Drum redoo: practice pad platform

For over a year, this homemade platform from scrap wood and a torn drum mute served as a great base for my practice pad.

Tonight, I added a layer of cork contact paper, and now I have an amazing practice pad that simulates the feel of my floor toms.

#DIYpracticepad

#makestuffoutofstuff

cross section of layers

UPDATE! I added an old angle bar to make a "guard rail" so I can tilt the platform enough for traditional grip. Works great!

Coming soon to my studio: the OG Slimpad. Yes, really.

 I woke up much too early this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I got up, fed the cats and slipped into my studio to play quietly on a soft pad. I also checked my messages and feed, and I’m glad I did.

Because something popped up for sale I never thought I’d see. 

YeeeeUP. The one, the only, the very first Vic Firth Slimpad. A guy in the Facebook Drum Pad group had just posted one for sale. And I was the first in the group to see it. So of course I contacted him, and two minutes after that I pad for it. I should have it in my hands by later this week.

For an explanation of why this is such a holy grail among practice pad enthusiasts, feel free to check out my post from 2020 about the other offering from this series, the original VF Stockpad:

http://drumlove1.blogspot.com/2020/08/vintage-rewind-vic-firth-stockpad-first.html

These pads had a response that was unsurpassed. Designed by Bill Bachman and a couple other stars from the marching arts in the mid-1990s in conjunction with Vic Firth, and when they were introduced they made a big splash. Non-marching drummers discovered that the Stockpad, with its 1/4” gum rubber playing surface, could also be useful for concert and rock practice, while the 1/8”-topped Slimpad was pretty much strictly a marching-specific pad — possibly the first of its kind in the industry. 

Because kids in the late 90s didn’t have the kind of pocket money that today’s kids do, the pads didn’t take off quickly at first. Finally, when they did become popular, production costs forced the company to switch to a rubber compound, rather than a pure gum rubber used in the beginning.

While they swear there was no change in the rubber playing surface for either model, a few thousand drummers who’ve tried both still beg to differ. 

As a result of the change in rubber “recipe,” the original versions of the Stockpad and Slimpad are highly sought after by drummers and pad collectors, and especially hard to find. I scored my first Stockpad when it came out and I was teaching privately. One of my students stole it and I never saw him or the pad again. I was able to replace it a couple of years ago, but I basically gave up on ever finding the rarer Slimpad.

(The Slimpad is harder to find because, being marching-specific, it was slower to catch on, fewer were sold before the change in materials and most ended up being played literally into the ground by their owners.)

So when this one showed up, I was very surprised. And I had to act fast before someone else bought it.

I look forward to laying my sticks on this beautiful pad when it gets here.

Happy drumming.

DIY Drummer: New Vintage -- Bower replica pads, small batch

I was asked by Mark Beecher (president of NARD and a brilliant drummer and drum historian) if I’d make up a few replicas of the first patented practice pad, designed by Harry Bower in 1919 and patented in 1921.

Other pads were in existence, and offered by various makers throughout the early years of the twentieth century. But the concept of “mass”production in the 1910s was at best, in the hundreds, not in the tens of thousands large companies produce today.

Bower’s design was simple, and by modern standards downright primitive. A wooden platform, a layer of wool, covered by a thin layer of tanned leather, all bound up by string or a shoelace. I. Still trying to learn what the retail price was but I can’t imagine it was more than a dollar or two.

After the patent was awarded, Bower contracted with another fellow to “mass” produce the pads and distribute them. I’m still researching the success of the enterprise — and the longevity. 

Anyway, here’s the pad.

I glued a copy of the original label to the underside.

And did this over again five times. Four of the pads are available at $50 each including shipping in USA, and my original prototype is available at $25 including shipping in USA. 

(I’ll keep the fifth pad for myself.)

It’s not a modern pad. There’s just enough response that you can use your wrists and fingers to pull out decent strokes from the leather. If you want effortless rebound, buy a RealFeel.

