DIY Drummer: Odds-n-Ends -- repurposing, refurbishing

 On my way to swapping out for a smaller bass drum for my West Craft kit, I had an idea.
I asked Kaleb if he'd be interested in taking on a small side project in addition to refurbishing my bass drum. "No rush," I said, "I just wonder what it would look like if you gave this the West Craft treatment." Kaleb was intrigued and took home one of three vintage Ludwig practice pads I had.
All I told him was, "Do it up in shades of blue, and don't worry about the rubber because I'll clean that myself when you're all done."

Less than two hours later, he sent me three photos. He was intrigued.

When I get the finished pad I'll be sure to share it here.

Also, I received in a batch of sticks a mallets an extra, unmatched pair of vintage Ludwig timpani mallets. Both had badly degraded felts, and the heads had been glued to the shafts so removing them for replacement would be risky. They weren't so far apart in size and shape that I couldn't do SOMEthing with them, though.
So today, I decided to turn them into multipurpose mallets. I wrapped the harder of the two mallets with a few turns of the soft wool yarn to help equalize the hardness and size of the heads a little more. Then wrapped both heads vertically in rotating loops, the way yarn mallets are traditionally wound. I had taught myself how to do this in college, from a little booklet on mallet repair (I also used to recover my timpani mallets with new felt, using the instructions from the same booklet).

These mallets turned out to be a little on the big side, but that's okay. I figure they can be used for soft rolls on timpani, drumkit toms and maybe even some cymbals.

The yarn I chose was very thick ply, designed for use in scarves, potholders, hats and other thick things. It turned out to be quite useful for this application, because it's thick and soft.
Finally, To keep a couple hairline cracks from growing, I decided to wrap the wooden shafts in white stick tape. I added a second layer in the handle area to help improve the balance a little.

I'm pleased at how it turned out.

I have a couple new pads coming my way soon, and I look forward to putting through their paces and reporting about them here.

A reminder: If you or someone you know is connected to a company that makes pads, or that has historical documentation about pads the company made long ago, please let me know! I am always looking for new pads to test and review here; if you work with a company that is willing to send me a sample to test, that would be great. I don't have infinite funding to spend on this so I appreciate it when companies are willing to send me a pad. I also seek historical documentation about the design and development of practice pads, especially prior to 1940. If you can help, please let me know by reaching out to me through Facebook.

Thanks and happy drumming.

More pad restoration: know what to look for, and keep it out of the landfill

 So this week I scored a wonderful selection of old pads and hardware.

The seller needed to clear it out quickly, accepted my below-asking offer and was willing to ship for free.

Granted, these pads will need some cleaning up, but when I’m done, they’ll be as fun to pound on as when they were new, and the hardware will help complete a few drum kits in the neighborhood.

When you look for used pads to clean up and reuse, you have to know what to look for.

AND you have to be willing to put in the time and work to rescue them.

The rubber pads will need some cleaning, and some real elbow grease to bring them back to useful life.  The tunable Remo pads just need cleaning up and fresh replacement heads.

Soon after I take delivery on this lot, several drummers will have great pads to practice on, and I will have kept all this stuff out of the landfill.

THIS is what sustainability is about. Find old, beat-up stuff, fix it up and clean it up, and prepare it for a second life with a new owner.

What I’m saying here won’t make many manufacturers happy; for them, it’s about tying custom to buy new stuff regularly. But for kids on a budget, for nonprofit youth programs on a budget, for your friend down the street who’s preparing to audition for a corps and needs a more durable practice pad, sustainability is EXACTLY what we should promote within the drumming world.

End of sermon. Happy Drumming!

Future Vintage: Vic Firth IMS10 drum sticks

 Sometime in the early to mid 2000's, Vic Firth released a stick called the IMS10. Designed in partnership with notable DCI drum instructor Brian S. Mason for the growing indoor percussion activity, it was smaller than most marching sticks used outdoors and featured an elongated acorn tip. Presumably, it was not a big seller at the time, because after several years Vic Firth stopped making them.

