Vintage Corner: Sam Ulano’s King Size Pad

Sam Ulano was a jazz drummer and drum teacher based in New York. He wrote and published many instruction books that are still in use today, and one of his quirkiest claims to fame is the one gig he played for the band PiL (Public Image, Ltd, with John Lydon before he founded the Sex Pistols).

Sam taught numerous drummers over a fifty year period and designed his own practice pads and practice sticks. His sticks were made from sections of metal conduit, and were designed for use on heavy rubber practice pads. You can find a couple of his pad designs in YouTube videos, like this one.

(Photo stills, enlarged, from the video)

Note the construction and size of the pad, with gum rubber set into a panel atop a blue wooden box.

I’d assume the handle is for ease of carrying, and that the box is hollow for resonance (though perhaps a drawer could be opened on one side to store a lesson book). I’ll need to research further to find better photos and information about this particular pad.

In other videos, Sam is shown playing on a big, flat pad. Here’s a photo still of that style of pad, taken from another video (with low production values, but you can still see the pads he and his student are using).

I acquired one of the flat styled pads this week in an online sale. This pad had previously been offered by another seller, at a price I couldn’t afford at the time. Six months later, it showed up for sale again, this time from a seller of random vintage items. I watched the listing for another six months and finally made him an offer that we could both live with. 

The pad is well used and probably dates from the 1960s or 70s. 

The top side is a panel of thick, pure gum rubber, of the kind available between the 1940s and 1960s, inset into a wood frame. It has a great feel even now, but the rubber has disintegrated with use and time. If I play on it, tiny crumbs of dried rubber flake off. I’m researching a way to preserve the rubber and make it safer to play without damage.

The bottom side of the pad has a much harder black panel of rubber that resembles the stuff found on the earliest versions of the HQ Real Feel pads. It has rebound, but is much harder in feel and tone.

The whole thing is supported by a thick wooden frame that measures around 13” x 11”, with playing surfaces measuring 12” x 10” — making for a very big practice pad.

I’m very glad to add this to my collection of vintage pads. I’m hoping to stabilize the gum rubber so I can use the pad regularly. Stay tuned.

UPDATE, May 8 2026: I heard from someone who studied with Sam back in the day and saw photos of my pad online. He informed me that Sam had his students make their own pads based on his design and instructions. So this adds another layer of interestingness to an already really cool, historic pad.

I LOVE that making your own practice pad was par of the instruction for these drum students!

DIY Project: homemade Moeller pad

Readers here will remember my first attempt at making a tilted wood practice pad, during the pandemic. It was a rough job, and the tilt was insane, but I learned a lot from the process. A friend named it the Hero Tilt pad.

Not long after finishing that project, I came across this photo of a pad made and used by Sanford “Gus” Moeller.

It was one of the most beautiful pads I’d ever seen, and I wanted to own it.

I also knew that wasn’t likely to happen. This one was either in the hands of Moeller’s descendants, or a collector, or maybe even a museum.

So if I wanted one, I’d have to make my own. The trouble was that I’m not an experienced woodworker. I own no power tools and I wasn’t prepared to lay out a ton of money on the project. So I made a deal with myself and decided that I’d take my time, do my best, and be willing to live with the results.

Part One: I got the wood slabs from a scrap pile at a construction site near my home. 

The cylindrical pieces came from chair crossbeams dumped by a restaurant when they replaced their broken chairs. Unable to get accurate measurements from a photo, I went “by the eye,” as they say. I drew lines for simple cuts with a hand saw, and after the pieces were cut I sanded them all by hand. I mostly wanted to sand down the sharp edges so they wouldn't snag on anything. Since I was working with scrap wood, hand tools and arthritic hands, I was prepared for my pad to be a bit more rough and ready than Moeller’s. 

Part Two: I roughed up the facing edges and used wood glue to attach the three main pieces together. I used a wood stool and bicycle toe straps as clamps to set everything overnight. When the glue dried, I went back and added a couple of wood screws for stability. Then, I added the small side struts with wood glue and let everything dry overnight.

I had thought of staining my pad like Moeller had, but my very rough scraps and glue spots would only be accentuated by stain or vernish. In the end I decided to just paint the wood. I opted for some Gloss Forest Green left over from when we painted our house three years ago. A couple of coats and it didn’t look half bad.

