Product Review and wrap-up: Techra, Vic Firth and carbon sticks in general

The last batch of carbon sticks arrived in the mail today for testing and review.

Techra is an Italian company that focuses exclusively on carbon sticks and accessories. I'd been intrigued by their product line after reading enthusiastic reports by players in a drumming chatroom and decided to try and find some on discount (because these sticks ain't cheap).

I purchased a pair each of the Techra Carbon Pro and the Colossus models, both in size 2B.
Here are my initial reactions.

1. Carbon Pro -- Techra's product description:

– Suitable for all styles of music — great for jazz, pop, and rock.
– Slightly front-weighted to improve power and speed.

ANTI VIBRATION SYSTEM
We place a rubber tip at the bottom of the drumstick to help with vibration absorption. Increased comfort and high stiffness allow for expanded tonal expression.

CARBON PRO vs WOOD

BALANCE : Perfectly balanced
REBOUND : Same
SOUND VOLUME : Higher
WEARING : No Chips
DURABILITY : Up to 3/4 Times More

2. Colossus -- Techra's product description:

– Agile, fast, and powerful sticks for precise playing
– Perfect balance with reduced vibration thanks to our anti-vibration system on the rubber
– Up to nine times more durable than wooden sticks

ANTI VIBRATION SYSTEM
We place a rubber tip at the bottom of the drumstick to help with vibration absorption. Increased comfort and high stiffness allow for expanded tonal expression.

COLOSSUS vs WOOD

WEIGHT: 20% Lighter
BALANCE : Perfectly balanced
REBOUND : Same
SOUND VOLUME : Much Higher
WEARING : No Chips
DURABILITY : Up to 9/10 Times More

First, I pulled out the two other pairs of carbon sticks I'd previously bought, so I could reacquaint myself with the overall feel of carbon and get that in my short-term muscle memory.

The first two sets of carbon sticks I'd gotten were the CarboStick 5A (SpritzgussTechnik) and the Titan 5B (Vic Firth, no longer made).

Then, I tried the Carbon Pro model. It's front-weighted for "power and speed," but past a certain point a front-weighted stick will actually slow me down. I found I was on the edge of that feeling with the Carbon Pro.

The Colossus sticks felt lighter and faster, and I preferred them over the Carbon Pro sticks. They are more balanced throughout the length of the stick and I could feel the difference.

Finally, because I wanted to see if I could tell the difference, I tried the Titan sticks again.


I could tell a difference between the two Techra models, and I prefer the Colossus' more balanced feel. However, I felt like there was something missing from either pair of Techra sticks, so I grabbed the Titans and played with them again.

And you know what? I liked the Titan sticks a lot more. They were the closest to feeling "alive" in my hands. Not quite as alive as a wood stick, mind you; but they have a vibrancy and response that I didn't quite get with the Techra sticks.

(Also worth noting is that there's not a huge difference in diameter between the 2B Carbon Pro and the 5B Titan.)

I recognize that carbon sticks are primarily for rock and pop drummers, and not intended for rudimental work or marching drums. Still, my background in rudimental drumming means I want a certain feel from my sticks, and I can't completely eliminate that bias.

If I were a rock drummer with big, strong hands, I might give the Colossus sticks a try. Just don't look for a lively response, as these are meant to power your way through straight time and big fills.  I find the front-weighted Carbon Pro to be too off-balance for my liking, but a rock drummer who likes a front-weighted stick might give these a try.

And thus ends my experimentation with carbon sticks. I'll keep the Titans and maybe the CarboSticks, as they both have a light enough feel that I won't hurt myself messing around with them. But these 2B sticks from Techra really ought to go to someone who plays rock and plays it loud. They'd be wasted in any other application.

The Italian-made Techra sticks retail for anywhere from $50 to 90 a pair (depending on model). They are available in small quantities from the big online retailers (Musicians' Friend, et al). Or, you can order them directly from the maker and buy at least 60 Euros' worth of their product for free shipping.