I wish they hadn't. It's a GREAT stick.

It is smaller, but no overly so; and it is one of the best balanced, most comfortable sticks I've ever used for marching. I also like it for some concert percussion situations where a field drum and/or slightly heavier stick is called for. And it's a great rudimental stick as well.

The first generation were made with black paint, Mason's signature and wood tips.

Later, an unpainted version was released, without a signature, in both wood and nylon tipped versions. It was a little bit lighter than the original, perhaps because it was felt they'd be a better seller in a lighter weight for a wider variety of uses.

Today, I have a couple pairs that I've held in reserve. One pair is on my wall display rack, and the other pair is in my stickbag, taped up and used in my community marching band.

It's a fantastic stick. Some folks remember playing with these back in the day and are looking for them again. I recently scored a bundle of 15 pairs of these, New Old Stock from a music store that's closing its doors. I'm keeping another pair for myself and I've sold off some of the others. (I have a few pairs left as of this writing; hit me up on FB if you want a pair.)

If there's anyone out with some kind of pull at Vic Firth, maybe give a shout out that these sticks still have a fan base and ought to be brought back into production. Because right now they're hard to find and at some point they'll be gone, Let's keep these from becoming truly vintage one day.

Happy chopping!

Drum History Podcast, latest episode: All about practice pads

I was tickled to be invited to join Bart van der Zee on the Drum History Podcast, to talk and enthuse all about practice pads and their history.

I knew that if I did, I'd blow the lid off my little secret and get other people excited about it -- with the likely result that vintage practice pads would no longer be so easy or cheap to find.
In the end I decided that geeking out about history was more important than hoarding all the cool pads (which I don't but you get the idea).

We had a lovely chat!

You can find it here:

https://www.drumhistorypodcast.com/post/ep-107-the-history-of-practice-pads-with-beth-hamon

And if you support the podcast through Patreon, you can access little nuggets, "extras" available only to paying supporters. Including a little 15-minute thing with Yours Truly.

Happy Chopping!

Drum kit playdate: not bad for being so rusty

I haven't gigged behind a drum kit regularly, or owned a decent drum kit I could play at home, since 1993. That's almost 30 years ago.
My goal for assembling this vintage oddball kit, refurbished by Westcraft Drums, was primarily so I'd have a kit at home I could play regularly, even if I had to do so with mufflers to keep the peace there.
If things opened up in such a way as to help me find musicians to play with, great. But first I needed to play at home and get my sea legs back.

(You lose a lot in thirty years' time.)

Today, Sweetie gave me the rare gift of time alone in the house.

"Take the mufflers off," she said, "and have fun."

So for two hours, I did just that. Recent upgrades, including a 70's Zildjian Ping Ride and a 90's Zildjian light crash cymbal, made a great-sounding kit sound wonderful.

Of course, I shot video of everything I did, in ten-minute increments. Then, towards the end of my allotted time, I shot one final video, satisfied that all my previous efforts were sufficient to work out the worst of the ugly, forgetful kinks. I hoped I wouldn't suck.

After Sweetie got home, I watched all the videos to learn from them, and saved the best one to share (below).

For not having had this much time behind a kit in so long, I think I did okay. And I have quite a ways to go to get back to a point that will make me happy.
That's okay. I like to practice.

Purpose-driven developments in practice pad design

I've been cleaning out the dark corners of my practice pad collection, selling off doubles and making some space in my studio. Along the way, I've been trying out different pads and deepening my knowledge of pad design in the process.

Tonight I did a little comparison.
Using an excerpt from one of the NARD solos ("Benevolent Bill"), I played the first section on each of four different pads in my collection (disclaimer: all keepers, so don't ask if I'm selling them).

In order of trial and approximate age, here are my videos.

