Vintage Corner? Pecker Practice Pad Company, 1970s-80s?

The Pecker Practice Pad Company was based in the very small town of Wills Point, TX, located about fifty miles from Dallas.

The pad’s construction is very similar to designs from Rudimental Drummers and Rudimental Control, with a smaller wood disc glued atop a larger laminated baseplate. 

(Because of the use of Allen bolts instead of drum tuning bolts that take a key, I wondered if this might not have some connection to either Rudimental Control or Drumslinger, both made in Texas; but so far I haven’t been able to connect the dots clearly to either one.

I also searched for businesses registrations in the vicinity, which turned up nothing; and for obituaries for anyone named Pecker in the vicinity of Wills Point, but so far the only obit that came up was someone who’d served in WWI and died long before this pad was designed or made. (Research geeks: sometimes obituaries can lead you to the maker of a vintage pad that wasn’t mass-produced.)

I’ve reached out to the city of Wills Point to see if they can tell me anything, and also to Rudimental Control and Drumslinger; both companies are based in Texas.

I got a response from Bill at Drumslinger, who wrote: “ From Bill at Drumslinger: 

"I remember a couple of '70s/'80s West Coast drummers mentioning the Pecker Pad, when trying out my pads at my PASIC booth, pre-Covid. I had never seen one before your pics. From what I remember, they might have been made briefly in the 70's. Looks like a stacked center type with soft fill under the head. It looks like it would be quiet, like you mentioned, and suitable for general drum set or concert/orch. stick warmup or chop out work. 'Popcorn' pad sound, but a step up from a Remo."

It’s a cool little thing that reminds me a little bit of the Baby Chop pad from Rudimental Drummers (and which also comes with an 8” head). The only downside of this pad is that it takes just four tuning nodes, rather than five or six; so if you’re tempted to crank it down too hard you will warp the metal rim a bit as has happened here. I may cast around for a replacement rim, but for now I’ve lowered the tension a little and it seems fine. 

The more I chop on the pad, the more I really like it.

Vintage Corner: my last Remo pad post for awhile, promise!

It was pointed out to me that I haven't shown the internals of the vintage Remo tunable pad.

For those who want to tear into one, here’s a blow-up.

The oldest tunable Remo pads are made of wood and have a metal rim. Be careful when disassembling these sixty-year-old pads, as the wood may be degraded and the foam beneath the head may be disintegrating into particles. Consider working outside if weather permits, wearing a painters mask, or both.

After you carefully unscrew and remove the bolts, set them aside and lift the rim off, followed by the head. The metal retaining ring inside may come off with the head, and if it does you’ll need to gently and carefully pry it loose with a thin flathead screwdriver.

When you lay everything out, you’ll see the construction is relatively primitive.

Take the outer rim, the inner retaining rim and the plastic head and gently wash with warm, 

lightly soapy water and let dry.

While those parts dry, turn your attention to the baseplate.

The earliest tunable pads use a tilt panel made of compressed fiberboard this is not terribly robust, attached by three wood screws to the underside of the primary baseplate. If you carefully remove these wood screws, you’ll see that two of them tilt the bottom panel away from the primary baseplate by means of two rubber washers. I find that these tend to stay in place when I unscrew the tilt panel because age and compression have set them against the wood and fiberboard pieces for so long. If they fall off, don’t lose them! You’ll need to reinsert them when you screw the tilt panel back on. 

Inspect the tilt panel and the main baseplate for wood damage. If there is significant cracking, you can often apply a spot of Elmer’s wood glue and let this dry to stabilize the crack. When reassembling, do not force the wood screws past the point of tightness or you’ll strip the soft wood/fiber.

Because the third screw attaches without a rubber washer, I like to add a very small bushing of thinner rubber or leather to stabilize this point further and prevent the tuning bolt from “bottoming” out and possibly damaging the tilt panel when the pad is reassembled. In a pinch, a small circle of yoga mat works fine. You can use the wood screw to start the hole in the bushing.

(Note: the second generation of these tunable pads, circa 1969 through the late 1970s, used a hard plastic primary base and rim, and a tilt panel made of metal that attaches the same way. You will need to be just as careful when refurbishing these pads because the wood screw can easily strip the plastic if overtightened. By the early to mid 1980s, these were being phased out in favor of a pad that used a softer plastic and no tilt panel because most beginning drummers were being taught matched grip instead of traditional grip.)

