DIY Drummer: Practice pad marching carrier

I have been living with Long Covid/iron deficiency/God-knows-what for almost a year now. Part of my recovery has involved physical therapy in the form of walking, both to get my heart and lungs working in sync again, and also to help with my brain fog.

Knowing that as I regained strength and endurance I’d get bored with just walking, I decided I wanted a marching carrier for a practice pad, so I could add a fun dimension to my walking therapy.

Commercial versions of such a thing have been on the market for a few years, but they tend to be very expensive. I had an older CMI snare carrier and decided I would build something to fit that. I figured that adding a platform to accommodate a normal practice pad was the easiest solution.

I had nearly all of the pieces I needed lying around the shed already. A wooden round platform, some wooden spikes left over from a driveway repair project, various screws and washers, some paint left over from from having our house repainted earlier this summer, scraps of a mouse mat and three angle bars from old school marching snare drums.

I assembled the platform using the flat round and assorted wood scraps, built up and supported with wood glue and screws. I drilled two holes for it to fit onto the carrier. In hindsight, I should have drilled the holes a little closer to the edge,  so the platform would sit farther away from me. I may yet decide to do that but for now I think I’ll live with it.

When the glue dried, I took some left over paint from our recent house repainting, and painted the entire wood structure, to protect the wood and seal any holes in the plywood platform.

After trying the carrier with only one angle bar, I decided I really needed three of them spaced around the pad as “guard rails,” and then added strips from a scrap of mouse mat for additional traction underneath.

The pad sits well on the improved platform and when I hit it fairly hard it stays put.

In order for the carrier to fit me properly, I had to cold-set the aluminum bending and turning it into a shape that would better accommodate my middle-aged belly (BELLY!) and my badly-swayed back (thanks for nothing, drum corps!). 

If you decide to modify an existing carrier similarly, BE  CAREFUL when attempting to cold-set any older metal parts! This is especially true aluminum, because of how easy it is to go too far and break it — and welding aluminum is not easy, even for a pro.

Even with reshaping, the carrier could not be made perfectly shaped to my belly, so to reduce the poking from the vertical part of the t-square, I padded it with the shoulder pad from an old messenger bag.

I also needed to lower the forward tilt of the platform. To do this, I had to saw about 1/4” off of the snare drum prop arm, which made a huge difference.

I took it outside a few times and marched it up and down the sidewalk in front of the house to see how well it worked. After the final alterations, I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

I’m going to bring this along to my next physical therapy session and see what my PT a has to say.

I hope she approves.

Stick modification achievement unlocked: John Crocken Parade Rudimental sticks, modified

Man, this is FUN.

I got some longer copper pipe pieces so I could modify and re-balance a pair of John Crocken sticks that are really cool, but too forward-heavy for my liking.

Here, in photos, are the basic steps:

1. Measure how much pipe to cover the butt end with. Crocken makes this easier by decorating his sticks with burned lines.

2. Cut off the pieces needed. I cut two from the same pipe, and then — 

(3.) -- then I removed the sharp edges so they pieces would slide onto the sticks easily.

4. Lightly sand the wood and the inside of the copper pieces.

6. Apply your adhesive of choice -- mine is a small amount of Super-Glue gel -- to the inside of the copper pieces, and slide onto the sticks one at a time. Hold each stick horizontally for a few minutes to give the glue time to set, before you place them somewhere safe for thorough drying.
I chose to install the copper pieces with a millimeter of wood showing at the back.

7. After the glue has thoroughly dried, you may wish to apply a cost of clear acrylic nail polish to preserve the shine of the copper. If you don't time and air will oxidize it and make it dull. Your choice.

Also, if you want a mottled texture, apply a second coat of polish before the first coat has dried, and use the applicator to mottle the finish.

In the end, I had a beautiful pair of handcrafted sticks, re-balanced to suit my playing style. And later this afternoon, I'll play.

Hanging out with the QuietTone Practice Pad

For the last few weeks, I’ve been hanging out with various sizes and versions of the QuietTone pad. 

