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.
Happy drumming.
(Photo: yours truly, using a fire hydrant as a practice pad.)
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.
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.
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.
Here in Portland, there’s a drum corps that has been entertaining folks since the 1990s.
The Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers (LRSD) consists of men and women who play a combination of snare drums, traditional [single] tenor drums, bass drums and cymbals.
Their web site explains that they were founded by a fellow who grew up in Long Beach, California, and after he moved to Portland he decided he wanted to recreate the drum line of his school days.
The style of drumming is called “Syncopated,” and was developed by a school band director in Long Beach in the 1960s. During its heyday, Syncopated Drumming was popular in Long Beach, with several schools assembling drum corps to compete against each other in local parades.
Its popularity did not extend very far outside of Long Beach, back then or today.
During the 1990s and 2000s, a handful of alumni groups were in existence and mostly based in or near Long Beach. At the same time, LRSD was beginning to get noticed in the Portland area and a little beyond, thanks to the hard marketing and instructional work of its founder.
Ultimately, the Portland group would make its way to Long Beach, sort of like going back to the mothership, where it would perform alongside the remaining alumni groups to enthusiastic applause.
Today, this style of “Syncopated” drumming is performed almost exclusively by the LRSD. The Long Beach-based groups had mostly folded just before or during the pandemic. There may be a new alumni group in Long Beach, but it’s small. And women do not play any of the instruments there except cymbals. There is a prevailing attitude by the old guard that the overt physical demands of this kind of drumming are too much for women to handle. (Also remember that in the 1960s, when most of these guys were in middle school, it was incredibly rare to see a woman marching anywhere in a drum line. Old attitudes die hard. And so do old drummers.)
More recently, the founder of LRSD has made successful inroads into the public schools, promoting and teaching this style at any school where he will be welcomed as a volunteer coach. Considering how little arts funding there is in Portland Public Schools these days, some schools are grateful for his work and today there’s a tiny Syncopated Drumline at at least one Portland high school.
I want to be totally stoked about this.
At its best, it gets people excited and happy, and make kids think about learning a musical instrument in school.
Unfortunately, the “style” involved here has no basis in actual Rudimental drumming. None.
If you have studied Rudimental drumming, you know that no small amount of technical study and practice is involved in order to learn and master the twenty-six original rudiments (as codified by the National Association of Rudimental Drummers in 1933. The Percussive Arts Society later expanded this list to forty official rudiments).
Syncopated drumming, if you go by these videos, does not utilize the rudiments. Nor does it emphasize the technical or visual uniformity that is a hallmark of Rudimental drumming. It approximates the traditional grip, but the volume required in this style destroys hands.
Check out this photo. The drummer has taped hands, in order to either facilitate a stronger grip or possibly to provide relief from the strain that may well come from drumming this way for a lengthy period of time.
The bass drummer, above, is putting on heavy cowhide work gloves, in order to better grip the bass drum mallets. That’s because when he plays loud, he’s pulling the mallet two feet away from the drum head in order to achieve the desired volume. A modern, Rudimental drum line doesn’t need to hit the head from that far away.
Note how low the drums are hanging, with the leg rests positioned just above the knee.
Also note that most of the snare drummers are holding their sticks with the tips facing away from the head, presumably to get a bigger, fatter sound from the drums, which are usually older, 15” snares and tenors.
(I learned how to March using a drum on a sling and leg rest. My drum never hung this low. My leg rest was positioned in the middle of the thigh, and marching with it was pretty straightforward. I cannot imagine trying to march with my drum hanging this low.)
Here’s an example of the Long Beach style of “Syncopated” drumming, as demonstrated in this retrospective video that includes a couple shots of LRSD from Portland. As you can see and hear, while there’s certainly some syncopation here, there’s not a single legitimate rudiment being played other than single strokes played at varying volumes.
See, this is where I start to struggle a little with “Syncopated” style.
If this guy, in the name of encouraging kids to play drums, is successfully making inroads into schools and getting kids to engage with drumming this way, he’s potentially doing the students, and proper Rudimental drumming, a disservice. Sure, some of these kids may never want to play any other way, and/or may never play drums after high school; but if this is how they learn to play and they want to lay anywhere else — in a college or community band, in an orchestra or a jazz trio — they will have a lot of bad habits to unlearn before they can learn how to play rudiments from someone else, somewhere else. I’m still believe — and a ton of drum teachers will agree — that the rudiments can be applied in all kinds of musical settings and should continue to be a big part of the foundation of drum instruction. Introducing kids to this kind of drumming is cutting them off at the knees.