If the foam inside the pad is crumbling you should replace it. Getting replacement from from Remo is basically impossible these days, so I usually substitute a firmer pad cut from an old ensolite camping pad. If it’s not quite thick enough, you can lay down a primary layer of thinner yoga mat, or even padded material from a mailing envelope, before adding the ensolite pad. This will give the pad a little bit of resistance that adds some freshness back to the feel and rebound. The ensolite material is closed-cell and much denser than the stock foam. Use the inner metal retaining ring as a tracing outline for any layer you want to add.

If the original foam is intact go ahead and use it again. If you want, you can still add a thin layer of yoga mat or mailing a envelope underneath, though the sound will be different than with a pad made from ensolite.

Remo used a silver paper sticker with their logo on it to seal the ends of the metal outer rim, and that sticker is usually torn or missing by the time the pad has arrived in my hands. I use a strip or two of metallic plumbers tape to cover the gap and stabilize the rim. 

If the head is intact, dent-free and in good shape, cleaning it with some warm soapy water will improve its looks considerably and it can be reinstalled. If the coating is worn off in the center but the Mylar is still in good shape, there’s nothing wrong with adding a layer of clear package tape underneath at the worn spot and it won’t affect the sound or feel. If there are multiple dents or the head is cracked, replace it. Remo still makes replacements heads that will fit any of their pads, whether made in 1966 or 2026. 

When reassembling, take your time. Never force anything.

I like to position the tilt so that the higher side is to my left and the lowest part of the tilt is to my right, just as it would be with a drum, because I play with traditional grip. If you play with matched grip you can position the high side at top or bottom. The tilt isn’t severe enough to adversely affect your practice. Once you determine where the tilt will go, position the logo of the replacement head at what will be the “top” of the pad when you look at it on a table or stand, and begin to reassemble the pad. 

These pads are not marching-specific! Over-tensioning can break them, so if you need a high-tension pad for marching practice, use a more modern pad. 

Tighten the bolts carefully and in small increments until the pad is reassembled and the tension is playable again.

I have a bunch of these old Remo pads in my collection and enjoy using them even now. They’re great for students because they’re affordable and have replaceable heads. (My first Remo pad from 1973 has had a few replacement heads over the years and still holds up well.)

Have fun!

Vintage Corner: my very first practice pad, circa 1973

In the Fall of 1973, I walked into my grade school auditorium to see about joining the band.

I originally wanted to play a brass instrument, French horn or trumpet; but the few that the school had were already out on loan, and my parents couldn’t afford to rent an instrument from a music store. So I asked the music teacher what was available on loan.

After considering Cello (beautiful, but too big for my bicycle basket), flute (too much danger of hyperventilation) and clarinet (too squeaky, no thank you), the music teacher was out of options.

Except… 

“Well there’s a drum class that meets once a week, and anyone who passes all the lessons and quizzes can join the 5th grade band at the semester.” He paused.

“What?” I asked.

He pursed his lip, and then said, “Well, right now there’s ten boys in the class, and if you join you’d be the only girl. They might make fun of you. But if you hang in there — and I think you can — then you’d be able to join the band in January, with two or three other boys. I expect the rest to get bored or wash out before then. And you’d start with a practice pad and some sticks, which would easily fit in your bike basket.”

I thought for a moment. And then, I said yes.

I went home with a pair of drum sticks, a lesson book and this practice pad.

I wrote my name on the bottom in case it got lost. I showed up for every class, and learned how to read rhythm and count and how to play long rolls and flams. Other rudiments would follow later. In January, I joined the fifth grade band with three other boys, and after just a month, I was moved up to the sixth grade band because I was making rapid progress. (The fifth grade boys were jealous, but even they had to admit that I had earned it.)

This pad went with me into middle school, high school and college. For many years, long before specialized drum pads became commonplace, it was my only practice pad. I replaced the head my freshman year of high school, and again in college. The bottom baseplate got dented and dinged in the bottom of my backpack, but the pad held up beautifully. I just stuck a new-old-stock replacement head on it today, and added a thin layer of yoga mat material under the original foam to stabilize the foam a bit. It still works as advertised, and it’s still a cool little pad.