I'm going to toss these up online for sale at a discount.

Happy Chopping.

I’ve been sent to timeout by a pad manufacturer. Oh, well.

 Remember Revolution? Their ads are all over social media and their Chopping Block pad got popular very fast. So I bit the bullet and tried one.

Then I sold it.

That was a few weeks ago.

Yesterday, Revolution’s surveybot contacted me and invited me to take a short survey. So I did. In my answers, I took them to task for not being more forthcoming with answers to my pre-purchase questions.

Today, I got a response that took ME to task for being, in their words, “the kind of customer small businesses dread.” They then told me that their teak source was FSC approved, their foam surface was patented (but no further details on where it came from before assembly in Bend) and that their pads cost $65 to make. Then they wished me “Peace.”

Uh, okay.

So I guess this puts in me some kind of Practice Pad Jail. Perhaps it will make other pad companies steer clear of me and my blog and not grant me interviews. And if so, perhaps it’s just as well.

I admit that I’ve lost interest in exploring new drum products by large companies anymore.  So in the future, I’ll probably stick to the obscure and fledgling creatives and makers, and also to the cool vintage stuff. 

Because at the end of the day, no company that can sell its products directly AND through at least three different mail-order warehouses is THAT small. No company offering oblique answers at best to questions about sustainable manufacturing practices is super-sustainable. The world is filled beyond capacity with things that are not sustainably made, and we don’t need anymore. Those who can afford to will shop around and be willing to pay more for truly sustainable products. Those who can’t afford to will buy their stuff used. Both will shop less often, repair things and make them last, or make do without.

And honestly, that’s not most of the drum industry anymore.

So perhaps this comes at the right time for me to shift my focus to the used, the vintage and the underdog making things in the most sustainable way possible. And that feels more than okay. I ruffled some feathers but perhaps I expanded some conversations too. I have no regrets, and I’ll keep on drumming for health and happiness.

Wherever your surfing takes you, happy drumming!

Product Review: Ahead aluminum drumsticks

 I’ll cut to the chase:

These are bad enough that I’m glad I got them at a discount. The packaging touts:

— Durability (yeah, okay, probably)

— Protection (for cymbals, at least)

— Safety (I’m not gonna play these long enough to find out if I get more or less tendinitis)

— Comfort (Ummm, NO.)

— Consistency and Efficiency (if they suck, these last two are moot)

Maybe I’ve played with wood sticks for too long. Maybe my technique needs a massive adjustment.  Or maybe these just feel sort of dead. I dunno. 

Playing an even roll on a pad or a tuned drum feels awful. It’s doable, but I am doing ALL the work. When I imagined trying to play a two-hour show with these, I shuddered. They are that horrible.

Aluminum. UGH. I should’ve known better. 

Aluminum bicycle frames offer a high degree of strength because the tubes are thick-walled and stiff enough to support a heavy rider or handle the repeated impacts of off-riding. The ride is pretty harsh, and riders are taught to let the bike “move” under them and use their joints to help absorb shocks.  That’s doable by a trained, fit rider on a short-track race course. 

But asking a drummer to do that, to absorb the shocks with the hands, fingers and wrists, from a stick with no give, is insane. It feels like a sure path to carpal tunnel or worse.

The sticks have replaceable plastic/nylon tips, replaceable plastic sheaths that cover some part of the stick underneath (I haven’t taken the sticks apart, because I have no desire to look further). 

The fact that these sticks have replacement parts may inspire confidence in some, but it just makes me shake my head. It’s bad enough that playing with these sticks regularly could really hurt my hands; how hard do I want to think if I have to buy replacement parts for my DRUMSTICKS?

..::Cue Wile E. Coyote raising dust cloud at bottom of ravine::..

I play drums, people. I HIT things with sticks. Stuff will sometimes break, even under my smaller hands. If the quality was worth the trade-offs I’d be more open to living with these for the sake of sustainability. But aluminum production is not super sustainable (even if the finished stick handles are recyclable), and when combined with Some Kind Of Plastic (see: front end of stick) it’s all just so unclear.

