Tom’s Pad: great practice pad, could be bigger.

In going through my pad holdings and determining which pads I’m keeping as I downsize, I came across my Tom’s Pad, offered by Volkwein’s Music online. I added rubber feet to the bottom for greater stability when used on a tabletop (because it is a little heavy for a cymbal stand, IMHO).

It’s a great-sounding pad with excellent response, ideal for multiple applications including lower-tension marching.

But I’ve always thought it would be even better in a 10” size. It could still utilize a Remo practice pad replacement head, and the larger size would be welcomed by many drummers and instructors.

The current 8” sized pad starts at around $79.00; expect a 10” version, if they decide to make it, to come in at above $125. That’s not entirely out of line with other heavier duty craft-made pads these days.

I’ve emailed Volkwein’s Music to inquire about the possibility.

I invite anyone else who’d like to see this come about to do the same. Their email appears under “About Us” at their web site.

https://www.volkweinsmusic.com/products/toms-pad-by-volkweins-percussion

After stretching, relaxing again.

After many years of trying out various sticks, pads and drums, I’ve begun to narrow down what I like and what I plan to keep as I downsize. Because I don’t play professionally anymore, I can choose the gear I enjoy using the most and let go of the rest.

This week, it’s sticks. 

I’ve tried a lot of different shapes, sizes and types of sticks over my five-plus decades of drumming. And I’ve managed to dial in my favorites for each kind of drumming I do. After expanding and then contracting the various kinds of drumming I’ve done over the years, it’s come down to these favorites, which I’ll continue to use and keep on hand.

Concert: I don’t do a lot of pure concert drumming in performance anymore. When I did play in a wind ensemble, my choice was always a good, solid 2B stick. My absolute favorites are the older Promark oak sticks with the gold band near the end. For a modern stand-in, the Vic Firth American Classic 2B isn’t bad. I still have a couple pairs of older, vintage 2Bs from the 1950s that I’ll hang onto, from Ludwig and Mercury.

Jazz/pop: behind the kit, I’ve used everything from super-skinny “jazz” sticks to 5Bs. These days, I seldom have the chance to play a kit at home — even with a soundproofed door, some sound still comes through. I love my partner more than I love drumming, so some concessions must be made. When I do play my kit, I prefer the model 580 acorn sticks from La Backbeat, turned in American hickory and wonderfully balanced. They’re like 5A sticks with a little more authority, and well balanced enough that I can control the volume whenever I need to without having to rely on a lighter stick. Buzz rolls with these sticks are heavenly, like tearing tissue paper. (Note: Frank has had machinery issues all fall, and his work is on hold until further notice. He’s waiting on some parts for his lathe, and says he’ll be up and running when those come in. He does have some models available at his site, so if you can support him with a purchase now, please do so. It’s a one-man operation and he works hard to make great sticks.)

Marching/rudimental: after trying nearly every stick on the market, leaning especially hard on various Cooperman and Vic Firth models, I had to admit to myself that for me, there’s just nothing else out there as perfect for me as the old style 3S sticks from Ludwig, Leedy, Gretsch and others. The longer, more elegant taper and true balance continue to be the most comfortable sticks I’ve ever drummed with. And unlike too many of the modern sticks readily available, they’re perfect for chopping on older, lower-tensioned Mylar heads. Since almost no one actually makes this style of Rudimental stick anymore, I’ve had to search the online auctions and ads to find individual pairs. 

But this week, I got a lucky score that should see me for awhile yet: a NOS box of six sets of Ludwig 3S sticks from the late 1970s. They have Nylon tips, which isn’t completely ideal, but I’m not that aggressive a drummer and I use a CS Dot head, so that should reduce the wear and tear a little on my marching snare drum.

.

Here’s a video I made this morning while Sweetie was out, so I could play my marching snare a bit. I wasn’t terribly warmed up, and the cold weather hasn’t been great for my arthritis, but I had to take advantage of the time I had and just chop. Here’s a bit of Crazy Army.

In order to help finance the NOS lot, I’ll be selling off more pads and sticks I don’t use. Best places to check will be FB Marketplace and Craigslist. 

Best wishes to you, dear readers, for a happy and musical holiday season.

Tried and Like in 2024

This is a topic that used to appear annually in my bicycle blog bikelovejones. After I left the bicycle industry (and even more so after Covid and Long Covid greatly reduced my riding), I stopped writing it.

At the end of a year in which I tried lots of different drum things and ideas, it seemed like a good year to apply this thinking here at my drumlove blog. So in no particular order, here’s a short list of things I tried and liked this year.

1. Suitcase kick from Side Show Drums. I tried making my own kick drum from an old suitcase a few years ago and it was such a ham-handed effort I gave it away. When I got the hankering to try again, I sucked it up and bought one made far more professionally by Max Wheeler and sold on Reverb. Here is one that’s very close to what I bought (mine’s blue).

2. MadPads snare pad. Thanks to Michael Beauclerc, I had an opportunity to test-ride and review a MadPad. Sustainably made in Canada from gum rubber and an MDF nearly free of formaldehyde, the pad delivers a feel that falls nicely between the old tan RealFeel pad and the Cardinal rubber pad. I tend to favor tunable pads with Mylar heads for my daily practice, but this rubber pad was a very nice surprise. I’ve enjoyed adding it to my rotation ever since.