1. 1948-50 Slingerland Radio King pad, 2B sticks. The pad itself is actually no big deal, because it's the same design dozens of companies were selling in the back of their respective drum catalogs. Slingerland's Radio King pad was perhaps a little bit bigger than a lot of what else was out there at the time, but really the only thing that makes it special is the iconic "Radio King" badge. Still, it's fun to play on something so historic and older than I am.
The black rubber surface is still in good shape, and hasn't hardened yet. But it's also not quite as bouncy as gum rubber would be, and I have to pull the strokes out of the pad. This would also be the case with the bigger, deeper drums of this era (marching snare drums measured 15" or 16" in diameter back then), with Mylar heads tuned lower. Drummers of this era had to do some of the work involved in double bounce rolls and paradiddle rudiments, which is why so many worked out on pillows as part of their training.

2. 1972 Patterson design Pad. Another wood box, this one horizontal, with a more pure gum rubber playing surface that's lively and offers a bit more rebound. Still using the 2B sticks out of consideration for the design and the pad's age, I can get a very nice bounce. This is more in line with the marching drums of my youth, which usually measured 14" in diameter and had more lugs, so they could be tuned tighter and higher than the older 15" drums. Combined with a Remo "Pinstripe" head, these drums produced a fat but crisp sound that was tremendous to hear when eight or ten drummers played in perfect unison.

3. Vater Chop Builder pad, black (hard) side, with marching sticks. Switching to marching sticks for this heavier, denser pad made sense; the 2B sticks don't really work as well with the modern marching pads. I chose to utilize the harder black side of this pad to see if there was a real difference between it and the final pad in the comparison. There definitely is a difference.
Several companies produce two-sided pads with a soft and hard side, and in most cases the hard side on these pads is SO hard that you might as well be playing on a Formica countertop. The Vater version pulls back a little from that, with a thick "hard" side that still has a little rebound in it and makes for a more pleasant playing experience.

4. Vic Firth Heavy Hitter Slimpad. One of the most popular marching pads on the market since its introduction in the early 2000's. This predates the Vater pad by a few years but I saved it for last because it comes closest to the feel and rebound of a modern Kevlar marching head. It's 1/8' thick gum rubber on a wood base. Nothing fancy, but they dialed in the feel so it gives modern marching drummers exactly what they need in a practice situation. The gum rubber is lively and offers rebound, but the thin playing surface means there's a lot of hardness coming from the wood underneath. As opposed to "pulling" the strokes out of the drum, as I'd do on a Mylar head, all of the bounce comes from the tightness and hardness of the Kevlar surface. If I tried to "pull" the strokes from as Kevlar head I might end up pulling a wrist muscle and actually hurting myself.

The heavier marching sticks are really the best way to go on this pad, as the heft of the bigger stick balances against the hardness of the pad.

Practice pads from the early days up through the 1970's and very early 80's were not quite as purpose-driven, not as specialized as they are today.
They didn't have to be because concert, jazz and marching drums all utilized Mylar heads, which can only be tightened so far before either the head breaks, or the hardware pulls out from the side of the drum.

With the advent of stronger materials, drum heads could be made from carbon-fiber and Kevlar, and later on, hybrids of the two materials. These heads, capable of being cranked high and tight, became the standard for marching bands and drum corps -- and changed the way marching drummers approached technique. New drum pads specifically designed to meet the demands of marching drummers came onto the market. Some of the earliest models are no longer in production and are highly sought after by drummers of that generation, hoping to replace the pad from their younger marching days that got worn out or lost.

But practice pads for Mylar drummers have also evolved. Very few drummers today would willingly choowe to practice on that Slingerland Radio King, when other, more responsive pads now exist on the market.

That said, how much have technical advances in drum and pad design affected drumming technique? Or vice versa? Or does it have that much of an effect outside of modern marching ensembles? These are questions with complex answers, and I'm just trying out practice pads.

Feel free to respond with your questions and insights here in the comments.

And Happy drumming!

DIY external bass drum muffler

I recent scored this because I wanted to muffle the echo of my bass drum a little.
This may be more than I was looking for. It's a lot bigger than the photo indicated...