I admit it. I don’t get these sticks at all.

They’ll go in the 2B bag as a curiosity, or even a graphic example of a mistake; but it’s not like I’m gonna rush out and buy any more.  Sorry.

They look cool, absolutely. I’m sure lots of young rock drummers will want to try them, and some may consider switching to them as their regular stick.

I’m here to persuade them, and you, to avoid them. Aluminum is a great material for certain purposes. Drumming isn’t one of them.

Interview with Brian Kiethly and Russ Buchek of Ingrained Instruments

Based in the St. Louis area, Brian Keithly and Russ Buchek are crafting beautiful drum sticks in very small batches, from all sorts of domestic and exotic hardwoods, and selling them under the company name Ingrained Instruments. I had a chance to chat with them recently about their handcrafting adventures, the wood selection and stick making processes, and why they chose to enter the fray of high-end, hand-crafted drumsticks.

BH: What's your drumming story? How did you get into drumming and why?

BK: Russ and I have been best friends since HS, and it centered around music. We work well together, we can attack a project without having to speak, really.
I didn’t really get into drumming until I was around fifteen or so. My father played a little, and I got into messing with his drums. Close to graduation, my brother got into guitar and I hopped on kit.
I’ve also been into making and building things with my hands, for a long time.

BH: What's the story of Ingrained Instruments?

BK: You always want something you can’t seem to find out there already. Russ and I talked about this for a long time. A neighbor from down the street has been a woodworker for a long time had has a workshop in his garage. I asked him for guidance and eventually he wound up just turning a pair of sticks — he’s not a musician but they were really good right off the bat.

RB: Then it became of question of “How do WE do this?” and we just got more and more into it.
Eventually we got into this thing where we each got into some aspect of the process and got good at it.
RB: But it’s a very home grown, grass-roots kind of thing, where we learned as we went along.
BK: We’ve gotten into mixing old school woodworking with some automation, and each time we make an improvement it’s been huge — because the process has been and continues to be very organic.

BH: How do you select what woods you will make sticks from?

BK: I began with woods that were less common because I was really curious about them.  I had a martial arts fighting staff made from purple heart and wondered what it would be like to make sticks from it. I ask, “Will it be playable? Will it be workable on a lathe? How will it cure?"  We use the  Janka Hardness scale, which tells us what woods’ hardnesses are from softer to harder. The hard part with wood is that it can be so changeable, and so you have to figure out whether the actual wood you find may or may not be the best in that species.
RB: sometimes the wood you get will have burls or knots that can be hard to work with and still have the sticks come out straight.
BK: I want it all to be functional when it’s done.

BH: How does sustainability/scarcity factor into your choices?

RB: We’re trying to grow relationships with local companies that source domestic wood so we can have a more hands-on way of selecting woods. The more local, sustainably grown wood, the better.  
BK: There’s a few regular places online and one place locally which also import woods like cocobolo, ebony, and other woods not grown here. Those woods are getting harder to locate and far more expensive. Choosing those woods will get harder and harder and that will affect our choices and also our process of manufacture as we try to keep sourcing woods that will make great sticks. If we can get something whose source we trust (to be sustainable and/or imported legally) we’ll go with it.
There’s dozen different species of hickory and the fact that there are more domestic woods becoming available is encouraging for us.

BH: Has anyone questioned your wood choices for environmental reasons? How do you respond?

BK: We don’t use enough wood yet for anyone to really ask us about that, but things are changing all the time and we know that those questions are coming. We are looking at materials that will help us stay sustainable in new and interesting ways.
RB: Brian is very artistic and creative, and so when we started getting “off” strips of random pieces, which we can then layer and laminate — and utilize to make beautiful sticks. So we’re looking into doing more of that as well. We’re looking at both synthetic and natural non-wood sources like carbon fiber, bamboo and even hemp. We’re open to all kinds of experimenting to find our way to good playable sticks from materials that aren’t endangered and that’s exciting.
RB: Combining certain materials as we do also makes the stick "pop" visually.

