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.
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.
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