3. Rohema RM2 marching sticks. I had an opportunity to buy a couple sets of these through the Third Floor Bazaar on Facebook. They are quite similar to the Jeff Queen solo sticks from Vic Firth, but a touch longer and with a nice, longer taper that shifts the balance just slightly rearward. They also tend to be in stock more regularly than the Queens. I like them and may order a couple more pairs. (Rohema sticks have multiple distributors worldwide and can often be found online at Reverb.)

4. Chopping on modern drum licks posted online. My Rudimental drum library tends toward the days of lower tension and Mylar heads. And I’ve read through most of it a few times. To avoid getting stale, I started grabbing short little licks from Facebook and Instagram and learning those. My favorites so far have been the licks shared frequently by Carlos Botello, who offers material for nearly all levels of drumming that’s interesting, challenging and fun. If you like the locks, check out his library of Left Hand Path instructional books.

What have you tried and liked in 2024?

Cheers and happy drumming!

Truly honored to be on the MadPads bus.

I’m honored to be quoted by a pad maker that is good, and does good.

If you don’t know about MadPads, read my earlier review and check out their web site.

Although I’ve been rehoming a number of my practice pads, my MadPad is a keeper. Small-batch, craft-made pads from Canada that do not disappoint, and which feel better than almost any other rubber pad on the market. I’m a fan. (If they ever make a hoodie, I’m there.)

Happy chopping!

Crap just keeps getting crappier: The arms race is over and I’m done.

The latest from Xymox, the Voldemort of drum practice pad makers, appeared in my feed today.

That’s right. Oblivious to the patent and trademark infringements going on here, Xymox has decided to screw everyone by selling a knockoff of the old tan RealFeel pads from the 1990s.

Same look, same shape, and a nice knockoff of the old HQ logo that reads “OG”.

They must know they’re in violation of something here.

And my guess is that they don’t care.

As soon as this showed up on the drum pad groups, people howled, either in derision (“I cannot believe that Xymox would stoop this low”) or in excitement (“I have to get one!”)

A guy who works at D’Addario, which owns Evans and all the designs and branding from HQ (which originated the design thirty years ago) is popping a vein. He promises that D’Addario will take legal action, if necessary, to stop this thing in its tracks.

I predict that they’ll be too late, and that almost no one in the general pad market today will actually care all that much. They’ll be too late because the pads are already in production and are being sold at the Xymox web site, and any legal action taken will not stop the pads already shipped out. (Nor will said legal action protect the exclusive on the octagonal shape, because you cannot really patent a geometric shape anymore.) 

And other than a few hundred people who got ripped off by Xymox, almost no one else will care, especially the Gen Z kids who  see this as their chance to get something close enough to the original tan RealFeel pad their dad practiced on thirty years ago.

It gets better. RCP just came out with this delightful little Chinese-made knockoff, which I believe is supposed to hearken back to Offworld’s Shuttle Pad. It’s another crass attempt to play on fake nostalgia, and it’s kind of depressing.

Crying foul now, when nearly every mass-produced pad on the market is made in part or in whole in China, is like bolting the barn door after the horse has fled.

And with that, I know that I have stayed involved for long enough.

There is less and less interest in vintage pads and their history now. The online drum chat groups are populated mostly by folks who are young enough to be my grandchildren, and they want whatever the top 12 DCI drum lines are using. Even if it’s poorly made, even if it’s unsustainable, even if it will wear out in a year or two. They do not care. Fine. Let the modern mass-producers of practice pads chase each other’s tails, and chase the dollars of every high school and college drummer out there. I’ll chop on what I have and be content.

I hope to be shed of all but about five pads by the end of the year. If I ever feel the need for another practice pad, I can always make one.

Happy drumming.

(Photo: yours truly, using a fire hydrant as a practice pad.)

When an expensive new pad is just… expensive

There’s a new pad on the market, by a company that just filed an LLC last month.

Live Edge Drum Company is marketing a practice pad made of a slice of tree and which uses a playing surface made of some kind of rubbery epoxy. 

Feel free to check out the company’s web site:

https://www.liveedgedrumco.com/

You won’t find much info there, or even any contact information.

You can watch this shiny new demo video, offered by a talented snare drummer who marched Bluecoats this summer. 

Be advised, though, that said drummer is sponsored by the company, which just means that he got his pad for free. How nice.

If you want one, it will set you back a cool $140 PLUS shipping.

Before you jump at the chance to own one yourself, be advised that the pad is being pre-sold in small batches, and you have to get on the list before you can see a meaningfully detailed photo of the pad.

Also note that we don’t know the manufacturing process at all, only that it’s “made in America.” We don’t know by whom, or where.

In the absence of any more info at the web site, I looked up their business info, and found a listing for Live Edge Drum Company’s incorporation in Florida dated October 11 of this year. That means the company became an LLC just seven weeks ago. It’s possible the pads are being made in Florida, but we have no way to confirm that.

We also don’t know what kind of wood is being used or what the playing surface is made of, because that’s not mentioned either. The grainy-resolution photo at the web site doesn’t help matters.

A clue comes in the video when the drummer tells us that the pad is very lightweight. So we know it’s probably not a dense hardwood because those are mostly fairly heavy. A softer wood could be coated with an epoxy and still weigh less than a fine-grained hardwood. And whatever the playing surface is, it can’t be terribly heavy, either. It may be a very thin layer of clear silicone, which wouldn’t add a lot of weight but still provide some bounce.

