Product review: Percoustique practice pad - UPDATE 9/24/26

Percoustique was a company that, according to the little research I was able to do online, made drums and drum-adjacent equipment that was largely for the OEM or stencil market, and mostly supplied instrument rental facilities rather than being steered to direct sales.

I just acquired what appears to be a Percoustique practice pad, designed along the lines of the Quiet Tone pad, from an eBay auction where I was the only bidder. The pad arrived this morning and I quickly set about seeing what I’d gotten.

The pad is similar to a Quiet Tone in that it’s a 14” drum head with a real rim and tuning bolts — eight instead of the six on a Quiet Tone — and it sits on a molded plastic base with a very slight degree of built-in tilt.

Playing this pad and comparing it to the Quiet Tone shows that the Percoustique is, well, hollow.

Taking apart the pad revealed that the molded plastic base is hollow and contains a cotton fiber insert. The depth of the insert is shallower than the depth of the space in the molded plastic base, lending to the hollow sound. I don’t know if the fiber insert was originally thicker and became compressed, or if there was additional material inside the base with this fiber insert.

I’d used up the yoga mat material I’d had in previous projects, so I turned to what I had on hand. In this case, two layers of large bubble wrap, cut to size and laid one on another with the fiber layer on top. 

Reassembling and tensioning the pad removed the hollow sound. The large bubble wrap meant the tone would be lower than desired, and the response softer. At some future point I’ll look for a different material to use as an insert and see what happens.

There is another Percoustique pad available right now on Reverb, though at a price I think is rather high. You could watch it and wait for the price to come down. Or just save up and buy a Quiet Tone, which is clearly a better pad.

UPDATE, 9/24/2026: After trying multiple combinations of internal padding and muffling materials, I finally hit upon a combination that I can live with:
-- leave two layers of small-bubble padding on bottom.
-- remove cloth muffler.
-- add multiple layers of corrugated cardboard. 
-- add foam drum mute material.
-- add two more layers of cardboard and top with a layer of tool drawer material (as used in the Rick Dior Quiet Tone videos). 

The end result is still a little lower in tone, but the stick response is much sharper and the rebound much quicker. Although the hard plastic base is fairly stout, I had to go slowly and carefully when re-tensioning the head. I suppose you could swap in a better Remo head, but I went ahead and kept the original Percoustique stock head and it works well enough.

This has inspired me to explore other "flat" pad options, including those by RamPad and other companies that use a plywood base and have similar construction to Quiet Tone, Percoustique and Pearl pads of this type. They're more expensive but I'm on the lookout for used models I can obtain for less. Stay tuned.

Have we finally reached Peak Pad? Maybe, at least for now.

I've been watching used pad prices rise and fall -- mostly rise -- on the internet for well over a decade now. While I don't claim sole credit for the meteoric rise of used pad prices since 2021, I do believe that the Drum History Podcast interview I gave in July of that year certainly helped to accelerate some interest, especially in vintage pads. Since then, prices for select used practice pads have shot through the roof, most notably the tan Real Feel practice pads of the late 1990s and the first-generation Xymox pads from their pre-laminate days.

While prices on the tan Real Feel pads remain high, especially for those in mint or near-mint condition, I've begun to see some prices for other pads fall.

A pre-laminate Xymox pad that sold two years ago for over $100 is now stalling out at asking prices of $60 to 80.

And with the availability of information on the Internet, general antique dealers have gotten in on the action. An unlabeled pad that's probably an old Slingerland model, which would have sold in 2023 for perhaps $40-50, is currently going for almost $200 on Etsy. The dealer didn't know what she had, and when I reached out to tell her what I thought, she raised her price and listed it elsewhere for even more. It's a nice old pad, but without a label its provenance is impossible to verify. 

Old vintage pads have little or no appeal to most drummers under thirty. They all want the cool marching-specific pads that came on the scene in the late 90s and 2000s. In addition, many newer makes and models of marching-forward pads have since come on the market -- and the market is positively glutted with those pads now, as older drummers graduate from school, age out of drum corps or otherwise leave the activity altogether. With school arts budgets being slashed, music programs being eliminated and the birthrate beginning to fall, fewer kids are getting into drumming today. 

The end result is that there are now more pads available than people who want or need them.

I've watched prices fall on these used makes and models over the last year and a half:

-- Real Feel gray pad, from $30 to $10;
-- Ram Pad, from $70 to less than $40;
-- Xymox laminated "reserve" pads, from $100 to as little as $25;
-- Offworld Invader pads, from $60 to as little as $20

And so it goes.