On the other hand, there are growing noises about just how boring the rudiments are, and how fewer kids want to get that technically geeky, and short attention spans and blah blah blah. And maybe there’s some truth to that. But there are still thousands of students every school year who take the time to learn and master the rudiments on their way to learning how to play snare drum, drumkit and classical percussion.
If I had not been a music educator for thirty five years, I might not care as much. But I was, and I do.
And I am personally glad that this “style” of drumming hasn’t caught on in many places.
Because if I had to choose between my kid learning this:
And this:
I’d pick the one that’s cleaner and more musical.
Especially if I have a kid who wants to play drums in any capacity beyond high school.
If you grew up playing Long Beach style and you want to call me a snob, that’s fine. I can handle it.
I went to a high school with a merely decent concert band and a horrible marching band, and I still managed to learn proper drum technique. I played a different marching instrument every year — single tenor, cymbals, snare and tritoms (class of 1981) — and I took all of that knowledge and technique with me when I played after high school.
I would want no less for my own child, and I don’t apologize for that.
Why am I writing about this now? Honestly, because I would really like to find some rudimentally trained drummers to play with recreationally, say once a month with a performance or three during the summer. And there just isn’t anything locally to satisfy my desires. There’s a small drum and bugle corp outfit in Milwaukie, OR that’s too far from where I live for me to get there regularly, and there are a few Honk! bands I’ve sat in with, one of whom I played with for the better part of three years. I sat in with the former, where none of the other drummers had any training at all (and most didn’t care if they got to play on two and four). I was the only snare drummer in the latter, and when they wanted to March in more protests and longer parades I couldn’t keep up with them. I also got tired of being the only drummer, with no one else on the horizon. (I like second-line, but it’s not something I’m burning to play.)
Every now and then, while I sit at home and chop on a pad (or, rarely, a drum) and wonder what it wou”d be like to find some other drummers who would want to play together strictly for pleasure. It’s not terribly likely to happen here in Portland, especially when LRSD a is such a draw for the folks who never got exposed to more technical marching percussion. So I admit I’m sometimes a little sad that this kind of drumming is attracting more interest than traditional, technically based Rudimental drumming.
I’m on a particular place on the Timeline, and the likelihood of finding what I want is pretty darned low. So I’ll keep drumming on my own until I can’t anymore, and be grateful for what I have.
I’ve been making it a point lately to search for used Beetle pads and snap them up.
Why?
Beetle Percussion is a guy making practice pads, one at a time, in his garage.
Each pad is craftmade from the most sustainable materials available, and sourced as close to home as possible. The result is a pad that is solid, sounds and feels great, and is beautiful to look at too.
Beetle Percussion goes into great detail about the dimensions and construction of each pad model, and you can learn more at their web site.
My most recent finds — I call them Rescue pads — are below.
1. Ash Pad. This was advertised by the previous owner as a Grass Pad, which is a different animal altogether. So when it arrived, I was really confused. I confirmed with Bradley Lomax at Beetle that this is, in fact, an Ash Pad. It’s just light enough to take along in a padded bag, and has two sides for playing. The wood is gorgeous. Looking at the edge, it reminds me a little of the poured sand sculptures I made at the shore when I was a kid, in tiny bottles that could be sealed up and taken home.
Ash is a hardwood, which means that when used as a pad base it will provide a feel that is harder and faster, even though the response is still very pleasant to the hands. Sloppy beats have nowhere to hide on this pad. Also, hardwoods darken as they age, lending a beautiful patina to the base over time.
(The Grass Pad is made from hemp fiber, and the difference in appearance is striking. Check it out on the web site for more details. I may still try to find one of these for my collection later on.)
2. Pine Pad. This model was one of Beetle’s first, and remains a staple in their lineup. Using a much thicker (1.5”) base, it’s also a fairly heavy pad, and for that reason is not ideal for travel. (There was once a single-sided 8” model, which I have, but that size is no longer in production. The 8” version travels well and is fun to play.)
The two different thicknesses of recycled rubber offer different feels, though on a base this thick it might be harder to head a significant difference in tone. I have this one set up in a stand right now and have been getting to know it better.