BH: When making sticks one at a time, are there things that make it easier or harder to match weight and pitch? (My brother-in-law is also a woodworker, who specializes in repairing and restoring antique spinning wheels and making drop [hand] spindles, so I'd guess there's some overlap; but he doesn't have to worry quite as much about weight-matching as you do.) How much do pitch and weight matter in the sticks you sell?

BK: I’ve found that kit players tend to worry about pitch less than marching and concert players. A big part of it is starting off with wood that’s as clean as possible.
RB: If we weigh the planks before we start to work them, then it’s a little easier to match pairs up. but with wood there’s never an ironclad guarantee…

BH: But there’s still a high-wire excitement to this, isn’t there?
BK: If we get an unusual piece of wood that’s a one-of-a-kind, there’s no way to predict, except to try and minimize the margin of error at the start.

BH: Besides drumsticks, are there other musical items you're working on bringing out? (In as little or as much detail as you're comfortable with)

BK: This whole thing actually began around practice pads, but sticks took over quickly. We’ll probably get back to developing pads soon. We’ve also made guitar picks — Russ plays guitar — I’m experimenting right now with a tabletop music stand with a stick holder underneath.
RB: We’re both creative and musicians, so the thought process is going on all the time.

BH: Anything else you’d like to add?

RB: It’s been so interesting making a drumstick. I play guitar, and had never thought about sticks but I’ve learned a lot about this — from Brian, and also from Eric Harris and the folks at the Boutique Sticks group on Facebook — it’s been quite an education.
BK: The last three years of my life and building this into a business, has been some of the most rewarding time of my life. It’s been incredible to meet and learn from so many people around the world. It gives me hope.

The latest rabbit hole: carbon fiber drum sticks

 Yeah, I know, what’s an old-school Drummer like me doing with carbon fiber sticks?

I don’t know, but I do like to follow my curiosity. So when these came up in Reverb for roughly the same price as a new pair of wood sticks,  I thought I’d try them.

Thanks to 20+ years repairing and then stripping carbon bikes, I’ve always been nervous about anything made from carbon fiber that’s likely to get smacked. (Ten years after retirement, I still can’t look at post-crash photos of carbon bikes and bits.)

But this was a cheap way to walk through the door.

$12 plus postage from Reverb seller.

Carbostck 5A, made by German company SpritzguSStechnik.

It feels perhaps a tiny bit skinnier than my Promark 5As, probably closer to the Vater LA 5As in diameter.

What they call a “classic” tip isn’t truly classic, but it also isn’t horrible.

In fact, I thought this would suck a whole lot more than it has.

They ARE still a little bit “klunky” feeling and they definitely DO make a wood 5A feel lighter in weight — and livelier — by comparison.

And at this price, it’s not a bad way to try out carbon fiber.

Though if I were going to use these on my drum kit, I’d put some Vater stick wrap on the shoulder to keep the carbon fibers from flying through the air after a misplaced rim shot.

I think I might need to try some other makes and models to learn more.

Got something carbon that you think is cool? Let me know.

Below: comparison between Carbostick 5A and Promark 5A.

Some final thoughts on the new “workout” pad phenomenon.

 For the last six to eight months, I’ve had some fun obtaining and trying out all sorts of different pads advertised as being specifically for “working out” or “warmups.” Here’s a list of what I’ve cycled through:

— Reflexx (pre-Zildjian)

— Revolution 

— Drumeo Quiet Pad (1st generation)

— Prologix Red, Blue and Black

— Moongel (early edition, borrowed briefly from a friend)

I didn’t have the Moongel for more than a week, not long enough for me to really live with it and decide if I wanted one for myself. In hindsight, probably not.

This has given me a fairly wide range of surfaces to try out, and also some time to consider the whole idea of “working out” on  a playing surface.

Before the advent of so-called “workout” pads, drummers warmed up on any old practice pad, or on an actual drum. 

