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