Vintage Corner: I just can’t stop loving old Remo pads.

Fun with pad history:

Remo began selling practice pads in the early 1960s.

I’m a huge fan of the older Remo pads, with flat metal rims and fiberboard base plates. They are repairable and the Mylar heads can be replaced (and a 2026 replacement pad head will fit a 1962 pad).

Remo’s web site features a history page where you can learn about how they developed their pads and their Mylar heads, and includes a chart outlining the evolution of their logo — a helpful aid in dating their vintage pads.

My first practice pad in1973 was a 6” Remo pad with a hard plastic rim. I went through three heads between fifth grade and my senior year of high school. I still have that pad.

But here’s an even earlier version from 1962, with an original head that’s in great shape.

(If anyone comes across an older Remo pad in need of a new head, I have a few replacement heads available for sale or trade.)

A reminder, especially for younger pad enthusiasts: Vintage practice pads from before the rise of Kevlar or Hybrid heads were not meant to be tensioned as high as marching-specific designs! Tension these as you would a drum for use behind a drum kit, and remember that the technique in use for these lower tensions will require you to “pull” your strokes out of the drum, rather than waiting for the rebound.

Vintage Corner: Restoration, BR commemorative pad

I recently acquired this pad, a Buddy Rich Commemorative model made by Drum Workshop in the 2010s. This is a very different pad than the Buddy Rich commemorative models made by HQ/Real Feel in 2002. 

This pad uses DW's white rubber on a laminated wood base. a black foam on the underside serves as a second playing surface and is nice for quiet warming up. The white rubber isn't as freely bouncy as that found on the Real Feel pads, but requires a little more effort to "pull" strokes out when playing. I find that it works best with concert or drum kit sticks, rather than marching sticks.
The top of the pad is ringed in a mother-of-pearl trim that echoes the finish found on Buddy's drum kits, making for a very classy finish. The pad was made in limited quantities and originally sold for well over $100 at the time (roughly 2015-17). It's is now highly collectible and difficult to find on the used market. (There's one available on Reverb right now and the seller is asking over $800 for it.)

My pad arrived in good, but dirty, condition. I set about giving it a nice glow-up.
 

Tan or white rubber on vintage (and/or used) pads can discolor with age, use and exposure to sunlight.

You can often return rubber to its former glow with some careful cleaning.

I use Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner and a fine-textured white sponge (like the soft “erasers” used to clean computer screens).

Work outside because many bathroom cleaners often have a little bleach or vinegar that sensitive noses don’t like.

Shake well, spray on in a circle and let the foam lift the dirt for one to two minutes. Scrub gently with the computer sponge until the dirt and grime have been lifted. Then wipe off all the cleaner with a warm, damp cloth and let dry.

Also: white and tan rubber don’t handle direct sunlight well at all. When not in use, store these pads face-down and away from direct sunlight to preserve the rubber longer.

Below: before and after photos of my most recent pad find.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(And no, it's not for sale.)

Vintage Corner: Restoration, Remo pad 1964

Restoration: Remo pad, 1964.

I purchased two of these old 10” pads, with metal rims, plywood base and fiberboard underlay. They came to me in a pretty filthy state. The original foam had been pummeled enough that the foam in the center was worn away a bit.

Here are before and after photos of one of the pads.

I carefully scrubbed the metal rim and the head with warm, mildly soapy water and a sponge. I also repaired the gap in the metal rim, originally covered with a “Remo” sticker, with some metallic plumbers tape.

The head was old and had a bald spot in the middle where the coating had been worn away by a lot of practice. To reinforce the worn center and help the head last a little longer, I applied a couple of strips of clear packing tape to the underside and smoothed them down.

When I reassembled it, I replaced the original foam with layers of bubble wrap, yoga mat and ensolite sleeping pad. 

The three layers stacked just a bit higher than the metal band that held the foam, meaning that it would compress nicely when the head was replaced and re-tensioned.

(Below: the layers, in order. L-R: bubble wrap, yoga mat, ensolite pad. Lay the bubble wrap with the flat side up so it sits flush against the middle yoga mat layer.)

All of these materials can be found for cheap or free at yard sales, thrift shops and in packages you might receive.