I’ve already reviewed the Carlos Botello signature pad in a previous post, and continue to be surprised at how much I enjoy this model.
3. Tony Teleky Bus Pad. These were designed in collaboration with Tony Teleky, a drum corps alum and current instructor with Carolina Crown drum corps. He shares my passion for sustainability and is a terrific musician. He designed the Bus Pad precisely for the reason the name implies: chopping on a pad on the tour bus. The pad’s dimensions work beautifully in the confines of a bus seat, and allow for easy transport in a backpack.
(When I marched drum corps in the late 1970s, we traveled on school buses and chopped on a pillow on our lap, or on the tall padded back of the seat in front of us. Heavier, marching-specific practice pads did not yet exist. At home, most of us practiced on Remo tunable pads, or a rubber pad like the Ludwig “keystone” model. Kids with money might find a Trankle Pocket Pad, though they were spendy for the time at over $20 each. Many of us made our own pads from a phone book and duct tape, which was good enough in the days of lower-tension Mylar-headed drums. It was, as we say, a different time.)
There are two generations of this pad in existence: the first was a single-sided pad with a solid wood base and 3/16” recycled rubber surface. It was very popular when it came out. The Bus Pad was later revised and the second generation is now made with a Valchromat base and two playing sides: one is made of naked recycled rubber, and the other is recycled rubber with the same laminate as used on the Botello pad. I obtained mine in a straight across trade for another pad. There are a few very tiny dents in the laminate, but only one is really noticeable, and it’s not enough for me to ask for a replacement laminate.
I have been enjoying this little pad a LOT. The playing surface on both sides is very nearly perfect, and positively dreamy for portable chopping on the bus or at the park. The perfect size for travel — this one fits in my bicycle saddlebag!
I may seek out an older version of this pad for sake of including it in my collection, but it’s not a high priority. If one falls into my lap, great. If not, that’s okay too.
4. In addition to these Beetle pads, I also have an original BAP (short for “Big Ass Pad”), made of solid pine and recycled rubber and measuring two feet in diameter. I bought this on sale when the last of them were being offered on closeout. The plan was to discontinue this version because the size wasn’t popular enough for the costs involved in making and shipping it and still remaining competitive.
I’m ashamed to admit that right now, my BAP functions as a bit of a catch-all table in my studio. I hope to rectify that situation soon.
For quite awhile, there was no word as to whether the BAP’s demise was permanent, or just a long term hiatus.
That question was answered earlier this year when Beetle announced the release of a new version of the BAP, this time made with a Valchromat base and including a smart carrying handle.
If I were holding a monthly pad party in my community (something I’ve dreamed of doing, tried twice and gave up — maybe I’ll try again this fall), I might find the new version of this pad to be a nice thing to add to my stable. If you work with a drumline or afterschool arts program, you might investigate this pad as a useful resource.
I’ve now given myself some impetus to clean up the space a little and use this baby more.
There are so many — probably too many — mass-produced practice pads on the market today, and in my humble opinion, most are overpriced for how they’re made and what you get. (It’s telling that Remo’s tunable pad, first released in the early 60s and still made today in 6”, 8” and 10” sizes, still finds its way into the hands of schoolchildren across the country and around the world — and at a price far more commensurate with its construction cost and long term value. The 8” size, now considered the standard size for student use, retails for around thirty-five bucks. Compare that to the price of a gray Evans pad, with the same retail price of $35, but which is not as durable as the Remo and cannot be refurbished when it wears out.)
All those mass-produced pads have an environmental cost that isn’t taken seriously enough today.
That’s why I try to stick with pads with a higher sustainability quotient, like tunable pads whose heads can be replaced (pro tip: cut up the old head for those little strips to attach the snares to a drum), or pads made more sustainably (like Beetle and, to a lesser extent, Mad Pads, both of which source their components as close to home and/or recycled as possible and use local labor to make them).
I encourage you to ask better questions about the drum equipment you buy and use, and seek out products that offer as high a degree of sustainability as possible, including buying local and/or used, trading for other gear, and choosing products that are lower on the environmental supply chain where possible.
I’ll share more sustainable drum goodness as I find it.
If you’re a regular reader here, you know that I’ve never been a huge fan of laminates on practice pads.
Growing up on Mylar, I just never felt the need for adding something that resembled Formica to what was already a perfectly decent pad.