So in the end, I reached out to a friend with decades of professional woodworking experience, and I asked him what his impressions were.

He was underwhelmed: “I’m sure it’s a cheap trivet from somewhere we can all access. It’s really covered in plastic or epoxy or something when I zoom in. Bark should not stay on wood naturally like that. Reminds me of the stuff at like Michael’s or other craft stores. If it’s light it’s fast growth birch or balsa.”

I trust this guy and his response makes a lot of sense to me.

UPDATE: just got these, which explains things even better.

As with all things, Your Mileage May Vary.

But I’m not going to get excited about a cheaply-made pad that sells for $140.

Caveat emptor, kiddos.

Vintage practice pads for sale: batch #1

I am liquidating most of my remaining collection of practice pads.

This is the first batch being offered.

Top photo

top row, L-R:
WFL gum rubber tilt pad, 1940s, SOLD
Leedy tilt pad, refurbished, 1940s, $20
George Way tilt pad, VGUC 1960s, $50
Ludwig tilt pad w/padded calf surface, 1930s, SOLD

bottom row, L-R:
Jim Dinella homemade tilt pad, $40
Satellite tilt pad, 1950s, $40
World tilt pad, $35
Ludwig oak tilt pad, $40

All of these pads have good playing surfaces with good to excellent rebound.

Postage will be additional, and will depend on how pads you want to buy.

I will consider a price break on multiple pads going to the same address, though I cannot offer a price break on postage (shipping rates have gone up a lot this year).
I'm not able to ship outside the USA, sorry.

If you're interested, reach out to me on Facebook Messenger.

Thanks.

The future of drum sticks?

If you read various chat boards (Reddit, DrumForum.com, etc.) you may notice a lot of griping about two things:

1. The increasing price of wood drum sticks; and

2. The decreasing quality of wood drum sticks.

There’s some truth to both points.

1. Stick prices have slowly risen for years. Inflation is out of control these days, so that should surprise no one. Some makers have managed to hold off raising prices for quite awhile but had to bite the bullet this past year. Others have been slowly and steadily raised their prices little by little over time.

2. Drum stick quality and consistency from the big major brands (Vic Firth, Promark, Vater, et al) has been declining for some time now. Drum stick makers that once sold their pitch- and weight-matching as marks of excellence have grown quieter about that as consistency has suffered. 

There are some salient reasons for both, and they are mostly beyond any company’s control.

A. Increasing scarcity of quality wood stocks due to deforestation and climate change. People don’t like to talk about climate change. Either they refuse to believe it’s real (though I don’t see how they can with today’s weather extremes), or they insist that it’s simply not a factor that affects wood quality. But the truth is that increased deforestation (to meet higher demand for wood in all industries) has helped speed up global warming, and the market’s impatience for mature raw wood has meant cutting trees before they have a chance to become “old growth.”  That makes for a lot of naked, unshaded earth, and that means the weather gets hotter, faster.  The global marketplace also adds climate pressure because of the increased carbon footprint required to harvest and transport raw materials from their source locations to the manufacturers for processing.

B. The lack of mature, old growth wood stocks has lent itself to cutting second-growth timber that is less dense and less stable, meaning a wider variance in wood grain and hardness. Both of these mean that as the wood dries, it can warp or crack more, which in turns means lower consistency in the quality and feel of sticks — and less durability — from pair to pair.

******

When I was a young drummer in the early 1970s, the big stick manufacturers didn’t match for pitch or weight. Instead, you pulled all the sticks out of the bin labeled with the desired size at the music store. You rolled them across the countertop to check for warping, pulled out the eight or ten straightest sticks and then tapped them lightly on the counter to check for pitch. On a good day, you might go home with two or three pairs of decent sticks that way. On a bad day, you’ll be lucky to get one decent pair. When I was a kid, that’s the way things were and I simply accepted it.

Only when the big stick makers started doing this at the factory did sticks become consistently better. And of course, because they were taking this labor in-house, sticks also started costing more. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Nothing is free in retail.

But in the last ten years, wood consistency and quality from the big stick manufacturers began to suffer noticeably. Some people complained, and others went looking for another brand. European stick manufacturers began shipping their products overseas more, using European hardwoods that maintained a higher standard of quality. Higher-end shops like Steve Weiss began carrying those brands, making them available to a larger group of consumers, and the sticks caught on.

Add to this the rise of American craft makers like Cooperman and Reamer, with their beautiful hardwood sticks, and eventually we arrived at a time when American drummers got, to be honest, a bit spoiled.

And that’s when things began to fall down.

******

During the pandemic, while we stayed at home and chopped on practice pads and waited for things to oen up again, we also continued to buy drum sticks. Demand remained high. But makers could not keep up. Towards the end of the lockdown, first Cooperman and then Reamer announced that they would stop offering their sticks in Persimmon, because their old stocks had run low and the second-growth stocks on the global market were not up to their standards. Vic Firth began running out of favorite models regularly, and by early 2023 some models could not be found at any price in shops or online. Vic Firth and Promark began discontinuing their lowest-selling models. Vater simply ran out of select models and didn’t respond to my requests as to when they might return. At one point, the Big Three’s budget brands — Nova (Vic Firth), LA Special (Promark) and Goodwood (Vater) — also ran low at online dealers, a sure sign that bigger issues were affecting the global economy even among drum stick manufacturers.

