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.

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.