So over the years, I’ve tried lots of laminated practice pads, and I have found most of them ranging anywhere from pointless to horrible.
I originally tried this pad three years ago, and because at the time I was doing a lot of drumming on older vintage drums with Mylar heads and standard tuning, I didn’t really appreciate the pad at the time.
More recently, I had an opportunity to buy this pad used and decided the price was worth the risk. Maybe my hands and head were in a different place now.
Carlos Botello and Bradley Lomax designed a really nice practice pad. You can click on the link that will take you to the Beetle page for this pad and read about the details that go into making it.
Disclaimer: I bought this pad used in a private party sale. The construction is identical between my used pad and the pad currently sold at Beetle’s web site. My pad is an early iteration of this model and lacks the graphics on the top laminate, but otherwise it’s the same pad.
My pad has been through the wars a bit — dropped, scuffed, played a fair amount (though happily, my laminate has no dents in it) — but works as advertised.
The top of the pad has a 1/4” thick recycled rubber surface, covered by a Mylar laminate. One might think that this is just another hard, unforgiving Formica-like playing surface, but they’d be wrong.
This side plays like buttah.
It’s soft enough that the laminate offers useful articulation instead of undue resistance. The Valchromat base is more durable than MDF and if you drop it, there’s no surface paint to scrape off because the fibers of the Valchromat are impregnated with the plant-based color all the way through.
The rubber rim is soft, but embedded deeply into the base so it will stay put, and gives just enough presence for you to know if your rim shots are accurate or not.
The bottom surface includes Carlos’ signature and a 1/2” thick layer of dense, soft foam. This side is meant to give you a place to build your wrists and get a good workout. There is almost no rebound at all, which makes it similar in intent to the pillows we used to practice on while on drum corps tour, and when you play on normally-tensioned Mylar heads, such workouts make sense.
If I were still possessed of younger, stronger hands and not bothered by advancing osteoarthritis, I might find this surface useful in my practice. But working on such a surface now would actually be quite painful and potentially harmful for my hands and wrists, so I will likely just avoid this side completely.
(NOTE: I’ve reached out to Beetle Percussion and asked about the possibility of swapping in a non-laminated recycled rubber surface to replace the foam. If they can cut a Floppy Disc to match the shape on the underside of the Botello pad, swapping the two shouldn’t pose a problem, and I can do the swap myself.)
I think the combination of the recycled tire rubber and a real Mylar laminate (similar to what’s used to make a drum head, though perhaps a little thicker) makes for an ideal practice surface, especially for Rudimental and marching applications. It’s articulate without being harsh in feel or sound, and the surface will indicate your accuracy immediately without hesitation.
Having tried other Beetle pads with a rubber rim, I can say that the rim is a little soft for my liking, and I wonder how long it will remain durable enough to help me gauge my rimshots. Because this pad is so used, I may stiffen the rim a little by adhering a very long zip tie to the outside wall of the rim. I’m waiting to hear back from Bradley at Beetle for his thoughts first.
The pads are currently available at the Beetle web site, but be warned: high-craft pads like this are made one at a time and you could be waiting a month or more for yours to arrive. Also, pad models are made on a rotating cycle (because the cutting machinery must be reset for each pad’s thickness and diameter.
Various models of Beetle pads go in and out of stock depending on the model schedule, so if a model is out of stock, contact Beetle and ask when it might be available again.
Beetle is my absolute favorite American practice pad maker today, because they pay attention to their impact on the environment and do all they can to reduce negative effects by incorporating as many sustainable manufacturing practices as possible. This does make their craft-made pads more expensive than mass-produced rubber-on-wood pads, but in my humble opinion it’s worth the extra cost.
This Carlos Botello model could became my new favorite rubber drum pad for awhile.
This makes SEVEN that I’m aware of. In less than a month.
Bad batch? Bad packing? Bad packaging at the factory?
We will never know, because VF is a juggernaut with guard dogs on the socials who are shouting in defense of the new pad. I got dressed down by one of the pad’s designers for my previous article, and anyone who is complimenting the pad is getting all kinds of bro love from him on the same sites.
But if this is happening again and again, then the pad really isn’t worth A HUNDRED DOLLARS.
I stand by what I researched and wrote previously. No apologies. If you are going to charge a hundred bucks for a practice pad, it had better be consistently amazing, and made of sustainable materials.