The bottom fell out when the rumblings about quality grew louder on multiple online chat boards, and many of my drumming friends had given up on at least one or two of the Big Three in search of smaller, craft-oriented stick makers. (You can follow my adventures along the way in earlier posts on this blog, notably my testing of Harlan, Cooperman and Morgen sticks.)

******

Today, the drum stick market is not struggling — sales continue to hold steady — but it has changed.

Custom stick makers are suffering. Cooperman is blowing out the last of its old Persimmon stocks, and has switched over to mostly hickory. Reamer is using hickory only. Rick Dior, one of the finest craft stick makers in the country, suffered devastating losses to his house and his home-based workshop during recent catastrophic flooding in North Carolina. He was able to salvage a number of ready-made sticks to sell online, but has advised his customers that new sticks won’t be available for quite some time, perhaps up to a year depending on how quickly the mud can be cleared out and extensive repairs can be made. Frank Kincel at LaBckbeat has had a difficult time sourcing local mature hickory stocks that are up to his standards, as well as facing health challenges and mechanical issues with his lathe.

I still enjoy my Vic Firth sticks, though to be honest I mostly like older models that I find as NOS (New Old Stock) at online retailers. I also look for deals from select eBay sellers, and occasionally I find nicer used sticks in good shape on various secondhand sale sites.

Since I don’t play drumkit these days, I don’t really need a great quantity of any size. I’m content to keep a few pairs on hand of the pairs I use the most. 

I suspect that students will have to settle for whatever they can find locally and make the best of it. Serious professionals will have to be a bit less picky, or guard the sticks they have a bit more carefully to make them last longer. 

Younger drummers reading this post may scoff. I can’t really help them, sorry. They will have to find their own way forward to a more resourceful and sustainable drumming future.

To be honest, I’m glad I’m no longer playing professionally on a regular basis. It takes the pressure off having to be properly and fully equipped, and invites me to be grateful for what I have.

Happy drumming.

Throwback: Promark DC6 marching sticks

I like using marching sticks for Rudimental practice, especially on my larger tunable pads. The heft feels great and I don’t feel like I have to work so hard to get the response I want.

However, most modern, full-size marching sticks are too big for my needs, and designed for use on high-tension drums that I never play. 

There are lighter weight marching sticks out there, meant for younger players; but very often these are too light and skinny for me. I found this to be the case with the Vic Firth Ralphie Jr. sticks that someone recommended a couple months ago. I got a set, and found them to be far too light — in some cases, lighter than a standard pair of 2B concert sticks. 

I found these on eBay last week, thanks to a recommendation from a friend.

Promark DC6 sticks were made around 10-15 years ago, part of their Milennium series. 

Their dimensions (17” long, 5/8” diameter) are great for younger hands, but the thick taper and big tips provide a punch on a marching snare drum. They were described by my friend as “2B on steroids,” and I can see that as an apt description. These also make a nice Rudimental stick for practice.

The thing is, I don’t like the dimensions. They’re a touch too long for the kind of balance I generally like. I held them up alongside a pair of my favorite VF IMS10 indoor marching sticks, and found both similarities and differences in the design. The DC6 has a thicker taper that leads to a bigger tip, but otherwise the shape is similar enough. So I took one of the two pairs of Promark sticks, measured them against the Vic fair ths and cut a little off the back ends to match the length.

It helped, though it did change the balance a little. So I added some stick tape to the Promark sticks and was pleased with the result.

I’m not sure I’d look for more DC6’s, especially if I have to trim down every set.

Still, it was a useful experiment and I’m glad I did it.

If you want to try the DC6 yourself, Mountain Music has a bunch of them in New Old Stock.

Meanwhile, I’m looking for a few more sets of the IMS10.

It’s a bummer that the sticks I find and like are so often models that are no longer made.

Happy drumming!

Drumslinger Percussion is back! Get some!

Some of you know that I have a special place in my heart for Drumslinger Percussion. 

Bill Olson makes some really excellent practice pads for the serious drummer right here in the USA.

There were delays during the pandemic as Bill had to deal with the devastating loss of a family member, and then came down with a serious illness himself. Orders fell behind and consumers complained, and Drumslinger’s reputation suffered.

Then, last year, Bill was well enough to get back to work. 

He filled as many backorders as he could, gave refunds to those who had lost patience, and began making new pads.

Unlike another pad company which shall not be named here, he did not skip town or hire a lawyer. He simply got back to work.

At this point, Drumslinger is no longer offering tenor pads. However, they are offering standard snare drum pads for different applications of concert and marching percussion, as well as a more affordable student series that has the same high standard of excellence.

If you haven’t tried a Drumslinger pad, this is a great time to consider doing so. Drumslinger has ready-to-play pads available on their web site and they will ship within a couple of days after ordering. These pads are reasonably priced for what they are, and when compared to other, similarly designed pads on the market.

It’s great that Bill is well enough to return to making pads. But he’s not a young man and this won’t go on forever. So if you’ve been thinking about getting a Drumslinger pad this might be the time to do so.

(Note: I was not asked to write this post, and I am not an official endorser of Drumslinger pads. I just like them a lot.)

(At left: screen shot from the Drumslinger web site, taken earlier today.)

 

I’m going to seriously winnow down my pad collection this winter.

I’ve had a great time researching and collecting vintage practice pads, a hobby Ve enjoyed for over twenty years.

And I’m ready to move on to other things while I pare down my possessions quite a bit.

So beginning next week, I’m tossing up a bunch of old pads for sale.