I've been slowly offloading a number of pads from my collection over the last year and a half, either by selling them, using them as trade-in on stuff I need at local drum shops, or giving them away to students. Technically, I'm sure I've lost a fair amount of money in the process, but as someone who used to own a retail business, I understand that a new thing loses half its value when it leaves the store and will almost never get it back. I've enjoyed the research and testing of these pads. But I'm retired and am approaching the time when I will really have to downsize. So off they go, in dribs and drabs.

As of this writing, some significant practice pad deals are to be found online, especially on eBay. If you've been putting off your search for a cool practice pad, this may be a good time to take a more serious look. (No guarantee how long these items will be available, of course; but they give a good example of the state of the used pad market right now.)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/158325682366 -- Offworld Shuttle pad

https://www.ebay.com/itm/237030291700 -- Pair of Remo pads

https://www.ebay.com/itm/820132643625 -- Vintage Ludwig 1960s aluminum pad

https://www.ebay.com/itm/178494949572 --  vintage WFL 1950s aluminum pad

Tan Real Feel pads are still being offered at over $200 in good condition, but I've sensed that the hype around those pads is lessening over time. So if you have your heart set on one of those, be patient. I think that Peak Pad will eventually come around to these models as well.

I'm not being all doom and gloom here. Drum equipment follows the same retail rise and fall patterns as almost everything else being bought and sold on the market. There may come a time when smarter heads will prevail, schools will once again devote more funding to arts education, and maybe the demand for music equipment will increase again. Meanwhile, more people are DIY-ing their own pads, drums and other gear to save money and/or to express their ingenuity and creativity. It's an interesting time. Pay attention, and as always, happy chopping.

 

Pad storage for obsessives

So I admit to having a little obsession with practice pads. 🤣

I’ve always loved chopping on practice pads, since I started playing drums in 1973. Apartment life necessitated most of that; but even after moving into a real house I still loved practicing on pads because they were cheaper and more portable than drums.

I decided to get serious about researching and collecting some years ago, and figured it would be easier to store pads than drums. Now that I’m retired, the question of what to do with all the pads has crept into my conversations regularly.

Every time I think about downsizing a pad, the universe drops three more into my lap. Some get donated to schools (always a good idea!), and the rest are sold or kept.

I’m blessed with a studio space that came with some built-in shelves, but I’ve also had to use all of the available space wisely because there are limits. 

Office file racks, fine china display hangers and kitchen lid and pan racks have all made it easier to store my pads safely and neatly. Here are my solutions, sourced mostly at yard sales and thrift shops. Perhaps they will inspire you to come up with your own. 

Happy chopping!

Pad Interestingness: a roundup of recent activity

In the last week or so, I’ve been devoting time to all sorts of pad research, DIT an improvements and a couple of acquisitions. Here's a roundup.

1. Vintage practice pads made using solid wood can be far more resonant — and louder! — than later pads using plywood. I like to make mutes for these older pads I’m scrap foam. This is my latest, using leftover scraps of ensolite camping pad material that I stacked, glued and shaped to fit. Works beautifully.

2. In high school, my section leader acquired a brand new pad that had just come out, called the Trankle Pocket Pad. He had money and his parents got him whatever drum gear he needed or wanted. The pad wasn’t cheap — over $20 in 1979! — but after trying it we all wanted one. I finally got one in college, and took it everywhere with me. But by the mid 1980s the company had folded and suddenly you couldn’t find the pads anymore. I sold that original pad to a classmate and always regretted it.

Last week, I bought another from a guy who’d had it since college. When it arrived, I could see and feel that the gum rubber was in bad shape, so I decided to replace it. It’s not pretty but it does work, and I’m happy with the results.

3. Six months ago, this little pad appeared in an online ad. The seller had offered it with sticks and an old woodblock, all from his uncle’s estate. He wanted $60 cash, in-person for the lot. I asked about buying just the pad but at the time he didn’t want to ship. So I thanked him, and waited. Occasionally, I’d check to see if the listing was still active. Two weeks ago, the pad appeared in a new listing by itself, now for far less money. I reached out to the seller and asked if he’d consider shipping it to me. He agreed. I mailed him a money order, he mailed me the pad and now it’s here. It’s the only pad from Pep Products (a small drum parts manufacturer based in Kankakee, Illinois during the mid-twentieth century) that I’ve seen that wasn’t made of a solid block of rubber.