If you're a regular reader here, you know that I've occasionally referenced MDF as a component of modern practice pad manufacturing.
What IS MDF?
It stands for Medium-Density Fiberboard, which is a material often used as the baseplate material for modern practice pads. It's also used in flooring and furniture manufacturing. Because it's a
wood product, rather than real wood, it's more resistant to pests
like termites and ants, which is especially important in home
construction** and repair.
There have been concerns raised about MDF in multiple industries, including drum pad manufacturing, and with good reason. regular MDF requires chemicals to ensure proper adhesion of its multiple ingredients and one of those is formaldehyde.
What is formaldehyde?
Formaldehyde is commonly used as
a preservative in medical laboratories, mortuaries, and consumer
products, including some hair smoothing and straightening products. It is also a by-product of automobile combustion and is produced in very small amounts [emphasis mine] by most living organisms, including humans.
Formaldehyde is used in the process of embalming bodies to prepare them for burial. (Side note: Jewish religious law prohibits embalming, in accordance with the belief that the body should not be preserved when the soul is done using it. So when I die, my body will decay faster. I'm fine with that.) It is also used to preserve body parts in laboratory jars. (Remember the "Abby Normal" brain scene in Young Frankenstein?)
The fact that it is used in hair products horrifies me. While humans produce tiny amounts of this stuff, what's found in hair products is in a more concentrated form and therefore should be suspect by anyone wishing to avoid consuming quantities of it on purpose. There's currently a huge brouhaha in the Black community among folks who were told for years that hair-straightening products were totally safe, but whom have experienced a noticeable spike in certain kinds of cancers after regular use of such hair products over an extended period. That should tell you something.
But I digress.
MDF is a popular choice for most pad manufacturers because it's cheaper than whole wood, and because it's less prone than whole wood to things like warping and natural flaws in the grain, which have to be removed and/or otherwise worked around at greater cost. MDF is easy to shape uniformly, and it takes paint beautifully.
Depending on the mix of ingredients (which, along with formaldehyde and other chemicals, also includes pulverized wood fibers, wood resins, and wax), it can be made in different densities and degrees of flexibility; however, most MDF is made to approximate the rigidity of natural wood.
But MDF has a much higher concentration of formaldehyde than the average human body, and releases that formaldehyde in the form of off-gases that can last indefinitely. Surface paint will seal off some of the formaldehyde for awhile, but eventually it does seep through. I can only imagine what it would be like to work in a warehouse where thousands of pads are stored, awaiting shipment. I don't think anyone has measured the seepage rate of offgases in a meaningful, verifiable way yet. But when they do, I'll certainly pay attention.
So many modern practice pads are made with MDF baseplates that it would be easier to note which ones aren't. And while it's easy to differentiate among brands of modern pads, it's worth noting that there are likely only a few overseas factories actually manufacturing all those pads.
Branding is not the same as manufacturing. Want proof? Xymox made re-branded pads for other drum companies for years. Offworld has done so in more limited quantities (Remember the yellow Lone Star pads? Apparently, those are a hot collectible right now.) The Chinese juggernaut HUN has been making pads right and left for Salyers, RCP and many other drum companies.
I've owned and used some of these pads myself over the years. But once I began reading up on MDF and what it actually is, my ownership and usage of these pads fell off considerably. Most of my "modern" pads are older and in used condition, so the worst of the off-gases has likely gassed out. But still.
Another issue with pads using MDF basesplates is durability. The less dense the baseplate is, the more prone to damage it is in a fall or other sudden impact. RealFeel pads have shown evidence of such wear and tear over the years; take a good look at the corners of any RF pad that's twenty years old and has been through the wars. So have older Xymox pads, from their rubber-on-wood days. Interestingly, the baseplate on a recently acquired NOS (ca. 2000?) Xymox shows evidence of a woodgrain on both sides of the pad. This could likely be a veneer laid over the MDF, or it could be really sloppy brushstrokes. I'm opting for the former until I can find out more. In any event, the baseplate on my NOS Xymox feels heaver and more dense than the one on my pre-2023 VF Stockpad. As with all things, Your Mileage May Vary.
Here are photos of brand new Heavy Hitter pads from Vic Firth, released this summer. Both of these photos are from drummers who opened the box after receiving it in the mail, only to find that the MDF baseplate was split right through the middle, likely the result of being knocked around during shipping. (And we all know how brutal UPS can be.)