My goal is to get down to fewer than a dozen pads that I will practice on and enjoy, and make space for other things in my studio.

Among the pads I plan to sell are those shown below. Look for listings on the FB Dum Pad History and Parching Percussion groups.

Product review: a second look at Vater Stick Shield

I tried the Stick Shields from Vater several years ago, on a pair of 5B sticks. I wasn't thrilled at the time. The shield performed as advertised but added noticeable weight that changed the balance of the sticks.

I gave that pair to a student and moved on.

I decided to give the Sick Shields a second look, this time on a heavier, thicker pair of sticks.

This time, I think it makes a little more sense.

I have multiple sets of the Cooperman #10 sticks in Hickory. This model is one of my favorites and I use it every day. It's a nice rudimental stick for the days when my hands are really feeling arthritic, and the balance and response are simply terrific.

Because I tend to hit the rim a lot I decided to tape up a pair of #10s. I double-taped them for protection, and to add a little weight to a too-light pair.

They work just fine for my purposes.

I'm not sure I'd want to give this treatment to every pair. They're not cheap at over $30 a pair, and usually it's enough for me to ask Cooperman to send me the heaviest pairs they have on hand when I order.

But it got me thinking about the Stick Shield again.

So I went looking online, and discovered that they were no longer in production. The shops that still had them in stock were selling them off at slightly discounted prices to be rid of them. (I guess this hadn't been a best-seller.)

I ended up ordering three sets.

Installing them isn't difficult, but you do need to take your time and measure exactly where you want the shield. Once it's on, it's hard to remove.

The Stick Shields are made of a carbon laminate with a strong adhesive backing.
Simply measure where your stick is getting dented the most, clean off the dirt, and apply according to the instructions. Rolling the sticks on a tabletop after applying will help the adhesive to hold more firmly.

The Stick Shields in the standard size will add some weight to your sticks, so consider what size you want to use them on.

I didn't like using this on smaller sticks because the weight difference was simply too marked for my liking. But on rudimental or marching sticks -- say, 2B or larger -- the difference isn't so pronounced.

Vater also made this product in a size meant for marching sticks. It's longer and wider, and designed to fit fat marching sticks. It's made in white to look better against sticks that might be taped with white tape (the standard color choice when taping marching sticks).

I was able to find one set for marching. Those are en route to me now, and I will think about where I want to use them.

The Stick Shields perform as advertised, and while I didn't care for the added weight on a drum kit stick, I think it's fine on a fatter, heavier stick for rudimental or marching work.

Note: The standard size may not provide enough coverage on an especially fat stick, say in the .715 range.

A few online retailers still have this in stock, but act soon because it dones't look like Vater plans to bring them back.

If you miss out, there may be some carbon fiber tape out there for industrial applications. Good luck.

I just dumped my 2024 Heavy Hitter pad and I couldn’t be happier.

I tossed it up on Reverb last week after the brouhaha over on the FB Pad Group.

It doesn’t exactly suck, and I did get it cheap, but the Vic Firth Heavy Hitter guard dogs and their drum bro culture left a bad taste in my mouth, and I was just done.

I came home from a nice visit to Revival Drum Shop today and learned that the pad had sold and it was time to ship. After shipping, I still came out a little ahead. 

Screw MDF, screw the mass producers and screw the drum-bro culture, which still exists no matter how many photos of young women playing snare drum they toss up online. 

Harrumph.

Another reason the new Heavy Hitter pads are overpriced. Or everything is, actually.

Just found this for sale online.

Granted, the shell is probably done and would need to be replaced, or cut down and matched up with some shorter tubes to make it work again. Either step would make this a working drum again.

Someone got a little crazy with a torque wrench.

The drum retails new for around $500.

Selling it as is for $150 shipped is either a master stroke, or an indictment of the entire marching percussion industry.

Considering that the new Heavy Hitter pad (my favorite whipping boy for now) retails for a hundred bucks, it might be more economical to buy this drum, toss the shell, sell off the lower hardware and tubes and just keep the top as a super-loud practice pad. Those are selling for a couple hundred bucks anyway, and honestly, one of those will last you as long as a couple dozen of the Heavy Hitters.

 And you can change the head whenever you need to.

Now, to be fair, while the Heavy Hitter isn’t getting a lot of breathless adulation from me, I have to say that the whole damned marching percussion scene is slightly ridiculous these days.

And I blame it on the modern drum corps scene, with its bloated excesses of glamour and piles of money at the top-12 level. 

Today, a top-12 corps can buy a brand new drumline — drums, carriers, stands, covers and cases, for around $50,000, use it for a season, sell it off at 1/2 to 2/3 of what they paid for it, and start again the next season. Some big, well-funded high school band in Texas will happily spring for it, use it for several years and then sell it off to a smaller school for half of what they paid. Eventually, the drums wear out and have to be scavenged for parts, which will be sold in ragged condition for far more than they’re worth.

And yeah, the recycling is nice. But it’s not a solution when the starting price is more than the annual salary for a first-year high school band director at an average, non-powerhouse school.

The whole marching arts movement has become bloated, with overpriced gear and uniforms (LEOTARDS, people!). Top-12 drum corps have annual operating budgets of a million dollars a year. DCI itself is a juggernaut with an estimated 2024 budget of $28 million. And yet, the kids still have to pay in excess of $4,500 a season to march.