It plays beautifully with concert sticks.

I did the same thing with the other pad, and it’s also much more fun to play on now. I’ll probably keep one of the pads and rehome the other one.

Vintage Corner: Bower Practice Pad, NOT a replica!

It’s here.

I managed to obtain an original Harry Bower practice pad in an online auction, and it arrived today.

If you remember, back in 2021, I made a replica of this pad from found objects, and it was successful enough that I offered to make a few more for some fellow pad enthusiasts.

It turns out that my guesses at materials were only slightly off.

The original pad, designed by Harry Bower in 1919 and approved for patent in 1921, was made from a round of solid wood (probably pine, which was cheap and easy to obtain), with holes drilled to allow the attachment of a playing surface with some wool batting stuffed between the playing surface and the wood.

I’d assumed that the playing surface was leather, and my replica sounded and felt rather nice using this material. However the original seems to have been made either from a leather that has hardened so much with time it’s no longer really playable, or with a surface made from fiberboard, the same material used then (and now) in making drum cases. If this is fiberboard, it makes for a harsh, unresponsive playing surface. If it’s hardened leather, then my hunch was correct.

Additional info, from the original patent application of 1919:

“ …present embodiment of the invention consists of .arather thin plate which may be formed of gutta percha, whalebone, or a composition, such as papier mache, fiberboard, or any relatively stiff yet flexible or vibratory material which will be affected by the impact of the drum sticks similar. to the effect occasioned by said sticks when they sense by those acquainted with the art of drumming.”

So this solves the mystery. The original design did not use leather, but a piece of hard fiberboard such as that used in the making of drum cases from the 1920s through the 1980s. 

Apparently, the reason for using fiberboard was to give the most exact response possible, something on which mistakes could not possibly be hidden.

The OG pad measures exactly the same size as my replica.

I’m very pleased to have found an original of this pad, which is likely the first pad officially patented for commercial production in the US.

By modern standards, it’s horrible.

Even my replica isn’t all that, though the supple leather does make for a nicer response.

I may be inspired to design a display case for this pad, to hang it on the wall and keep the dust off. I’ve never felt this way about any other vintage pad. Though to be fair, this pad is actually an antique at over 100 years old.

I am so glad to be able to give this piece of drum history a home.

Vintage Corner: 1950s pad, maker unknown

When the world gets scary, I get geeky.

I did a mad bunch of flipping to come up with the scratch to obtain this beautiful old practice pad. Ludwig stand dates from the early to mid 1970s. The practice pad is older, probably from the 1950s. Pad is possibly homemade (it’s a little too narrow for the big mass producers of the era), and the rubber feels surprisingly bouncy and nice for its age.

It’s a keeper.

All the proof I need

Marching percussion is still run by men most of the time.
Yes, there are more girls marching in the battery, women drum instructors, and even a woman who's a percussion caption head for a DCI corps. And that's great.
But the fact remains that the larger portion on what's happening in marching band and drum corps is still being run by men.

The sexism may not be as blatant in all corners, but that doesn't mean it's not happening.
Male staff are still being accused of sexual misconduct, but fewer women are being believed.
And behind the scenes, women and girls who complain are being riduculed and even threatened for making a stink about it.

This pad appeared on an online marketplace focused on marching percussion.
It was a stock image from Xymox that you could order when selecting a photo-finished practice pad in 2011.
The Wayback Machine can't tell me how long this image was offered, but I suspect that it was available for more than one season. It was gross then, and it's gross now.

Honestly, I just don't think this will ever end. It might get better in increments, but I doubt it will end. And in our current political and social climate, there's nowhere to go but down.
Color me bummed.

Product Review: Beetle Percussion Last Pad, Single-sided/concert

Early last year, I had an opportunity to put Beetle Percussion’s Last Pad through its paces. At the time, there was only a double-sided, marching focused version available. It was designed for modern marching drummers, able to take very high tension. You can read that review in two parts here, and here.

Eventually, after multiple experiments with that pad, I passed it along to a drummer with more experience playing modern, high-tension drums for further testing. Then, I turned my attention to other pads.

A few months back, I was offered the chance to try out the newer single-sided version of the Last Pad, designed for lower-tension concert and traditional marching practice. I readily agreed.

