These two pads just went up for sale online. The same seller is offering them on eBay for an opening bid of $65 each, and a Buy-It-Now price of $85. Shipping is extra.
A. RealFeel knockoff, made with gum rubber and solid ash base.
It's a nice enough pad, likely homemade (by the seller or someone else).
The ash base will give it a different sound than the MDF base found on the original HQ pads and their Evans successors.
The gum rubber is glued a little sloppily to the base. You can see excess glue at the edges. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't pay this much for a pad that looks slapped together, especially when I can do a neater job of it myself.
You can easily make the same pad at home for a fraction of the seller's asking price.
Gum rubber is available from Zoro, Grainger and other online industrial suppliers. A 12" x 12" square of gum rubber, 1/4" thick will set you back $18-20. The base can be cut from scrap lumber, or made with a repurposed wood cutting board, either of which might be found for anywhere from Free to around five bucks at a thrift store. A small bottle of glue or epoxy can be found at Harbor Freight for less than ten bucks. Your total shouldn't be more than around thirty bucks, depending on where you course your components.
B. Duplex knockoff, made with gum rubber and solid ash slabs.
This will end up costing even less, owing to a smaller piece of gum rubber and the fact that you can easily source scrap lumber pieces to make your own pad. Wood screws hold it all together. If you size it right, the gum rubber can be glued on top of the screw heads to hide them for a cleaner appearance.
I scored a Duplex pad exactly like this at a thrift store for five bucks. But if you want to make one, it shouldn't cost more than about $15-20, tops. Again, the seller wants a Buy-It-Now price of $85 plus shipping.
Practice pads don't have to get out of hand. Make your own, saving money and enjoying chopping on something you made yourself.
Happy drumming.
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