This is so far from the vision of the drum corps activity of forty or fifty years ago, when drum corps was an activity that gave kids something to do and keep them out of trouble.

A friend pointed out recently that childhood and adolescence are different now, and that high schools offer many kids the opportunity to march in a quality program (that is still too expensive for many families), and that with the advent of smartphones and the internet those old fashioned kinds of trouble aren’t as readily accessible by kids.

And yet, in order to get into a top-12 corps, you’re expected not only to play and march at the highest level, but you’re also expected, apparently, to be active on the socials and market your musical skills there, so that the corps you join can use your socials as another marketing mouthpiece. (I just learned this the other day by lurking on Reddit, where the kids generally hang instead of Facebook.)

I’m an old fart, I admit it. 

And this kind of sickens me.

If this is what drum corps has come to then I’m glad I’m not involved.

But it does help to explain why marching percussion gear sells for so damned much money with folks no longer bat an eye.

And it reinforces my love for homemade pads. 

The excess of the activity is really getting to me today.

I’ll just show myself out.

The return of AeroFactor?

Rich Chiappe have traded emails back and forth over the past two days.

He is surprised and excited at the attention his pad is awakening, both in pad enthusiasts and in himself.

He tells me that he is in discussions with one of his kids to possibly reignite AeroFactor, at least long enough to sell off the pads he still has in stock. He has enough left to make it worthwhile to restart things.

No timeline, but he sounds very positive about it.

Stay tuned.

AeroFactor UPDATE

I found Rich Chiappe, the designer of the AeroFactor practice pad.

I located his current place of business and emailed him at his office.

When I got home in the evening, I found his very friendly response waiting in my inbox.

Here is his story:

*********

“The back story of the Pad is basically this (in a nutshell):

I’ve been a drummer for nearly 50 years.

I raised 3 kids — all of whom played percussion in band — one of whom is a professional drummer in Nashville.

They all needed practice pads.  So we bought them practice pads.  Lots of them.  All basically a circle of rubber glued to an MDF substrate.   

Some were big like a real drum - great for practicing in different stike zones but each zone sounded and reacted the same. And big pads are hard to take to school and home again without damaging them after shoving them into lockers, dropping them, etc.  So we buy another one.  And another one.  I wasn’t impressed. But they could be mounted in a 3-point snare stand for proper standing practice.

One of them was small and fit in a drum bag.  More practical but still saddled with improper technical response and now a limited number of strikable zones.  And it couldn’t be held at standing height other than placing it on a music stand (lame).

None of them had a rim. And come-on. Without a rim, what are you practicing!?  Shoulder strikes are NOT rim shots.

I was running an aircraft parts manufacturing business that was basically running itself and I got bored and creative. 

I dreamt up a better mousetrap:

• Use durable materials (aluminum)
• Design the bed of the primary strike zone to be a “spring” so strikes react like a real drumhead does
• Remove all the rarely used strike zones but retain a “runway” for practicing over the snares or up to to the rim for pianissimo dynamics and have the pad react like a real snare drum would there - tighter spring/return action.
• Make it mountable in a 3-point snare stand
• Utilize the unused nearside strikezone to simulate a warm-up pad (think “phonebook” action).  Put a cook graphic under clear soft silicone there that could be customized for a School or Drum Corps.  I designed the graphics there and put my Daughter’s name in there - see if you can find it. ; )
• Make it carryable in a (large) stickbacg
• Make it well - precision manufacturing - premium pricing.  A $100 drum pad you buy ONCE instead of 3-1/3 “cheap” ones.
• Kids were walking around with $1,000 cell phones in high school.  There would be plenty of families that could afford a quality drum pad.  Not to mention the professionals out there.
• Package it like an iPhone — beautiful boxing, detailed instructions, neoprene case that holds a drumkey, pencil and drumsticks and inserts that explain it all
• Make it a prestigious product — something a kid might strive for and cherish
• Emphasize our aviation roots and expertise in how we market and brand.  Note all the aviation references in the box art etc.

**********

I asked him about the sticks and he told me that had been a very small side quest, only a couple dozen sets were made and sold on Amazon. (He kept one pair for himself.)

He told me that about 400 pads were made and they were offered for sale on Amazon.

The original retail price for the pad in its neoprene case, in 2015, was $100.

(Imagine what that pad would sell for now, eight years later. I figure at least $150-200.)

Rich was tickled to be contacted, and happy that I had managed to get my hands on one of his pads.

He has no plans to revive the company at this time; he and his wife are enjoying their empty nest now that their kid are grown and gone, and he’s in a completely different line of work today. 

But he graciously shared these photos with me. The first is of the liner card that came with the pad. The other two are his sketches of the idea, before it went into production.

It was a lovely conversation and I am glad to know more about the pad.

Happy drumming.

Future Vintage: AeroFactor practice pad

I just acquired this practice pad, made for a short time and sold under the name AeroFactor.

It’s a cool, interesting pad. Came with a single heavy workout stick.

 

I would love to find a mate, but AeroFactor simply does not exist anymore. No functioning web site, no contact info or location. It existed 2015 through maybe early 2019 before vaporizing completely into the ether.

 

I did, however, find some info.

 

1. The pad was designed in 2014 by Rich Chiappe, who worked in aviation technology in Texas and had kids in his local HS band. The pad clearly shows influences of aviation design.

 

2. The pad went on the market in 2015, and was made available through Amazon and its affiliates. I could not find a retail price, though the item still shows up in an Amazon search with the words “Currently unavailable.”

