now from Evans). But thinner. Since the price was right, I decided to buy it and see how it felt when compared to the Real Feel pad I own.

It arrived today, and I was surprised at how BIG it was. I was expecting a similarly-sized version to the other Xymox pad I own from the rubber-top-with-snare-sound era, roughly 15-20 years old.
But this thing is 14 inches across and seems designed to sit on a drum or tabletop.

Below: Both older pads, side by side. I've never seen a Xymox pad of this style this big before.

I set it on another pad already in a stand, and began to play. And while the feel is similar -- both pads use rubber of the same thickness, though the rubber on the smaller pad is recessed into the wood a bit -- it's not identical. The small pad feels a little livelier. The larger pad feels closer in response to the Real Feel, and that just means I'm really playing into it more -- sort of like the difference between playing on Kevlar and Mylar, respectively. Once I started playing on this new arrival, I actually liked it and didn't want to stop.



This does beg the question of age as it relates to "vintage."

Xymox has been in business for a little over 25 years now, and their initial design for a pad with a "snare drum sound" was granted a patent twenty years ago.
Xymox models have evolved over time, first with these rubber-topped models and then progressing into a two generations of Kevlar-topped model with snare sound.
(Interestingly, the mechanism for how the snare sound is produced has not change radically; today's kevlar-topped Reserve" model still utilizes metal beads inside the pad, though additional features now offer the option of reducing or canceling out the "snare" sound by inserting a rubber mute.)

A fourth generation of snare pad was recently released, though it may instead be a first-generation product of another kind. This new item actually plays and feels more like a miniature hi-tension marching drum, complete with an adjustable panel that allows one to alter the sound of short, actual snares against the underside of the head. (I bit the bullet and ordered one for myself. I look forward to trying it out when it arrives.)

So within the confines of a single company which designs and makes its own product, how does one regard the earliest models from that company when they may be over twenty years old? At what point does the early stuff become "collectible" or "vintage" in determining scarcity and value for both collectors and players?

I welcome comments.