It’s a calfskin head stretched over some kind of frame — plastic? Wood? I’m not sure — and mounted on a small wood platform with a tilt built in. It’s a small, delicate thing, likely from the late 1940s or early 50s, and I wouldn’t chop seriously on it at this point. But I’m thrilled to have this here for examination and research. If anyone can share more info about the Pep Products company, I’d be grateful.

Happy drumming!

Inflation has led to deflation: Used practice pads

I've researched and collected historic drum practice pads for a long time.
When I began my deep dive, almost no one else I knew was focused on historic drum pads, so that made it easy for me to find old pads at bargain prices. 
But by 2018 or 2019, things had begun to change, as more drum enthusiasts found vintage drums increasingly unaffordable and/or unattainable. Many of them turned their attention to other drum-related collectibles, including practice pads.

Before the Covid pandemic closed down the world, a brisk trade in vintage practice pads was on the rise. Alongside that, some of the big drum manufacturers were investing heavily in marching- specific designs and throwing a lot of marketing at younger drummers who were just coming into their own in the marching arts. 

During the pandemic, the practice pad market grew exponentially, and quickly. Those with an eye towards profit were punching above their weight with new models of marching-focused pads almost every season, while older drummers who had marched in the 1990s were now selling off their own vintage pads to turn a quick buck. 

If you've followed this story, you know that tan RealFeel pads made before D'Addario acquired HQ began fetching prices in the triple digits, Xymox was running the table for a little while and half a dozen other companies were trying to catch up. It was exciting for maybe a decade at most, and then the wheels gradually began to fall off. Xymox had horrible supply issues and atrocious customer service; Drumslinger learned that a one-man shop could never keep up with the likes of Vic Firth and Evans; and Prologix basically sold its soul. Whenever I pointed out the excesses of the practice pad industry, I would get shouted down by guys who worked for those comp[anies or who had helped design some of their most-hyped models.  

The shop bosses don't like canaries in their coal mines. They serve a useful function for the minders, but they also eat away at profits by slowing down production.

Now, in late 2025, the bottom has begun to fall out of the used practice pad market as so many enthusiasts who bought up piles of cool pads woke up and realized that (a) they weren't marching anymore, (b) they had bills to pay and (c) the pads they'd paid an arm and a leg for were now worth less than a quarter of their original value. 

Suddenly, the market was glutted with more pads than drummers and prices fell like 1920s wheat prices. (Millennials, look it up.)

Today, you can find an old tan RealFeel pad for under $100 and sometimes for less than $50 on Facebook Marketplace. HUN's M-12 pad (which was rebranded for RCP as their Active Snare pad) is now selling used for less than $25 used. Evans gray pads, which were never my favorite but which are ubiquitous, are selling for as little as $5.

The only pads which seem to have retained some value are those whose supply was controlled their makers: Evans red Barney Beats pads still fetch a high price due to artificial scarcity caused by Evans decision to make it a limited run. Beetle pads are made in small batches, one at a time, using sustainable practices that would never work for a large-scale manufacturer and those pads still demand competitive prices even in used condition.

While the practice pad market was beginning to capsize, I had turned my attention to making my own pads from scrap and repurposed materials. I was also recovering from two years of Long Covid, and didn't have the money or the energy to keep collecting in the same manner as before. My priorities began to shift. I focused on a handful of older, vintage pads that continued to have lower demand among the younger pad crowd, and for which there was a lot of documentation I could research. But my pad acquisitions really began to fall in 2024.

More recently, I decided to downsize my holdings in general after being approved for Disability. Knowing that I would not get a great return on my investment, especially for the marching-focused pads I still owned, I began to sell these, mostly at a discount. (In some cases I donated them to students so the pads could still see use. I am very happy that somewhere, there are schoolkids practicing on one of my pads.)

My collection at its peak numbered close to 200 pads of all kinds. That was in early 2023. Since making the conscious choice to pare down, I'm now at around fifty pads. I have plans to sell a few more of these and get down to the pads I enjoy chopping on the most, plus a couple of really rare, old pads that I find beautiful and historically interesting.

I had a lot of fun researching and find historic pads. But as I've begun to come out of serious illness and am adjusting to life in retirement, my priorities have shifted. By making more space in my material life I'm being open to whatever comes next. 

So if you're looking for a good drum practice pad, this is a very good time to shop online and at yard sales. I'll post some of my pads soon at the Drum Pad History Group on Facebook, and donate whatever I can't sell to a school. 

I haven't give up on drumming! I still chop a little every day and get a great deal of pleasure from doing so. I'm just getting more focused about what I chop on and why.