I'm taking the bass drum to Revival Sunday to get some help with setting up the drum to take both a ride cymbal AND a small rack tom, using the hardware the drum came with.
I'm hoping I can get away with something that isn't too complicated and which won't topple over from excess weight. I don't plan to use a floor tom with this kit so I need everything to be compact and minimalist. I hope they can help me with the cymbal mount as well.

Product Review: Prologix Green Method Pad -- and the pitfalls of redundancy

I'd been wanting to try one of the Prologix pads for several years, but the price of their early models was a little steep for my budget back then. Last week, an old college friend with some money reached out to me. Her son plays in a school band program and she wanted to gift the drumline with a matched set of practice pads. The school's band director isn't a percussionist and couldn't decide which pad to order with this lady's generous gift, so my friend read my reviews and got some info that way. She'd heard about Prologix pads and noticed that I hadn't reviewed them, so she arranged for me to buy one and put it through its paces. ("It's the school colors, green and black," she enthused. "Perhaps this would be a great way to go!")

It arrived a few days ago and I've had some time to hang out with it.

Prologix Percussion makes pads with different densities of rubber compound, and the idea is that you select the density you need based on your playing style and goals. The green compound is designed for "light" resistance, meaning it will provide more of a rebound and allow you to approximate the feel of an actual drum. (They also make compounds with higher levels of resistance, meaning you mjust work on "pulling" the strokes out of the surface, a great workout for hands and wrists. Check their web site for more info.)

I ordered the 12" Method pad, a two-sided affair which Prologix calls their "base level" pad, suitable for drummers at all experience levels. One side has the green rubber surface; the other side uses recycled tire rubber to achieve a feel that's harder and closer to a modern marching drumhead. Both sides have their purposes and both work well.

The pad is heavy enough to stay out on a tabletop, and large enough to work in a standard snare drum stand. At 12 inches it's also portable and will easily fit in a backpack or book bag.

The feel of the light green surface is quite similar to what you'd find on the Evans Real Feel gray chop pad.
The subtle difference in hardness between the two means that on the Prologix you will still have to work a little more to achieve good technique.

The reverse side of recycled rubber is harder and less forgiving in terms of natural rebound, so that you still must use good technique but will get a sound and feel that is tighter and more like a high-tension Kevlar head.

The thickness of each surface is evident from the side view. Both surfaces are mounted to a standard compressed wood platform that looks sturdy and durable for most purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 Here's a very short video demonstrating the difference between the playing surfaces.

Below is a photo that explains my quandry: All three of these pads -- early Xymox (Promark), Prologix and Evans -- utilize a very similar rubber compound that is designed to offer a high degree of natural rebound while also remaining quieter than a real drum.



But the difference in feel between the three pads is SO subtle that I have to ask:
At what point does all of these different models become redundant?
And at what point should manufacturers take a step back and begin to ask this very question of themselves? The photo above demonstrates just three of the many pad makers out there who are creating pads using similar rubber compounds. Other pads using a silicone base and achieving similar results should be asking this question as well.

..::ducks to avoid flying debris from people who love free market capitalism::..

To be honest, there are already perfectly good pads out there that serve the same purpose as this one by Prologix. And they are similarly priced, which only serves to make things more confusing.

The Method pad is a nice pad. It costs $35 from Prologix, placing it in a similar price-point as the Even Real Feel pad. A smaller 6" version is available for $20. But to my perspective it doesn't really break any new ground from a technical standpoint. And since the Evans Real Feel pad has been around a bit longer, it's easier o find used pads at a considerable savings, something I generally encourage for individual students on a budget. There really isn't enough of a difference between the Real Feel and the Prologix Method pad for me to say one is unequivocally better or worse.

Because of all the redundancy in modern pad design, I've decided that, going forward, I will probably focus more of my attention of pad designs that truly count as breakthroughs, rather than re-hashes of similar designs already out there.  Nothing against any of these brands; but in a world where environmental and financial concerns are only increasing it makes sense to focus on that which is truly innovative.

Happy drumming!

Drumming as part of the songwriter's craft

I'm dropping this here so I can share with you how my two musical loves -- songwriting and drumming -- can intersect. Not a lot explanation, just, well,  here you go. Enjoy.