The single-sided Last Pad arrived this weekend, and I assembled it.

Beetle kindly sent the pad with two coated heads, one in single-ply Ambassador weight and the other in a heavier, two-ply Emperor weight. Since I already have a few pads with Ambassador heads on them for concert work, I chose to assemble this with the Emperor head.

The Last Pad comes with everything needed for assembly, including:

— Valchromat base, pre-drilled

— your choice of a lower-profile S-Hoop or a regular triple flange hoop

— all the necessary tuning bolts, nuts and washers

— a 14” insert consisting of 1/2” dense foam laid into a Valchromat base, designed to fit under the drumhead and on top of the primary pad base. You can order inserts made with recycled tire rubber if you wish, but the foam insert is necessary to make a lower-tension concert/traditional pad.

— a 14” head (not included in the base price, but you can buy one from Beetle for an extra charge or use one you already have)

You’ll need a standard drum key and a 5/16” open wrench. Beetle sells these as extras, too, if you don’t already have them.

The Valchromat primary base comes in multiple colors by request. My primary base is orange, and the insert (which is unseen once assembled) came in blue.

At left: the underside of the primary base, finished with foam discs for a nonskid experience on a tabletop.

Below: the top side of the primary base, inlaid with the same recycled tire rubber used on other Beetle pads.

The insert is inlaid with dense foam that, when placed under the drum head, provides a buttery feel that’s ideal for lower tings and coated heads.

Remembering my experience with the double-sided Last Pad and how the insert could wiggle slightly off-center, I put down a small rolled piece of clear tape between the primary base and the insert to keep it centered during tensioning. (Once it’s tensioned, the tape won’t affect the function of the assembled pad.)

The primary base comes pre-drilled to receive the tuning bolts, nuts and washers. I assume that two washers are used to provide greater strength and stability, with the larger washer going in first, followed by the smaller washer and then the nut. The holes of the washers have different inside diameters, so pay attention when assembling.

I took my time, using the overturned box as an assembly surface. Because everything came pre-drilled, assembly was very straightforward. However, you need to take your time and be patient because there are twelve nodes of contact. Tensioning and tuning properly will take longer, and you’ll want to make sure the insert doesn’t wiggle around while you put everything together. (The tape helps a lot with this.)

The holes are drilled to take counter-sunk washers on the bottom, and the elongated ovals make it easier to set up the tension bolts while you work your way around the pad. Once you assemble everything hand-tight, positioning each tuning bolt in or near the middle of the oval is straightforward.

After going around enough to ensure that nothing rattled anymore, I put the pad into a concert snare stand and began tuning more assertively. My concert stand of choice is a vintage Hamilton stand that is strong and heavy. The arms don’t line up with the cutouts in the primary base, but that’s not a problem here. A stand with three arms of equal length and distance will match up with the cutouts easily.

When it was all done, I tried it out. First, I used marching sticks:

Then, I turned to some concert sticks and tried some buzz rolls and a lighter touch:

Finally, I tried some brush strokes:

The foam insert definitely makes you put in a little more effort and thought to “pull” the strokes out of the head, just as you would when playing a traditionally-tensioned field drum or a snare from a drum kit.

That’s a feature of playing lower tensioned drums, and not a mistake. Anyone used to chopping on Kevlar will have to adjust their approach accordingly.

At some point, I may swap in the Ambassador head and try that out but honestly, I am so delighted with the feel and response of the Emperor head that I’m going to hang out with it awhile.

If you’ve been on the fence about the Last Pad, it’s worth the money and the time you’ll invest in it.

If you’re focused on marching snare and you chop on Kevlar, get the double-sided version and put different heads on each side. If you’re looking for a really fine concert or traditional pad, the single-sided is ideal. 

(Note: Beetle Percussion does not pay me to test and write about their pads, or to help market them. Now that they offer hoodies, though, I may just have to buy one.)

Happy drumming.

Brandon’s Demo: Beetle Percussion Last Pad (singlesided)

Here’s a really nice demo of the Beetle Percussion Last Pad, provided by Brandon Graves.

If you remember a couple years back, I reviewed the double sided Last Pad, which was really designed for modern marching drummers and capable of taking extremely high tension. It was really not a pad that applied to my uses, and with Bradley’s blessing I sent it along to another, younger drummer for further testing.