But if you want to try a pad that your grandparents or great-grandparents might have practiced on, try this. It will give you new respect for the drummers of an earlier age and help you appreciate how far we’ve come.

(Video, playing my finished pad according to the instructions on the label)

In praise of 2B sticks

I was recently invited to join yet another Facebook group, this one devoted to "Boutique and Collectible Drumsticks," where I've been getting an education in the range and scope of high-zoot, hand-turned sticks.

Since most of what the other members own and use is beyond my paygrade, I decided to stick with my focus of vintage sticks in the sizes I normally use. It's a cheaper option and in most cases, a more attainable one. It also allows me to start in a more familiar landscape; most of the fancy sticks are made and enjoyed by folks in either the symphonic or ancient drum corps categories, neither of which I inhabit.

So here I am with a bag full of sticks in the most familiar and ordinary size of 2B.

This is the size most beginning drum students learn on (except for me -- my hands were too small at age ten to manage the size, so my 5th grade band director gave me a pair of 5A's instead. In retrospect it may not have been the best choice but my hands eventually grew to manage large sizes and, well, here we are.) It's a good all-around stick for school use and remains my personal favorite for ordinary concert, rudimental and pad work.

(Before we continue, feel free to read this excellent overview of how and why drum sticks sizes came about.)

As with all things manufactured, there's a fair amount of variety within a given size designation. Below is a spread of drumsticks in my collection, all labeled "2B" and all slightly different from each other.

Below, Left to Right: Vater 2B, Vater "Classics" 2B, KK 2B (made in Russia), Vic Firth American Sound 2B (no longer made), Speedex 2B (1960s), Fibes 2B "Band" and 2B "Power" (both circa 1978 or so), Carroll 2B (1960s, Mercury 2B (1950s) and Slingerland Haskell Harr signature 2B (early 1960s, nylon tip)

The variety found in this small group illustrates the lack of standardization, which remains with us today. Up close, you can see even more variety, just by looking at the tip and taper of each pair:

For example, the Fibes sticks are freakishly different in tip and taper from the rest. (I admit that I loved playing with "Power" 2Bs in high school band, and when I found a pair recently I HAD to have them again.) Otherwise, with the exception of The Vic Firth American Sound's round tip, everything else has some variation of the rounded or acorn tip found commonly in this designation.

I enjoy comparing and contrasting the response and sound of different sticks within a size designation, but for most of my daily pad work, I always end up returning to the Vater 2B (Far left). The balance and feel just work well for my hands at this point.

When looking for a pair of sticks I'm going to play a lot, I always want to check for straightness, weight and pitch-matching.
When I was kid, this meant going to the stick display and trying every pair of sticks in a brand and size designation until I found a pair or two that checked all the boxes.
Today, most of the major manufacturers claim to do this as part of their quality controls before the sticks leave the factory; its been my experience that the top three -- Vic Firth, Promark and Vater -- do a pretty good job of this, and I tend to trust their judgment most of the time.
However, it helps that if I order their sticks through the mail and am not satisfied, I can send them back for replacement. (Vater is especially great about this in my limited experience.)

With the advent of custom sticks, it has become possible to establish a relationship with a small maker over time, and then bring to them an older mass-produced stick for their suggestions and improvement, making for a truly custom -- and expensive -- product. Again, that's too rich for my blood, but I'm glad to know the option exists.

Finally, Here's an example of a "mass-produced" pair of sticks from the 1960s, before strict quality controls were in place:

Speedex 2B. Note the difference in length --

-- and in taper and tip shape as well.

This would be far less likely to happen today. But I keep this pair on hand to remind me what things were like and to see how far we've come.

Today it is possible to find even a cheap pair of drumsticks with tighter tolerances and quality control than "better" sticks of my childhood, so anyone can find a decent pair of sticks and get started on their next drumming adventure.

Carry on.
Happy chopping!