"Count to Four" by Beth Hamon, performed at URJ Biennial, Chicago, Jan 2020

"There Was No Voice" - music by Beth Hamon, Lyrics by Stacey Zisook Robinson
Performed March 12, 2021 in Portland, OR

#drumgoals: Wilcoxon's All-American Drum Solos

I've decided to set a new drumming goal for myself.
Inspired by Kevin Lehman and his FB Group devoted to collecting recordings of each of the 150 solos in Wilcoxon's "All American Drum Solos" and having contributed a couple of videos to that group. I've decided to work my way through the entire book, all 150 drum solos.

The book is a masterpiece of short snare drum solos that range from reasonably easy to quite challenging, and which call on the player to get comfortable with each of the 26 drum rudiments as codified by NARD.

I began late last week and dove right in. I am having a blast. I read the solo through a few times, very slowly, then a begin breaking apart the solo in small chunks and cleaning it up. Eventually, the solo is clean enough for me to put it all back together and begin to play it at gradually increasing tempi.

Along the way, I'm reacquainting myself with the rudiments I don't get to use as often in my playing. And I'm acquainting myself with a wonderful collection of snare drum solos that will challenge me and that are a delight to play.

Stay tuned. The solos I find the most musical I'll videotape and share here.
Happy drumming.

Vintage Corner: Slingerland drum UPDATE 3

Yesterday and today, I hurled some love at the rims and the shell.

The drum came to me last summer in pretty bad shape. After careful cleaning, the rims shows fatigue in several spots and the shell had been gouged pretty badly in a couple of spots. I had to decide how much time and effort I wanted to invest, and wheter of not it was worth it.

In the end, I chose a compromise.

Since the shell and rims were still pretty nicely round, I decided to honor the "beausage" (literally, "beauty through usage") the drum had acquired over the decades. After repairing the worst of the cracks (which I did with R's help), I decided I would lightly sand some of the roughest spots, leave the old varnish on everything else, and cover the sanded spots with some clear nail polish. It's not what a real woddworker would do, but I'm not a woodworker and decided that the drum looked more beautiful with its war wounds. (I certainly didn't want to cover the beautiful wood with colored paint! And I couldn't justify the cost of NOS wood hoops for a drum so beat up.)

The rim repair that Ron had helped me with has held nicely, supported by the pieces of bicycle spoke I inserted. All that remained was selective sanding and varnishing with clear nail polish.

The batter rim was marked with spots where the hooks had gathered rust underneath, which had soaked into the wood. Sanding would remove more wood before it removed the rust stains, so I sanded lightly and then varnished with nail polish.

 

The shell posed another aesthetic challenge because a previous owner had gouged it, maybe with a belt buckle while marching.
The gouging had worn through multiple layers of the ply, and while there's still plenty of wood there, filling the depression with wood putty would have been more of a headache than I was prepared for. (I just have a little Tuff-Shed where I fix bikes. Not roomy or fancy.) So I sanded the area lightly to smooth it out a little, cleaned it, and then applied more nail polish.

The nice thing about nail polish is that it fills the grain nicely, and dries quickly between coats

The other thing about mahogany is how it shines when the light catches the grain, even when it's been banged up.

The shell just glows, in a way it didn't when I first got this drum.

That's why I chose to let the drum keep its patina, earned through a hundred performances and a thousand rehearsals, played by any number of hands.

This one's a keeper, and I can't wait until tomorrow to sling it up and try it out.

Video coming soon.
Below: Before, and after.

Vintage Corner: Slingerland Drum UPDATE 2: Rims and shell

Since I was gifted with this drum last summer, here's the progress:

1. I took it all apart so I could begin to clean the hardware and repair the cracks in the snare-side maple hoop.

2.  I gave the bottom hoop to my brother-in-law, a woodworker, so he could soak it and bring the cracked section back into round with the rest of the hoop. This process took a couple of weeks.

3. While I waited for that piece to get finished (in between Ron's professional woodworking jobs), I cleaned the rods and hooks using a Rust Remover stick and finishing with some Nevr-Dull.