Meanwhile, I’ll soon be taking delivery on the singlesided version of the Last Pad, which is designed to be optimal at a lower tension and is more suited to concert and Mylar marching work. Since I don’t yet have my pad, I thought I’d share this video from Beetle artist Brandon Graves to whet your appetite.

(NOTE: Beetle Percussion does NOT pay me — or even ask me — to post these articles or to hype their pads. I do so because I believe Beetle makes some of the nicest and the most sustainable practice pads in the industry, and I think they’re worth your consideration. That’s all.)

I expect to receive my Last Pad within the next month or so. Remember that these pads are craftmade one at a time right here in the US, and as with all things Beetle, they're worth the wait.

One of these things is just like the other: waxed canvas stick bags

Because I like to point out naked emperors everywhere I find them, here’s this week’s interestingness.

First, Meinl’s waxed canvas drum stick bag. Very nice, waxed cotton canvas with padding, reinforcements made of synthetic “pleather” and stitched well all around. More than enough pockets for all the sticks and mallets you’d need for a gig. Very attractive and pretty durable bag, and if you care about such things, it’s vegan. (That’s worth something here in Portland, which has more vegan restaurants than you can possibly imagine. Vegans like appreciate that.)

The bag comes in multiple colors, including black, khaki and green.

Very attractive and available at all your favorite big box music retailers, including Sweetwater, Music & Arts and Musician’s Friend (which may be all the same thing with three different names and coverage regions, but that’s not in my wheelhouse.)

It retails for $120.

Then, there’s this lovely number from Third Floor Bazaar, a single drum/percussion warehouse retailer based in New York. Jonathan Singer, the proprietor, has a doctorate in Percussion and teaches part-time in addition to his duties running the retail business. He ships all over the country and overseas, and has a legion of loyal customers who border on outright fandom (disclaimer: I’m one of them).

Jon offers a house brand called Name Brand, which began with cymbals made by independent cymbalsmiths and has expanded to various accessories, including a lovely stick bag made from waxed canvas and synthetic “pleather.”

If you look closely, it’s the same as the Meinl bag. Not similar, but nearly identical. Same size, same construction and design. Meinl’s snaps are embossed with the brand name and the hooks for the shoulder strap are a bit bigger. I haven’t seen the Meinl bag in person, and it’s possible that the canvas used is probably made from a slightly thicker material. I don’t know. But when nearly every other aspect of these bags is essentially the same, it’s hard not to notice.

It’s also hard not to notice the difference in price.

Meinl’s bag retails for $120.

The Name Brand bag retails for $45.

Now, obviously, neither Meinl nor Third Floor Bazaar are making these bags in-house. If they did they’d have to sell them for so much more money it would be stupid. But it wouldn’t be hard to guess that the bags are being made in the same factory overseas. Indeed, even if they’re being made in two different factories, both of those factories are still overseas (likely in China, because with few exceptions — and almost none of the cheapest exceptions exist elsewhere in the drum industry — China makes nearly everything now), with one closely copying the design of the other. China isn’t known for worrying about things like protecting intellectual or physical property designs.

I’ve gone on before about all the pitfalls of manufacturing overseas, marking up prices obscenely and selling the products here in the US. I won’t beat that horse again here. But if you actually need a drum stick bag and you don’t want it to be made of animal products (petroleum doesn’t count, because dinosaurs have been gone a long time), you could do a lot worse than this Name Brand bag.

I bought one because I needed a stick bag, didn’t want one made of leather, and I trust and support Third Floor Bazaar. I’m sure as hell glad I don’t live in New York, because I’d be visiting that place every week.

So what’s my point here? I do have one and it’s this:

If you’re going to buy drums and parts and accessories, make sure they’re things you actually need and will use. Count to ten before you spend the money.

Where possible, repair what you have, or buy used (Third Floor has you covered there, and so do lots of small drum shops around the country). 

When you need to buy new, support a small business rather than a big box conglomerate, because the profits will stay local and support the little guy, rather than pad the bottom line of a bunch of shareholders.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Happy drumming.

