Product Review: Loyal Drums Eviction Pad

I’d been curious about the Eviction Pad from Loyal Drums since it was first released a few years ago. Video demos and reviews by other drummers piqued my curiosity and I really wanted to try it out. However, living so far away from the traditional Rudimental drumming scene meant I couldn’t ever see one in person, and price and the volume were enough to put me off for quite awhile.

This winter, I was in a position to finally buy one. I had improved the sound insulation of my studio door and I had some extra funds. Now would be as good a time as any, and I might not have the opportunity again later. So I splurged.

And it was definitely a splurge on my part. With a retail price of almost $130, this would be a serious investment in a practice pad that I’d want to keep and use regularly.

The pad arrived yesterday. It came in a cardboard box, without padding. There was just the pad, and a little Loyal Drums decal. And nothing else.

The pad itself is elegant in the simplicity of its design. A plywood base and top hoop, Allen tensioning rods and a woven drumhead designed by Loyal to simulate the response of a rope-tensioned drum (though it can be tensioned higher to approach the feel of an older, Mylar-headed marching drum).

Upon closer inspection, I found some details that surprised me, given the price of the pad. The plywood showed holes and surface chips, and was not finished in any visible way. The hole on the bottom, designed to allow the pad to be used on a camera tripod or similar, was rough and unfinished as well. And the sanding of the edges seemed incomplete in places. There is no nonskid material on the bottom of the pad, meaning it’s not ideal for use on a tabletop. Given the lightness of the pad, perhaps that was never intended as an option. It does work well on a stand, which is where I’ve opted to use mine.

Also, the woven fabric head showed a noticeable wrinkle at the point of being tucked into the counterhoop. This wrinkle diminished somewhat with additional tensioning but never completely disappeared. It does not seem to affect the response or feel. Maybe, in contrast to factory-made Mylar heads, this is to be expected. Maybe not.

Playing on the pad proved to be interesting, and ultimately positive. The feel of the woven head is buttery and smooth, offering a pleasing response to those acquainted with the feel of older, lower-tension Mylar marching heads. Drummers accustomed to playing on high-tensioned Kevlar heads may be baffled with how to approach playing on this pad. Even when tensioned tighter, it still won’t come close to the feel of a modern drum corps snare. It’s not meant to.

There was no instruction sheet enclosed with the pad explaining anything about the construction and care of the head, what size Allen key to use, or anything else. I reached out via email to Dave Loyal at Loyal Drums for information:

“The head is our own material, the quantum batter head.  It is a patent pending crimp locked 10” head that is only 5mils thick, but is stronger than most batter heads twice that thickness.  It’s used pretty widely by military, and civilians.  Most of our drums ship with that head.  We like it for its spring back. The feel can approach that of calf, or be tightened up to a more drum corps approach.  Extreme tensions can start to get scary, but anything you can do with a standard Allen key should be fine, especially if you play with good rebound technique.  

Any 10” head fits the pad.  The [Remo] silent stroke heads are a good option to keep it quiet, as the pad is true to its name, Eviction 😂.  The pad is loud, but intended as a different animal than a rubber pad.  People use them in rehearsals within ensembles, etc.

The Allen size is 5/32, and the heads cost $45 for the quantum.

The center hole is 1/4-20 threaded, but is not designed for a cymbal stand.  It is for a much more common (and cheaper) solution…camera tripods, camera clamps, magic arms, super clamps, etc.  it’s nice to carry a small clamp and mount the pad to a chair, table etc, rather than carrying a full stand.  Basket stands are also obviously fine!”

I appreciated the additional information, but think that enclosing an info sheet might save time for everyone.

As a retired bicycle mechanic, I have lots of metric Allen keys on hand, and was able to carefully and gently use a 4mm to adjust the tension. (I plan on buying a 5/32” Allen key to have on hand for this pad, and will use that going forward.)

Also, be careful with your choice of snare stand for use with this pad. My regular concert stand has very long stays so fitting them to the base of this pad requires patience and care. A dedicated pad basket, like those available from Drumeo or Ahead, has shorter stays and might be a better choice for daily use.