4. I got the hoop back from Ron, and finished the repair by adding sections of bicycle spoke to strengthen the repaired crack. I also began removing the tape residue from the rims and shell.

First, the snare hoop. The repair looked pretty good, nice and solid; but Ron advised me that without adding some internal supports it would eventually weaken and break again from tension and repeated playing. So I found a drill bit the right size and carefully drilled two tiny holes through the center of the rim, across the repaired crack. Because the other side of the hoop was showing the beginning of the same fatigue, I drilled holes there too.

The holes were run directly crosswise through the crack and the glue used to repair it.




Then, I took an old bicycle spoke and measured off sections long enough to run through the hoop, with perhaps a couple millimeters counter-sunk on either end.
I checked my work by running a spoke through the hole. It fit perfectly.

Then I measured sections of the spoke and cut off four pieces.

I squirted super-glue into each hole, chased it through with a section of metal spoke, and made sure each end was slightly counter-sunk when finished. Then I set the hoop sideways to allow everything to dry overnight. (By using a thicker gel instead of liquid glue, I was assured that glue would not drip out all over the place.)

The next morning, everything looked fine. I'll need to decide whether or not I want to try and fill in the ends with some wood putty, or just let it be.

Then I turned my attention to removing tape residue from the shell. A friend in Seattle had given me a bottle of an environmentally-friendly solvent called "Best Cleaner Ever," and I tried it.
Following the instructions, I sprayer a little on, let it soak in for a few minutes and then tried to wipe it off. It did nothing to remove the residue; and in fact the solvent itself had to wiped down thoroughly with warm water to remove its own residue. In the end, it may have loosened the tape residue, but that masking tape had been there for fifty or more years, so it's hard to know. I had to carefully scrape it away with a pocket knife, applied gently enough to remove the tape without gouging the wood underneath.

When I was done, I was left with a shell that still show signs of use and abuse, but the luster of the mahogany also showed up nicely. So I've chosen to leave the shell alone, not removing the original clear paint. I will apply some clear coat to the spots or bare wood that need it, and let the "beausage" be a part of the drum's look. The mahogany itself is gorgeous enough, even with the damage.

I still have some residue to remove from the batter hoop tonight. After that, I'll probably sand both hoops lightly, apply something to seal the bare wood spots, and let it all dry for a few days.
Then I'll begin reassembling the drum.
I don't plan to use a leg rest with this drum, but will instead just let it hang against my leg at a tilt. It will be a fair-weather drum only, or if I use it indoors it will be on a stand.
This was an unexpected gift and I'm glad I've had time to learn from repairing and rebuilding it.
Next: video of the finished drum. Coming soon!

Vintage Corner: Bower pad, replica

The first U.S. patent granted for a drum practice pad dates to 1920, for a design by H. A. Bower.

Before this, drummers generally made their own practice pads, or simply played on the tabletop or whatever horizontal surface was handy. Since they were playing on calfskin heads, the idea of using a piece of tanned leather as a playing surface for a portable pad wasn't a stretch. Bower was the first on record to apply for a U.S. patent for such a device.

Here's his design:

As you can see, it's a pretty simple, even crude, design by modern standards. A wooden board is cut to a desired size (in this case, a 12" round). A smaller piece of thick tanned leather that fits inside the diameter is selected, holes are drilled in both and the leather is affixed to the board with string or a shoelace. According to the notes submitted with the patent application, a thin layer of stuffing may be placed under the leather for a slightly softer sound, which would come in handy if you're practicing while on tour.

Scouting around the interwebs, I found that someone had already tried making a replica based on the notes from the patent application.

He also affixed a copy of the label from the first mass-produced version of this pad, licensed to and sold by Art Higman in Los Angeles in the 1920s.