So who decided that the world needed pads specifically for “warming up” or “working out” as if weightlifting were part of the drummer’s training?

That’s not a completely rhetorical question. Specificity in practice pads became big — and big money — when pad makers realized there was, as marching drums got higher and tighter, a growing market for marching-specific pads. So finding another specific market isn’t such a far-fetched phenomenon.

It may be, however, an unfortunate one.

In the years before pads got SO specialized, all drummers learned how to play roughly the same way. Learn and master the twenty-six original rudiments; learn how to read music; and then apply the techniques learned to playing in dance bands, drum corps, school marching bands and classical orchestras. With only minor differences in technique, a drummer could transfer his or her skills from one kind of music to another without too much fuss. Good drummers before the rise of specialization were those who could play and read in nearly every style, and they were the ones who found steady work in opera and vaudeville houses, musical theatre pit orchestras, jazz combos and military outfits.

When drum corps and marching bands began to change, to “modernize,” in the late 1970s, most drummers still had to know how to do everything well. As drum technology evolved, as drums got higher-pitched and higher-tensioned, it soon became clear that differences in playing style and technique were necessary, since Kevlar and carbon marching drum heads required a different approach than looser Mylar heads still used in jazz and symphonic work.

And so the practice surfaces for each diverged more and more, until by the early 2000s there were pads for “general” use and pads for “marching” use. Over time, the young people involved in the marching arts were relatively easy to channel into a new market for pad makers, and specialty pads for marching drummers became, as the kids say, A Thing.

And that’s how we got to where we are now.

Some of the marching-specific pads are quite good, in as much as they promote and encourage the kind of technique required in today’s drum lines. Are modern marching drums and pads, and the technique required to play them, healthy for still-growing hands and arms? I’m not medically qualified to answer that question with any authority. What I DO know is that many older drummers (those marching before the advent of high-tension drums) who grew up marching with lower-tensioned drums often find it very hard — and sometimes painful — to make the transition to Kevlar and carbon heads. 

That’s something worth thinking about.

Back to “workout” pads.

Why do I need to “work out” when it comes to drumming? I play drums nearly every single day, and usually warm up with a page from “StickControl” (still the best drum book that no one ever loved), followed by some Rudimental exercises or short pieces at different tempi. By then, my hands are ready to tackle whatever it is I want to look at that day, whether behind the drum kit or with a marching snare drum. (*note: I play marching drums with lower-tensioned Mylar heads exclusively, and will never play a Kevlar-headed drum again. My hands are too old, arthritic and accustomed to lower tension.)

So after several months of trying out these different “workout” pads, I came to the realization that in the end, I probably don’t need them. 

I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that, in the end, neither do most other drummers.

I’ll go even further and say that “workout” pads should NOT be given to young drummers whose hands are still growing.

Why? Because if they’re used improperly, or too often, or for too long, they can actually hurt your hands rather than help them. And while many of my readers came from a world where private teachers and one-on-one instruction were par for the course, there are many drummers who still don’t have access to that and who have to figure things out themselves.
Giving young, unschooled drummers  one of these “workout” pads and letting them pound away with little or no guidance is a mistake that could result in injury.

Something that is or feels like a real (non-Kevlar) drum is probably the best choice for drummers of any age and level of experience. 

So I have been letting go of those “workout” pads, one by one.

Today, I’m down to one “workout” pad, the Drumeo Quiet Pad,  and it’s the obverse surface of a pad that has a basic silicon rubber top side. I’ll probably hang onto it for awhile, as part of my pad collection.

The rest are gone. I won’t miss them. 

Today I broke out a rubber practice pad, warmed up on it, and then settled in for a short session working up another of the Wilcoxon solos. It felt fine. When I was done, my hands did not hurt from overwork.

Cheers and happy drumming.

Product Review: Cardinal single-sided practice pad, La BackBeat model 635 sticks

As promised, here's the full product review of two items that I think pair nicely.