 

3. The pad came with a neoprene slipcover, a pair of weighted metal warmup sticks with rubber tip covers, and a second set of rubber tip covers in a pouch. My pad came with only one stick. I hope at some point to find a mate.

 

4. There are three playing areas: the black rubber center, a slightly thinner black rubber end, and a thick, clear section at the other end that’s nice for lower resistance chopping and warmups.

 

5. Two “wings” swing out at angles to allow the stand to be used on a standard snare drum stand. Placing it on the stand will give it a different sound and slightly different response, though I haven’t tried that yet.

 

There are a couple of videos on YouTube, and a few more at the Aerofactor Pads FB page, which is still up. Here's a little video I took. Although the company's videos show someone playing this pad with big marching sticks, I found that it was more responsive with concert sticks, so I used some lighter weight Cooperman #10's to make my video.

Based on how short-lived the company was — only three years — and how involved the manufacturing process probably was, I’d guess the pads were expensive when sold, relatively few in number, and pretty rare now. I’m glad to have found one and I enjoyed going down the research rabbit hole.

 

Rich Chiappe left Texas in 2019, a year after AeroFactor ceased production. He also seems to have left the aviation industry and is now working in high-end real estate somewhere in Colorado.

It does not seem that he ever had anything to do with music products again after AeroFactor.

I’ve reached out to Mr. Chiappe for more information. He has a FB account, though it has not been added to in several months. I hope he will respond. And if he does, I’ll let you know.

DCI will eat itself. And maybe it should.

Over on a drum corps discussion group, someone went to a lot of trouble to consider how Drum Corps International might be restructured as a response to the shrinking number of competitive drum corps, in order to keep the activity financially and socially viable.

It was a detailed plan.

And I think it would fail.

Here’s my response:

*****

Clearly a lot of thought and care went into this plan. But at the end of the day, there simply are not enough competitive corps left *in existence* to make it viable, for the management and funding of the activity or for the fans.

If someone saves up several hundred dollars (tickets/gas/lodging/potentially unpaid time off work) to travel to watch a drum corps show, they *might* fare better getting to a show that’s closer to home. If they do, how many will travel farther to see a second show somewhere else?

DCI has changed because the whole world has changed. While they have done an admirable job in bringing the marching arts to new levels of quality and artistry, it has ultimately come at the expense of high levels of participation. There are far fewer competitive drum corps today than forty or even thirty years ago, because there are now far fewer people who can afford to participate. (The root causes of the higher costs have been covered elsewhere.) DCI’s continued refusal to see this is evidence of the leadership’s own hubris.

As much as I love the marching arts, I can see a time when independent competitive drum corps in the style of DCI and national touring no longer exists, and it may well happen in my lifetime. Everything is just too damned expensive now, and wages and schedules and real life cannot keep up with the man-eating leviathan that DCI has become.

Want to save drum corps? Make it local and grass roots again, and make it smaller. Make it shoestring. Make it gritty and scrappy again. And reach out to the communities who are really good at doing gritty and scrappy. Examples that come to mind include orgs like Bay Ratz Marching Battery in southern Mississippi and Mad Beatz in Philadelphia. And don’t make it competitive, at least right out of the gate. Make it performative and community-minded, period.

The beats will be dirty to begin with. That’s okay. The average parent or city leader doesn’t care about dirty beats. They care about kids marching down the street in matching t-shirts, making beautiful noise and bringing smiles to peoples’ faces, and hope to their hearts.

DCI will eat itself. And that’s too bad. But that is what the weight of hubris can do.

Make drum corps truly relevant to the community again, and you just might save it.

Screw it. I’m done reviewing anything that is cheaply mass-produced.

I’ve researched the history and development of drum practice pads for over two decades. It has been an interesting and rewarding time.

Along the way, I’ve had an opportunity to try out literally hundreds of practice pads, and I’ve offered reviews of a number of them at my drum blog. The response has never been predictable, which made it all more educational and interesting.

That is, until now.

I finally obtained a demo of a new practice pad that had been released earlier this summer, and which there had been a great deal of hype and buzz around.

I tried it, put it through its paces, and wrote a review of my impressions.

I shared that review in shortened form in a post at a percussion discussion group, and within half an hour of my having posted, one of the two guys who had developed the original pad and also had a big hand in its redesign blasted my comments. 

I noted that when I had asked questions about the construction and design of the pad earlier this year on a couple of percussion discussion groups, the same guy had responded back then as well, with his comments coming across as snarls from a vigilant guard dog.

After reading his most recent response to my review, I didn’t respond. Instead, I decided to go back and find my earlier comments on the two sites, and his responses.

They were gone. My questions and comments and his responses, all removed as if they’d never been posted.

I’m not paranoid. This really has happened.

So it would not at all surprise me if the link that I’ve just shared over at a Marching Percussion discussion group ends up not being posted, or even gets denied. I dared to speak out against a behemoth corporation that makes millions of dollars and any negative comment is considered bad for business. Even a negative comment from an unknown like me.

This morning, a handful of guys — it’s always guys, sorry but it’s true — have piled on in favor or against. And when I finally responded to the guard dog about his attacks, he blasted me back and argued that a whole bunch of guys were on his side.

I won’t win, and I don’t care. Let him stew in his drum-bro victory. 