I was curious about how such a pad would sound and feel, so I decided to make one for myself and find out. It was simple: A piece of scrap wood (Mine is about 8.5 inches in diameter because that's what I had on hand), a piece of tanned, undyed leather about 6 inches square and 1.5 mm thick, and a layer of wool batting roughly 3m thick sandwiched between. Holes were drilled in the leather and wood to line up properly, the batting was cut a little narrower to fit in between, and the whole thing was bound together with a shoelace. I also photocopied a picture of the label and glued it on the bottom.

(NOTE: After putting together, I realized that the additional single hold on one side may have been for purposes of increasing the tension on the shoelace, and thereby possibly tightening the leather against the platform a little more. I'm not sure, but next time I get out my drill, I may add that hole and relace the whole thing and see what happens.)

Considering the simplicity of the design, it seems doubtful that such a device would be awarded a patent today. But back in 1919 when the application was filed, the patent office probably hadn't seen or thought about anything like this before.

Here's my replica pad: 

And here's a very short video of my trying it out, first on top of a regular pad and then on my lap (because the pad kept creeping on top of my other pad):

The feel is actually not that bad. When you remember that a 1920 drummer would use this for quiet practice and then play on a drum with a calfskin head, the feel is probably just about right. Lower-tensioned drums of this era would require the player to "pull" the strokes out of the drum, a technique that is not required (or useful) on high-tension Kevlar-headed drums today.

The shoelace prevents a flat, flush connection between the bottom of the pad and the head of a drum, which may be why there's significant "creep". However, a 12-inch pad could also be mounted on a drum stand with pretty good results, provided it could be secured tightly in the basket.

I'm glad I did this, as the experience gives me more information about drumming technique and practice approaches from this era. However, I'll be content and not try to make another in a 12-inch size for now.

Happy drumming.

Vintage Corner: Remo's precursor to the tuneable pad (Part III, sort of)

Here's the followup to my previous posts about the Remo tuneable practice pad.

First, Remo has a really cool little timeline at their web site that allows you to see major developments from the company's beginnings up till around 2007 (the timeline could use an update). From there, I was able to learn a few things that helped me to place the Remo pads in my collection on the historic timelime.

My plastic pad dates from the 1970s.
My two metal-rimmed tuneable pads date from the early to mid 1960s -- basically, until Remo began making tuneable pads with hard plastic rims.
But I have two pads that pre-date these pads, and I always wondered exactly where they came from.

These pads are not tuneable. They are constructed entirely of wood and use very early versions of Remo's synthetic drumhead material, for which patent paperwork was first filed in 1957 (the patent was granted in 1962; prior to this, most drummers had to live with calfskin heads and the vagaries of temperature and humidity that affected them. The synthetic drum head was a revelation as well as a revolution).
Beneath the head there appears to be what's left of some kind of foam (padding? muffling?); it has disintegrated over the decades, leaving a pad with an unsatisfying, hard "thud" sound.

Construction: each pad is made of wood, a built-in tilt and a sound chamber made of a thin piece of wood that looks like it was heated and bent into a curve. The framework holding the head is mounted on top of the curve, making for a resonant pad.

One of the things that can stymie research is a lack of serial numbers or other markers. These can be found on drums, but generally never appear on practice pads.

However, Remo's timeline gives us some help in determining exactly how old these pads are.

Remo's timeline goes as far as charting the course of its "Crown" logo design over the years, which in this case helped me more closely date these pads, the first produced under the Remo brand.

The larger pad's logo is worn, but still visible enough to determine a manufacture date.

Based on Remo's timeline info, that would date this pad to right around 1958-60, making it the first generation of practice pad offered by Remo.
Below, the logo from the smaller pad.

This means that the smaller pad is almost surely from 1961, since the new plastic-rimmed pad was rolled out in early 1962.
Not all companies provide such useful historic information to collectors, but Remo's timeline is especially helpful here. If you look closely at some points along the timeline, you can even click on links to patent information.

Like I said, playing these pads is NOT an exciting experience. The feel and sound are klunky.
It would be great to find a pad in as-new condition, with the foam in original shape, so I could get a better sense of how it sounded in the late 50s.

I hope you've found this exploration as interesting as I have. Happy drumming!