A couple of videos, one showing the pad straight from the box and another after I tuned it up a bit.

Overall, I think this pad is a keeper for me. I really like the feel, and while it’s definitely a few decibels louder than my Drumslinger Marcher series pad, it offers a feel unlike anything else in my stable (that’s a good thing). I think the asking price of $129 (plus shipping) seems a bit high when the physical appearance and lack of finishing is taken into account. When the weather in Portland warms up, I may dismantle this pad so I can carefully sand and paint the top section, color plus clearcoat, to afford it a little more protection.

The fact that factory-made, standard drum heads will also fit this pad is a plus, but I admit I really like the Quantum head and have no plans to use anything else. 

Happy chopping!

Drum Pad History: Sabian/QuietTone

Henry Adler, one of the great drummers of the 1940s-70s, invented the original QuietTone practice pad, one of the earliest drum pads with a tensioned head. They were very popular among concert and jazz drummers because the feel was very close to that of an actual drum.

You can catch an original Adler QuietTone pad in action at Rick Dior's charming video about vintage practice pads, at 2:24 in.

Here's an original QuietTone pad, grabbed from online:

 

As you can see, the base material is fibrous, subject to wear, and may actually have asbestos in it. The original pads wore out fairly quickly with regular use.

Sabian purchased the Quiet Tone name and pad design in the early 2000s, and for a time continued to make the pads in North America at its Canadian headquarters. These transitional pads have fat, white rubber feet on bottom, and a small Sabian font sitting outside the QuietTone logo stamped on the head. During this time, QuietTone pads were made in 14", 12" and 10" sizes, and were made pretty much the same as the original QuietTone pads.

 

Eventually, Sabian would move pad manufacturing overseas. This is generally marked by the Sabian font being moved to inside the QuietTone logo, and the change to smaller, black rubber feet on the bottom. There was also a slight change in the material used for the internal base plate, and you can definitely feel a difference in the response and tone. The 12" size was discontinued with the relocation as well.

I'm a fan of these older transitional-era pads, which are getting difficult to find. One of my favorite non-marching pads.

Here is my transitional-era 10" pad, probably my favorite size in this model.

The base material is still fairly fibrous, but no longer uses asbestos and tends to last somewhat longer than the original base material. For extra measure, these QuietTone pads also use a thin rubber layer over the baseplate, and top that with a piece of Mylar that just fits over the rubber layer. The head goes on top of all this. In my opinion, it works pretty well on the smaller size, and not so well on the larger size. Some folks like to take the 14" pad apart and add a second layer of dense foam, which they say improves the feel and sound.

The nice thing is that the heads can be changed to suit your needs, though I don't really see a need for anything other than a coated Ambassador-weight head on it.

The transitional-era pads included a 12" size which is now nearly impossible to find used for sale.
The 14" is okay for concert and jazz work, but simply cannot be tuned tightly enough for marching or rudimental work.
The 10" travels well, and its size allows for a more crisp response.

The Taiwanese-made pads aren't terrible, but they will have a different feel than the older pads do.

It's a good pad, and worth adding to your collection if you do a lot of concert or drumkit work.
Happy drumming!

Vintage Corner: Unusual Kieffa pad

New to me, scored on FB Marketplace.

Every Kieffa pad I'd seen before this measured 8" or 10" across and had a cylindrical body with a tan rubber playing surface and black rubber rim on top, and a thin wood panel on bottom. nearly all the pads I'd seen before except one could accept a 1/4" jack, for the purpose of electrifying the sound.

 

This is different. It's bigger, about 12" across (11 1/4" playing surface). Rubber is black and does not appear to have been colored in by a previous owner. The rubber playing surface looks and feels right, in that it definitely could be a Kieffa product. Rubber rim is black, though scraping (from wear and tear) reveals a white color underneath. Base is black and could be an older version of MDF, but I can't be certain. The finish on the base is textured and could contain plastic as well.

And it's a flat pad, with no resonant chamber.

 

On the underside is a thin layer of what looks and feels like harder recycled rubber. 

 

I looked up the patent online and found only the original patent for the cylindrical acoustic-electric pad, and an explanation that any modifications were to refer back to this original patent number, dated 2007.