The QuietTone pad was originally designed and sold by Henry Adler in the 1970s. Later, it was manufactured and sold by the QuietTone company, which grew out of Adler’s design. Eventually, that business and its QuietTone pad designs were sold to the Sabian Corporation.

The OG versions (NY and NJ) of this pad are scarce and hard to find in playable condition. If you want to learn more about why this design is so good, watch Rick Dior’s discussion of practice pads on YouTube. It’s thirty minutes long and worth your time.

I have played the OG version a little and found it to have truly optimal feel and response for a concert or kit drummer. (These older versions are NOT for marching drummers!)

When Sabian took over the company, it had to use up the components on hand at the factory before deciding what to do with continuing manufacturing [overseas]. These “transitional” pads feature some aspects of Adler’s original design, and some aspects of what would eventually become the standard Sabian QuietTone design.

Changes to the pad included swapping in a heavier wood fiberboard core for the original paper fiber core, which added both durability and weight; and utilizing a pad-specific head that could not easily be replaced by a standard drum head in any size smaller than 14”. Today, Sabian produces the QuietTone pad in only the 10” and 14” sizes. 

I saw no need for the new 10” size as I already had a transitional pad in 12” but decided to get a new 14” so I could experiment with it.

The newest version here, now offered by Sabian, was made in Taiwan. As it sits it’s not awful, but it could be better.

So I took it apart.

I decided to leave off the plastic insert as kind of redundant.

The reason for the extra weight is definitely the wood fiber core.

The black rubber layer is slightly thinner than a SoundOff mute but made similarly; it’s inserted smooth side up. I turned it over to reveal the fine-patterned side, removed the plastic film insert, and swapped in a Aquarian coated batter head I had lying around.

The standard drum head has a slightly thicker collar, which prevents the inner core sliding around/off-center as you tension it. It did fit, snugly; as long as I took my time with reassembly and retensioning it was fine.

I also swapped in some deeper nuts to take up the excess threads in the tension rods.

The finished reassembly shows a vague “ripple” of the replacement batter head near the rim, the result of an earlier pad experiment with that head. I believe the ripples will flatten out with a few days of playing and perhaps readjusted tension.

It feels and sounds better by far. 

 

For me, this begs the question why, if Sabian made these design changes, they couldn’t have gone these extra fifteen yards and made the new version of the QuietTone this good to begin with.

At a MSRP of $65-70 it seems like they could’ve done at least what I did to improve it.

And while it isn’t the OG, it’s now a very nice, robust tunable pad for the dedicated concert or kit drummer.

 

And here is a video of my chopping on the reassembled, improved pad.

Aficionados of the OG QuietTone turn their noses up at this new version, but honestly it’s so much nicer to play now that I’ll keep and enjoy it. 

Happy Chopping.

Vintage Corner: Ludwig practice pad, 1930s-40s?

This came to me in very good condition this week.

The catalog pdfs at DrumArchive.com reveled nothing that could help me determine age or whether this was factory-built. The platform probably came from a factory, as the classic design and appearance have been seen on other pads from the 1930s and 40s. Several models of Ludwig pads came with bright red paint and a metal badge just like this one. However, this pad was probably made during the decades-long split between  Ludwig, owned by Conn, and WFL, which William F. Ludwig Sr. created when he parted ways with Conn. My only educated guesses are based on comparing type font of different eras, and from looking closely at construction and decoration, which will hopefully get better as I research more pads.

It consists of a traditional slanted wooden platform, topped with a round piece that appears to be calfskin wrapped around some kind of reinforcing rim and stuffed with padding.

Based on earlier research, I’m guessing that the top part of this pad may have originally been part of a more portable knee-top pad with a bolt that allowed it to be transferred to a more stationary platform.

The pad is in amazing, playable shape. I’m inclined not to play it often, but with smaller 5A sticks it feels and sounds great. 

I’ll continue to research in order to determine the pad’s design origins and age. Happy chopping!