Happy drumming.

(Photo: George Stone practice pad, 1920. Back when a practice pad was just a horizontal surface that kept the neighbors off your back, and nothing more.)

 

I take back ALMOST everything I’ve felt or said about laminates: Beetle’s Botello signature Pad

If you’re a regular reader here, you know that I’ve never been a huge fan of laminates on practice pads.

Growing up on Mylar, I just never felt the need for adding something  that resembled Formica to what was already a perfectly decent pad.

So over the years, I’ve tried lots of laminated practice pads, and I have found most of them ranging anywhere from pointless to horrible.

I originally tried this pad three years ago, and because at the time I was doing a lot of drumming on older vintage drums with Mylar heads and standard tuning, I didn’t really appreciate the pad at the time.

More recently, I had an opportunity to buy this pad used and decided the price was worth the risk. Maybe my hands and head were in a different place now.

The Carlos Botello signature pad from Beetle Percussion is designed in partnership with percussion instructor, arranger and performer Carlos Botello, who teaches drumlines across the country including the Crossmen Drum & Bugle Corps. He’s also the creator of the multi-volume instructional series of books, The Left Hand Path (which are available online).

Carlos Botello and Bradley Lomax designed a really nice practice pad. You can click on the link that will take you to the Beetle page for this pad and read about the details that go into making it.

Disclaimer: I bought this pad used in a private party sale. The construction is identical between my used pad and the pad currently sold at Beetle’s web site. My pad is an early iteration of this model and lacks the graphics on the top laminate, but otherwise it’s the same pad.

My pad has been through the wars a bit — dropped, scuffed, played a fair amount (though happily, my laminate has no dents in it) — but works as advertised.

The top of the pad has a 1/4” thick recycled rubber surface, covered by a Mylar laminate. One might think that this is just another hard, unforgiving Formica-like playing surface, but they’d be wrong. 

This side plays like buttah.

It’s soft enough that the laminate offers useful articulation instead of undue resistance. The Valchromat base is more durable than MDF and if you drop it, there’s no surface paint to scrape off because the fibers of the Valchromat are impregnated with the plant-based color all the way through.

The rubber rim is soft, but embedded deeply into the base so it will stay put, and gives just enough presence for you to know if your rim shots are accurate or not.

The bottom surface includes Carlos’ signature and a 1/2” thick layer of dense, soft foam. This side is meant to give you a place to build your wrists and get a good workout. There is almost no rebound at all, which makes it similar in intent to the pillows we used to practice on while on drum corps tour, and when you play on normally-tensioned Mylar heads, such workouts make sense.

If I were still possessed of younger, stronger hands and not bothered by advancing osteoarthritis, I might find this surface useful in my practice. But working on such a surface now would actually be quite painful and potentially harmful for my hands and wrists, so I will likely just avoid this side completely. 

(NOTE: I’ve reached out to Beetle Percussion and asked about the possibility of swapping in a non-laminated recycled rubber surface to replace the foam. If they can cut a Floppy Disc to match the shape on the underside of the Botello pad, swapping the two shouldn’t pose a problem, and I can do the swap myself.)

I think the combination of the recycled tire rubber and a real Mylar laminate (similar to what’s used to make a drum head, though perhaps a little thicker) makes for an ideal practice surface, especially for Rudimental and marching applications. It’s articulate without being harsh in feel or sound, and the surface will indicate your accuracy immediately without hesitation.

Having tried other Beetle pads with a rubber rim, I can say that the rim is a little soft for my liking, and I wonder how long it will remain durable enough to help me gauge my rimshots. Because this pad is so used, I may stiffen the rim a little by adhering a very long zip tie to the outside wall of the rim. I’m waiting to hear back from Bradley at Beetle for his thoughts first.

The pads are currently available at the Beetle web site, but be warned: high-craft pads like this are made one at a time and you could be waiting a month or more for yours to arrive. Also, pad models are made on a rotating cycle (because the cutting machinery must be reset for each pad’s thickness and diameter.

Various models of Beetle pads go in and out of stock depending on the model schedule, so if a model is out of stock, contact Beetle and ask when it might be available again.

Beetle is my absolute favorite American practice pad maker today, because they pay attention to their impact on the environment and do all they can to reduce negative effects by incorporating as many sustainable manufacturing practices as possible. This does make their craft-made pads more expensive than mass-produced rubber-on-wood pads, but in my humble opinion it’s worth the extra cost.

This Carlos Botello model could became my new favorite rubber drum pad for awhile.