First, the single-sided practice pad from Cardinal Percussion.
Cardinal Percussion is a relatively new wholesale company based in Ohio, founded by two industry longtimers who wanted to create a wholesale distributor focused solely on percussion.

From their web site: "Cardinal wholesales many of the leading Percussion brands. Cardinal Percussion is also the owner, manufacture, distributor of Attack Drumheads, Cardinal Packaged Accessories, Wuhan Cymbals and Gongs."

If I understand correctly, a great deal of what Cardinal sells under their own branding is not manufactured in the USA. They may own certain brands, and that may go as far as owning the factories in which those products are made; but based on the retail pricing it seems clear that most of what is branded "Cardinal Percussion" is manufactured outside the USA.

I'm not a purist when it comes to my environmentalism; I couldn't be and still be a drummer, and that is just a fact of life in 2022. When I can, I buy and play used/refurbished instruments to reduce my own personal carbon footprint. But there's not a whole lot more I can do and still be a drummer.

That said, if products are being made overseas by cheaper labor (in large part because the cost of living in many of those countries is lower for the general population), it stands to reason that the retail pricing would reflect that. It doesn't always, and perhaps we're at the beginning of a sea change in which US-distrbuted goods made overseas will see their retail prices go up because of global inflation.
I'd like for more drum companies to just be transparent. If your pads are made in China, fine; just slap a tiny sticker on the bottom to that effect and people can make up their own minds about whether to buy it or keep looking.

But I digress.

The Cardinal practice pad stands out because of its affordability, its overall quality, AND its striking similarity to a much-loved pad no longer in production: the tan gum rubber RealFeel pad.

Comparing the two, the Cardinal is a little bit harder in feel, and that may be because of a lower percentage of gum rubber and a higher percentage of nylon or silicon in the compound (Pure gum rubber needs binding agents to keep it from decaying in bright sunlight after one season on tour).
I inquired about manufacturing but got no answers from the company other than a "thank you" for my compliments on what a nice pad it is to play. So this is the best I can do.

(Industry insiders, feel free to school me, as always.)

The pad comes in two sizes, 6" and 12" diameter; and either single-sided white rubber or double-sided white and black rubber, with the black surface being much harder and denser than the white one.
I ordered my single-sided pad through Flam7, which is also based in Ohio. They supply percussion for concert and marching use, but their focus leans heavily towards the marching arts.

The appearance is elegantly simple, and the construction appears pretty solid, certainly durable enough to hold up through a few seasons of marching band or drum corps. 

1/4" of gum rubber compound is applied to what feels like a compressed particleboard platform, onto which red paint is applied thickly enough that I can't really discern what the wood is underneath. But it's fairly heavy, so I'm leaning towards particleboard of some kind. I did see a couple tiny globs of clear epoxy poking out from under the rubber, indicating a "decent enough" approach to quality controls. That's okay. At a retail price of around $27 I can't complain much.

One thing I don't understand is the decision to utilize a threaded mount on the underside of the 12" single-sided pad. It looks solid enough, but I'd rather put this ;larger pad in a standard snare drum stand to reduce the wobbliness that would come from a single contact point (the threaded top of a cymbal stand). If you do buy the single-sided 12" model, you may wish to tighten down the screws on the underside another 1/4" carefully and by hand, to reduce unwanted extra noise.

Since I don't plan to ever mount this pad in a stand, I may ultimately decide to remove the threaded mount altogether and fille the hole with wood putty or epoxy to take out the hollow sound at the center. We'll see.

But it's a fun pad to play, and the feel reminds me enough of the old tan RealFeel that I could be quite content to chop on this pad and not bother looking for the other, which by now has become a unicorn of sorts.

Next up: a pair of sticks from the small-batch company La BackBeat. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, Frank Kincel has been making drum sticks since 2013, and his stick designs are simple and based on years of drumming experience -- and input from professional drummers.
I found La BackBeat one evening by "falling down a rabbit hole" on the internet and landing there. I really liked what I saw, and ordered a few pairs in different sizes.