Hopefully, these buyers can get free replacement pads and therefore a good outcome. The fact that this pad retails for a hundred dollars gives me pause. The fact that the baseplate can be damaged so easily because the material is less dense than actual wood convinces me that I should probably save my money.
Alternatives to MDF
There are a few alternatives to MDF, though they are not cheap.
1. Real wood.Beetle Percussion offers craft-made practice pads using whole wood (pine or ash) salvaged from trees killed by invasive beetles (hence the company name). The playing surface of Beetle pads comes from recycled tires. I own a couple of Beetle pads made this way and I like them. The real wood does offer a different feel that some may not like, especially if they're used to MDF pads. There is a little less shock absorption with real wood, and more of the vibration of each hit will be felt in your hands. For some, that's uncomfortable. For others it's useful information about the clarity and timing of each drumstroke. This issue seems to be somewhat mitigated by using a thicker slab of wood for the baseplate. You'll have to decide for yourself.
Beetle has also experimented with Hemp wood, which has a texture and feel closer to grass. When compressed and turned into board with a plant-based adhesive (as opposed to the chemicals found in MDF), it can be rather heavy, but durable. Best used in smaller diameter pads.
2. Premium MDF -- I just learned about this option from Michael at Mad Pads (stay tuned for an interview coming later at this blog!). It's apparently somewhere in between regular MDF and actual wood in terms of both price and environmental health, using far fewer chemicals and still having the ability to be cut, shaped and painted easily. I am still researching this option and will report back.
3. Valchromat -- this is a material constructed similarly to MDF, using compressed and glued fibers. It was developed in Europe as a stronger and more environmentally sensitive alternative to MDF:
Valchromat is an
environmental friendly non-toxic substance made from recycled pine wood
and mill waste. Valchromat panels are manufactured using waste wood
such as branches and chips from softwood forests. In using waste wood
Valchromat helps to sustain forests and minimize carbon emissions given
off from felling machinery. Also the carcinogenic odorless chemical gas
known as formaldehyde which is found in the wood fibre bonding resin
used in standard MDF is absent in Valchromat where a special organic
non- toxic wood fibre bonding resin is used allowing Valchomat is safe
to be used in the manufacture of kids toys. Valchromat also use the same
colour dye used in fabric. This dye is organic and non-toxic.
Beetle Percussion uses Valchromat as the baseplate material in some of its pads. The vegetable-based color is impregnated into the material, eliminating the need for paint; and the lack of formaldehyde is a fantastic development.
The downside of Valchromat is that it's very expensive. Hopefully, as more industrial uses are found for this material and its use becomes more widespread, costs will eventually go down.
Read it, think about it, and do your own research.
In an age of faster access to information, it's easier than ever to learn about the details that go into the drums and accessories we use. If you're curious and want to go deeper, I invite you to see what you can find.
Happy drumming.
(** I live in a very little house that was built in 1906 and last remodeled in 1948. So the incidence of construction-based MDF in my house is pretty low. Just sayin'.)
A few years ago I scored some plywood, and got my brother-in-love to cut it into two rounds for me. I took them home, painted them and used them as platforms for practice pads.
One of them was used on a drum carrier, so I could add drumming to my walking therapy while I tried to recover from Long Covid. I used that for about a year in earnest, then less often as my symptoms receded. I stopped using it last fall when I could walk in a straight line again. I sold the carrier and recycled the wood earlier this summer.
The other was mounted on a sturdy concert stand so I could put practice pads on it without having to funble with the basket adjustment for pads of different sizes. Changing pads became fast and easy. I still use this today, but have upgraded it into a serious practice station in my studio.
At the time, I modified the second round in a quick, clumsy way. I was never fully satisfied with the result. About a year ago I upgraded the whole thing with better padding materials and a much improved installation of the angle bar. I added a stick quiver and have been using it daily ever since. But I forgot to share photos here. A discussion about pads on stands yesterday prompted me to amend the situation.
This old Hamilton concert stand is heavy, but strong enough to support a heavy practice pad, even on a tilt. I replaced the cracked basket rubber pieces with new aftermarket ones, and replaced the bottom rubber feet (one was missing anyway) with plastic champagne stoppers so they would grab the carpet better. I took a chain and used it to hang a drum key off the angle bar for my tunable pads, and taped the contact points so it won't rattle while I play.