Going forward, I’m done writing reviews (or much of anything else) about any new percussion item that is mass-produced. It was fun and interesting for awhile. But if my twenty years of research and fifty years of drumming experience aren’t enough to stand up to a corporate guard dog every time I have a less-than enthusiastic response to a new products, and if that guard dog is going to attack me every time I say something less than enthusiastic, then it’s just not worth my time anymore. 

Life is short.

The megacorpos are going to keep shipping cheaply-made, mass produced stuff to kids who don’t know enough to look past the hype. I can’t do anything about that. So I’m not going to try anymore. I’m done tilting at windmills.

And I’ll pawn that pad off on someone who doesn’t know, and doesn’t care. At least I’ll make my investment back, if nothing else.

Caveat emptor, kiddos.

#vicfirthpads
#heavyhitter
#vicfirthstockpad

Product Review: Vic Firth Stockpad, 2024 edition

I wasn’t going to do this, but I scored a barely-used —demo? — 2024 VF Stockpad from a music store. 

(Free shipping made it easier.)

There was a lot of initial hype and buzz when this pad was released over the summer. A few pads were strategically “leaked” by large retailers in advance of the official July release date. Vic Firth representatives, including the pad’s two designers, insisted it was accidental, but too many pads were released early for me to be convinced. Call me cynical.

A lot of younger marching drummers got it into their hands and immediately insisted that it was the best pad they’d tried in ages. They were all young, and perhaps simply lacked the historical memory of good pads predating the previous generation of the Heavy Hitter pads (circa 2010 or so). But honestly, once you’ve figured out how to slap a rubber-nylon compound disc onto a slab of MDF for cheap and sell it high, you’ve done your job of growing the bottom line and making your bosses happy.

Yeah, I am definitely a cynic. Blame it on too many years spent working in retail and peeking at how the sausage is made.

This pad came with the laminate already added, and showed a large air bubble near the center.

I tried it with the air bubble first, just to know what I was looking at.

Then I lifted the laminate — not difficult — and tapped a little on the bare rubber surface. I didn’t find it overwhelmingly exciting, as rubber compound pads go.

(Note: the rubber on these new pads is compounded with silicon, ostensibly to make it more durable and because real gum rubber is not cheap. Anyone who has played on an early gum rubber pad can feel the difference.)

I carefully reapplied the laminate, using my thumb to expel the air bubbles by pressing hard in a circular motion, moving outwards from center to edge.

It made a helpful difference, and I hope the air bubbles won’t reappear.

I know I would not spend money on the Slimpad version of this model year. It simply will never meet my specific drumming needs.

Having owned previous editions of the Stockpad, I can’t say that the naked version of this pad breaks a lot of new ground, with or without the laminate. To be fair, it IS a bit better with the laminate. But IMHO, it’s not better enough for VF to have doubled the price, even with a hard rubber rim added. Sorry, kids, but this is NOT a pad that's worth a hundred bucks, and I’m glad I didn’t have to spend a hundred bucks to find that out.

Carry on and keep chopping.

Below: the pad with air bubble, and accompanying video:

The pad with the air bubble removed, and accompanying video. 

You can hear the difference.

UPDATE: I wasn't going to share this, but after online attacks from Vic Firth's representative, I decided to go back and offer these photos as well. The pad also shows evidence of hot glue gun blobs at several points just outside the rim. I've shared the photos here.

When you offer a practice pad for a hundred bucks, you really ought to tighten up your quality control standards. If you cannot do so, then maybe don't charge a hundred bucks for a slab of silicon rubber affixed with a hot glue gun to a slab of painted MDF. Anyone with power tools and some woodworking knowledge could have made something like this at home for far less.

UPDATE: Evolution Music, Chicago

UPDATE:

My friend informed me that the owner of Evolution Music in Chicago responded to the complaint about the unwelcome note taped to his pad.

The owner was "flabbergasted" that one of his shipping clerks would do this.

He offered my friend a complete refund for the pad and postage, told him to keep the pad, and promised to take care of this situation so it would not happen again.

My friend understood that this was likely the best response he could get from so far away. He was satisfied. No word on whether that shipping clerk was disciplined or fired.

But if anything like this happens to you, contact the owner of the business and let them know.
Communication was key here.

Happy drumming!

Poor business practices: Evolution Music, Chicago

My new drumming buddy in Israel sent me this photo. He is a practice pad collector and finally located a vintage pad he’d been looking for a long time, from a business based in Chicago. He was thrilled to get the pad, and happy to pay for the cost of shipping (which would not be cheap, going overseas to Israel).

Then he opened the box, and found this note taped to the pad.

You want to have opinions? Sure, have them. Even shout them out on your own time. But when you do this at work, it reflects badly on your business, and on your employer.

Evolution Music in Chicago ought to answer for this:

https://www.facebook.com/EvolutionMusicInc/

If they didn’t know about it, they need to talk to their shipping department and remind them about what constitutes professionalism in the workplace.

And if they endorsed it, then perhaps people ought to decide whether or not they would like to look for somewhere else to shop for their musical instruments and supplies.

Evolution Music operates a brick-and-mortar locations in the Chicago IL area and in Virginia, and also sells online at the Reverb platform.

Their web page does not have any contact info, but there is a live chat box at the bottom: https://evolutionmusicstore.com/

If you think that drum shops should engage in professionalism and best business practices, tell your friends and drop them a line.

#keepitprofessional

#WorkplaceEthics

#beagrownup