Drum Pad Redux: Offworld Percussion

Several years ago, in the early days of the pandemic, I came into a couple of used pads from Offworld Percussion. The first pad, an Invader, wasn’t my thing. Designed by and for drummers accustomed to marching with high-tension Kevlar snares, the hard black rubber was very responsive, but felt jarring to my hands, accustomed as they were to Mylar heads with lower tension. The pad was well-made, with Offworld’s patented “Darkmatter” poured into a hard plastic shell that acts as a very stout rim when the rubber sets. But it was also very heavy for a rubber practice pad, and I tripped over it more than I actually used it.

The second pad, an Invader with a blonde gum rubber surface, was more to my liking, but it was also heavy, and redundant with several other pads I had at the time.

Eventually, I sold them both, and moved on.

Fast forward to now. I had an opportunity to consider Offworld pads again, thanks to a guy in central Oregon wanting to sell a Tapspace pad, and also thanks to a gum rubber version of the BYOS pad that went on sale. Over a period of about a month, I was able to buy the used a Tapspace pad and the BYOS pad, plus a couple of pucks to insert into the BYOS pad.

Here’s the Tapspace pad. I bought it used at a significant discount, and it cleaned up nicely. The rubber feels similar to that of the V3 rubber pad I’d had five years ago, but because this is a singlesided pad it weighs far less and is easier to manage. Plus, it comes with a small oval of hard Darkmatter so you can have different playing surfaces on one side. The feel is responsive without being mushy, and I like it a lot.

The underside of the pad has a fiberboard base and an outer ring made from recycled rubber. The rubber is playable, though not large enough to be practical. (More recent versions of the V3 with Darkmatter come with a bottom fully cover with this recycled rubber, instead of the entire pad being Darkmatter top and bottom. It’s a lighter pad than the earlier version, and while I appreciate that I still don’t think the Darkmatter pad is for me.)

Last year, I’d fitted a heavy platform to a marching snare carrier so that I could carry a practice pad on the march, as part of my physical therapy for dealing with Long Covid.  The setup worked well enough, but the metal platform alone weighed over eight pounds. Adding a pad to that made whole thing very, very heavy. I decided I’d need to research a lighter weight solution. 

At first, I tried a Offworld Visitor pad, with a lighter weight attachment available from Offworld that attaches to the J hooks on a snare carrier. The pad was small (with an 8” gum rubber playing surface) and very lightweight, but not exactly what I was looking for. 

So I turned my attention to the larger BYOSphere pad, which was designed in partnership with the BYOS crew who play and teach on high-tension Kevlar drums. It was first made with Darkmatter, and optional laminates could be purchased. More recently, the BYOSphere pad was offered with a gum rubber surface (for which laminates would not apply). 

The BYOSphere pad, like the Visitor pad, comes with a hollowed out section underneath. This recess accepts various magnetic “pucks” and other accessories that allow for different sound effects and for use on a stand or with a knee strap. (These pucks also fit the pads in the Aurora series.)  when I installed the BYOSphee pad on the carrier attachment, I was pleased that it fit exactly the way I’d hoped, and at the proper distance from my carrier.

Obviously, you can’t use the sound effects pucks at the same time you place the pad on the marching attachment or on a stand; but on a tabletop or another pad these sound effects are a lot of fun. I chose the two different sound effects (snare and shaker), and the dampening puck, to cover everything I might need.

The pucks that a pad can rest on come with threads for either an 8mm thread, or a 1/4” thread. I got one of each, the former for the marching carrier attachment and the latter for an old cymbal stand.

They work like a charm, though you do need to be careful not to get carried away with your rimshots.

The “snare” pad consists of tambourine jingles embedded into it, with an adjustable center washer to allow for more or less vibration when struck. (There’s also a shaker puck filled with metal ball bearings, that sounds very different from the “snare” puck.)

I’m pleased with how all my purchases and experiments have turned out. I’ve kept the Visitor pad, and for now it sits on my cymbal stand puck. (I don’t know if I’ll keep it but for now it’s small and handy.)

I use the BYOSphere pad on the marching carrier, and also on a flat surface. 

Offworld has the Aurora series pads and pucks, as well as the various versions of the larger V3 pad, available at their web site. The Tapspace version of the V3 pad is available directly from Tapspace, which also sells drum instructional materials.

Happy drumming.