The whole thing probably cost me about forty bucks in parts and labor, including the vintage Hamilton stand and the stick quiver
I have been using a couple of different concert-height snare stands so I can play on a pad in a standing position. (A standard model, used when sitting behind a drum kit, doesn’t extend high enough.)
Both stands are adequate, but heavy when I need to transport them for, say, chopping in a nearby park on a nice day or offering a clinic at another site.
So I researched my options, and came up with this.
The Yamaha Crosstown series of stands is made primarily of aluminum tubing, with steel connecting pieces for greater stability and durability where it’s needed most.
From Yamaha:
The Yamaha Crosstown Concert Snare Stand SS-3H is an ultra-lightweight aluminum snare drum stand for standing performance. A dramatic reduction in weight enhances handling and portability, significantly reducing the burden on the player. This revolutionary snare drum stand is not only lightweight and compact, but it is also easy to set up, durable, and does not interfere with the natural acoustic tone of the drum used. By using aluminum alloy for most of the stand’s structure, its weight has been reduced by about 50% compared to steel snare stands (in-house survey). The SS-3H is also very compact when folded, providing a considerable improvement in portability. Although the SS-3H is primarily constructed of lightweight aluminum pipe and aluminum castings, steel is used in a few small-but-critical areas that enhance overall strength. The legs are made of aluminum U-channel (channel legs) with a cross-section designed to maximize strength and durability as well as stability. This also makes the stand comfortable to hold for positioning and adjustment. Specially-designed rubber feet prevent slippage while the stand is in use.
More Information
Manufacturer
Yamaha
Model #
SS3H
Color/Finish
Aluminum
Hardware Type
Snare Stands
Hardware Series
Yamaha Crosstown
I blinked a moment at the price — MSRP $180, average retail price around $140 plus shipping — and then looked around online for any sort of discount I could find. A drum shop back east was closing out their stock and offering fee shipping, so I ended up paying just under $130.
I set it up with a couple of different pads and tried it out.
As I suspected, a lightweight pad (like, for example, the Evans Barney Beats pad) posed no issues and in fact chopping on it while in the stand was pretty nice. This is probably the configuration I’ll use most often when take the pad and stand to other places for extended chopping.
The true test came when I put my Drumslinger Marcher pad in the stand.
The heavier pad sits well in the basket when tensioned down. However, it’s a lot heavier than a simple rubber-on-MDF pad and the stand wobbled a tiny bit when I played assertively. Whether this is a matter of needing to spread the legs out a little more, or the fact that the basket was extended to nearly 34” from the floor (with perhaps a couple inches still inside the bottom half), is unclear and I’ll need to hang out with it a little longer.
The stand is solidly built. However, it’s also mostly aluminum and offers weight reduction that may come at the expense of good weight distribution. This aluminum stand weighs 3.75 pounds; Yamaha’s standard concert snare stand (model S665) extends to the same height, is made of steel and weighs over 7 pounds. Depending on how heavy then object in the basket is, you may experience some unpleasant top-heaviness. Use discretion and be conservative in your choices.
I can see this working well with a standard concert snare drum, or even an old, much lighter field drum.
I would not put a modern marching snare drum on this stand; if you need to mount such a drum on a stand for stationary use, I’d go with a marching-specific stand made to work with your drum’s carry system and built to handle the extra weight.
Full extension goes to no more than 35” tall, which is fine for a drummer of average height (I’m 5’ 7” and have no issues here.) A very tall drummer, over 6’ or more, will have a harder time making this stand work with a practice pad, but they could probably squeak by with a standard concert snare drum. I think that for the tallest drummers, an extension of some kind might be a good idea, though only with a stand whose legs extend outward far beyond the diameter of the pad or drum in use. Such an extension does not exist in the current Yamaha catalog, and would probably need to be made or retrofitted from an older piece of equipment.
I like the look and the ease of use. It remains to be seen how well the stand will travel and how durable it can be when used with a heavier, tunable pad. Bicycle frames made of aluminum tubing tend not to last as long as steel under the stresses of heavy, daily commuting. I wonder how well this hardware, intended as it is for light weight and portability, will fare in the long run.
Do I think it’s worth $130? I think that for my purposes, maybe. Probably. Your mileage may vary.