Frank's philosophy is to make smaller batches really well, rather than to rush the process for the sake of high turnaround and faster sales. He says that on a really good day he can turn out 200 to 400 sticks per day. (Compare that to a large mass producer like Vater or Vic Firth for some perspective.)  It shows in his work, and his work ethic. He offers three grades of drum sticks: Pro Grade, Player Grade and Wonky. Pro Grade sticks are finished and matched for weight and pitch. Player grade are not matched for pitch, but are straight and fully finished. "Wonky" sticks are just that -- sticks that came out slightly off-kilter but make a good practice stick, or work for the player who goes through sticks quickly and doesn't worry so much about pitch and weight but just wants a bag of sticks they can reach into when they break one.

Frank uses US hickory for his sticks, and designates stick sizes by diameter and tip shape first, with the addition of an "X" indicating longer-reach sticks.

What really sets LaBB apart from other small-batch stick makers is the pricing.
Right now, Most Pro Grade sticks that are in stock cost ten bucks a pair; Player Grade are seven bucks a pair and Wonky sticks are five bucks a pair.
So I wouldn't call LaBB a "boutique" maker at all. Just a guy making drum sticks that any drummer can afford to buy in quantity and stay reasonably supplied.

I decided to try a couple pairs of the model 635, a beefy stick that feels like a 2B on steroids. I chose the Player Grade to save a little money.
Even with the slight difference in pitch, it's a great pad stick, and would also work as a marching stick for smaller hands. It feels solid, fine-grained and sturdy. The taper is a bit lacking but for this application that's not such a big deal.
(Don't worry; LaBB also offers jazz and pop sticks that are shaped and finished more appropriately for those styles, and I'll review those sticks later.)

The feel of these Model 635 sticks on the Cardinal pad is terrific, like they were meant to be paired together.

And a closer look reveals just how fine-grained these sticks are.
Here are the sticks, showing the short, fat taper and the big oval tip.
The last two photos show a comparison with the Vater 2B, both for size and also for grain.
The Vater sticks have a more coarse grain and also a more coarse finish.
In fact, the reason I was so excited about finding LaBB sticks is because, while I liked the balance of Vater sticks, I kept getting tiny splinters in my hands. That was enough of a turn-off for me to go looking for something else.

 

I'm pretty happy with these sticks, not only on this pad but on others pads I enjoy, like the red Barney Beats pad from Evans and the Chop Pad from Rudimental Drummers.
Because the production at LaBB is relatively low, it's best to check back regularly (like a few times a week!) to see if the pair you want is back on the shelf, and when it is, buy several pairs at a time.
 

And I'd recommend this pad for anyone who wishes they had a tan RealFeel. The response and rebound are similar enough that you could be happy with this one and stop looking for unicorns.

 

Happy Chopping!

Review Preview: Cardinal Percussion Practice Pad and La BackBeat Model 635 sticks

I don't often review multiple items, but these two go together SO well that I'm preparing a double review. Stay tuned. Hoping to post this Sunday or Monday of next week.

Product Review: Revolution "Chopping Block" practice pad UPDATED

I've enjoyed exploring the new and growing world of so-called "workout" pads, as covered in my previous post.
I've learned a few things:

-- First, don't play your "workout" pad a ton. Just a few minutes each morning and evening is plenty, especially if you're a beginning to intermediate drummer. If you play it a lot, you will get really sore hands, fingers and wrists, and you may hurt something that will force you to stop drumming for a little while. Which would be a massive bummer.

-- If you buy a pad you're only going to warm up on twice a day, there is -- or should be -- a pricepoint beyond which nothing makes logical sense. More on that later.

After trying several different makes and models of "workout" pads, I was ready to follow my curiosity and bite the bullet on a Revolution "Chopping Block" pad.
They're hard to miss if you spend any time online. Their ads pop up all over the place and they're endorsed by at least a few famous drummers [below a certain age -- heh heh].
Plus, they're very attractive in appearance.