 

I've never seen a pad like this before.

UPDATE: Further research brought me to this article from 2013:

https://drummerszone.com/news/kieffa-percussion-designs-debut-at-namm-2013/namm-2013-59-11604/article/

Scroll to the bottom of the article and you'll find that this IS a genuine Kieffa pad, called the "Hard Corps" pad. It could be customized, which explains why the rubber is black. And the description matches what's here exactly.

So Kieffa DID make a pad that could be used for marching practice.
It's probably even more rare than the standard resonant models. Kieffa exhibited at NAMM in 2013 and then faded away. I'm still researching to find out what happened. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Here's a little video demo, with concert and light marching sticks.

My new Rick Dior sticks: Great for the practice pad

Got these last week and have been loving them on various different pads.
Thought I'd toss this up today before Shabbat and the weekend.
Dior sticks, Evans Barney pad, and a little exercise I made up.
I don't care about copyright so feel free to grab it if you like it.

Happy chopping!

Rick Dior sticks. Worth every penny.

Several months ago, a friend gifted me a small bundle of drum sticks, including a pair of black wenge concert sticks made by Rick Dior. They’re gorgeous, but too light for regular use. So they mostly sit on display.

Still, I wanted to see if a heavier set might be available. So I went to Rick’s website and took a look.

Rick updates his site periodically with a video of the sticks he has on hand. When I checked, he had a beautiful pair made of pecan, with reverse (“Etude” style) tips. I had a little extra cash, so I ordered them.

They arrived today. And they’re fantastic.

At 82 grams per stick, they’re on the heavy side of what I generally like, but so well-balanced and responsive that the extra weight isn’t a burden. The sticks have a slight reverse taper at the back end. I’m not normally a fan of this but with these sticks it seems to help with the balance. The pecan is light in color and very elegant in its simplicity.

Rick Dior has a number of sticks in various weights and thicknesses, made from a variety of exotic and domestic hardwoods. His hand-turned sticks, made one pair at a time, start at $65/pr plus postage, and are worth every penny. He suffered some serious setbacks during the floods last fall, and I don’t know how close he is to being fully up and running. Hopefully, he can return to steady production before too long.

I’ll save up for another set soon.

These play so effortlessly for how heavy they are. YUM.

The last experiment with the Beetle Last Pad

So I think I’ve dialed in the Last Pad from beetle percussion.

You can find all the details about previous experiments in earlier posts here on this blog.

Tonight, I decided to try one more experiment.

I’m from the Mylar era of marching drums, so I wasn’t entirely thrilled with how hard and tight the hard side of the pad felt, even after I swapped in the 1/4” rubber insert under the white Emperor head.

I loved the softer side with the foam insert and red Emperor head and wanted to leave it as it was.

I swapped out the 1/4” rubber insert and swapped in the harder 3/16”. Then, on top of that I added my own insert cut from an old ensolite camping pad, and on top of that I added a Mylar insert from a Sabian QuietTone practice pad. Then I put back the coated Emperor head and rim, and tightened everything up.

Now, the original design of the inserts has rounded edges so that the head will maintain its shape when tensioning. The ensolite pad is soft enough to not compromise that idea, but firm enough to offer more punch than Beetle’s foam insert. I did this so I could get higher tension, but tempered with a touch more softness than hard recycled rubber. And to make sure there would be a noticeable difference between the two sides, I used the 3/16” rubber insert under the ensolite. 

(The 1/4” insert makes a decent stand-alone pad that travels well.)

I think you’ll see that my idea worked out well.

And this is where I’ll leave things for now.

Ensolite is a dense, lightweight foam that’s been used for decades as a sleeping pad for campers and backpackers.

I’ve used this material before, making a small pair of timpani practice pads. It worked well for that, so I figured I’d try it here and my hunch was correct.

If you want to try something similar, simply trim the insert to the exact head size (in this case, 14”). If the thickness is too much even when tightened, you can always swap in slightly longer tuning bolts. I didn’t need to here.

It’s still a stupidly heavy practice pad. But now it's more useful to me.