So I managed to buy a "B-stock" ("blemished") pad at half the price of a new one. Even that was steep at $70.00, but in the interest of science or research or some such whatever, I went for it.

Below is my video assessment of the Revolution "Chopping Block" pad.
Additional comments and opinions follow the video.

As I shared in the video, I did manage to ask a few questions via FB messenger and the answers were slightly less than complete. Since then, Revolution has not returned any emails or further messenger questions.  I can't say I'm surprised; I did ask some questions that many manufactureres might find pesky or, at worst, downright damning (depending on context, and context is an awful lot in this business).

So after waiting a few days for further responses and receiving none, I've decided to follow up here:

-- Revolution has designed a very nice and attractive pad that performs as advertised.
I'm putting that up front so folks know that I do NOT have a beef with the quality and performance of the product.

-- The pad is advertised as coming in small batches from a family business in the USA. And they DO make the distinction that the pads are assembled where the company is based (Bend, Oregon). However, when I asked where the various component parts -- the teak base, the silicon and closed-foam playing surfaces -- come from, I was told "Michigan and some other places."
And that is all the info I've gotten to date. I've asked for more detail and have gotten none.

Since then I've done a little more digging. The silicon and closed-foam parts can be made anywhere, and are.
Teak, on the other hand, has some issues:

Teak (Tectona grandis) is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. Tectona grandis has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicles) at the end of the branches. These flowers contain both types of reproductive organs (perfect flowers). The large, papery leaves of teak trees are often hairy on the lower surface. Teak wood has a leather-like smell when it is freshly milled and is particularly valued for its durability and water resistance. The wood is used for boat building, exterior construction, veneer, furniture, carving, turnings, and other small wood projects.^[2]

Tectona grandis is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka, but is naturalised and cultivated in many countries in Africa and the Caribbean.
Myanmar's teak forests account for nearly half of the world's naturally occurring teak.^[3](Emphasis mine) 

(from Wikipedia)

Teak is not something you can just go into the North Woods and chop down for yourself.
Further, the majority of the world's teak is coming from a country whose government engages in human rights abuses and is not officially recognized by multiple other countries.
The carbon footprint and human cost of harvesting and exporting teak is something worth considering when one is making thoughtful and informed purchases. And if one is not thinking about where materials come from to make their favorite products, then you may as well go looking for Truffla Trees instead (hat tip to Dr. Seuss and The Lorax).

I'll leave it to you, dear reader, as to how you ponder your buying choices.

-- The "small batch" part is a bit confusing. Revolution DID begin by selling the pads direct, and they still do. But since that humble start, the pads have now become available through retailers Sweetwater and Chicago Music Exchange. Both of these are big music warehouse retailers that ship all over the country; and neither would be satisfied with getting one or two pads every six to eight weeks.
So some larger economy of scale has to be at work here. And if it is, then one might be inspired to ask, "just what is my $140 paying for, if parts of the manufacturing process are being carried out overseas by underpaid and potentially abused labor?" Because even if the pad were entirely manufactured in the USA, that's still a lot of scratch for a drum practice pad.

So there it is.

I'm mostly not sorry I bought one. Like I said, it's a very nice quality product that performs as advertised.
I AM glad I bought one at half-price; it's worth the couple of tiny gouges in the wood that consigned it to the "blemished" pile.
Would I recommend it to anyone else? Probably not. Not because it sucks -- it doesn't! -- but because there are so many other choices out there whose production causes less harm and whose companies are a bit more transparent about the whole process.

I don't know if I'll keep this pad or not. It doesn't fill any holes in my pad collection or in my drumming practice that aren't already covered by something else, and now that I know what I do about teak and where it comes from — well, that’s the part where I admit I am a tiny bit embarrassed about having bought it.

Carry on.
And happy chopping!

UPDATE: the day after I wrote this blog post, I decided to put this pad up for sale. Thanks to Revolution’s hopped up advertising, I was able to sell it today for the price paid for it. 

I am also coming to some new realizations about  the whole “workout” pad thing, which I will share later. Drum on!