I wanted a name plate, but there wasn’t enough room to apply one where Moeller had placed his, so I mounted it on the side of the base. I made mine from scrap leather and used an art pen. I preserved it with a coat of clear nail polish and mounted it with tiny copper finishing nails.

Part Three: I applied a nonskid bottom using thin mousepad material. I’ve used this on other practice pads and it works well.

Part Four: Finally, I was ready to add the rubber playing surface on top. I marked off the size I wanted, dipped a sharp carpet knife in oil, and cut to desired size. After wiping the oil off, I scored the top of the wood and the bottom of the rubber, applied super glue gel, bound it up with bike toe straps and let dry outside.

Here’s the finished pad, and the original Moeller pad for comparison. It’s not perfect, but it’s solid and feels great to chop on. Considering my lack of woodworking tools and knowledge, I’m still pleased with how it turned out.

Product Review: Cardinal single-sided practice pad, La BackBeat model 635 sticks

As promised, here's the full product review of two items that I think pair nicely.

First, the single-sided practice pad from Cardinal Percussion.
Cardinal Percussion is a relatively new wholesale company based in Ohio, founded by two industry longtimers who wanted to create a wholesale distributor focused solely on percussion.

From their web site: "Cardinal wholesales many of the leading Percussion brands. Cardinal Percussion is also the owner, manufacture, distributor of Attack Drumheads, Cardinal Packaged Accessories, Wuhan Cymbals and Gongs."

If I understand correctly, a great deal of what Cardinal sells under their own branding is not manufactured in the USA. They may own certain brands, and that may go as far as owning the factories in which those products are made; but based on the retail pricing it seems clear that most of what is branded "Cardinal Percussion" is manufactured outside the USA.

I'm not a purist when it comes to my environmentalism; I couldn't be and still be a drummer, and that is just a fact of life in 2022. When I can, I buy and play used/refurbished instruments to reduce my own personal carbon footprint. But there's not a whole lot more I can do and still be a drummer.

That said, if products are being made overseas by cheaper labor (in large part because the cost of living in many of those countries is lower for the general population), it stands to reason that the retail pricing would reflect that. It doesn't always, and perhaps we're at the beginning of a sea change in which US-distrbuted goods made overseas will see their retail prices go up because of global inflation.
I'd like for more drum companies to just be transparent. If your pads are made in China, fine; just slap a tiny sticker on the bottom to that effect and people can make up their own minds about whether to buy it or keep looking.

But I digress.

The Cardinal practice pad stands out because of its affordability, its overall quality, AND its striking similarity to a much-loved pad no longer in production: the tan gum rubber RealFeel pad.

Comparing the two, the Cardinal is a little bit harder in feel, and that may be because of a lower percentage of gum rubber and a higher percentage of nylon or silicon in the compound (Pure gum rubber needs binding agents to keep it from decaying in bright sunlight after one season on tour).
I inquired about manufacturing but got no answers from the company other than a "thank you" for my compliments on what a nice pad it is to play. So this is the best I can do.

(Industry insiders, feel free to school me, as always.)

The pad comes in two sizes, 6" and 12" diameter; and either single-sided white rubber or double-sided white and black rubber, with the black surface being much harder and denser than the white one.
I ordered my single-sided pad through Flam7, which is also based in Ohio. They supply percussion for concert and marching use, but their focus leans heavily towards the marching arts.

The appearance is elegantly simple, and the construction appears pretty solid, certainly durable enough to hold up through a few seasons of marching band or drum corps. 

1/4" of gum rubber compound is applied to what feels like a compressed particleboard platform, onto which red paint is applied thickly enough that I can't really discern what the wood is underneath. But it's fairly heavy, so I'm leaning towards particleboard of some kind. I did see a couple tiny globs of clear epoxy poking out from under the rubber, indicating a "decent enough" approach to quality controls. That's okay. At a retail price of around $27 I can't complain much.

One thing I don't understand is the decision to utilize a threaded mount on the underside of the 12" single-sided pad. It looks solid enough, but I'd rather put this ;larger pad in a standard snare drum stand to reduce the wobbliness that would come from a single contact point (the threaded top of a cymbal stand). If you do buy the single-sided 12" model, you may wish to tighten down the screws on the underside another 1/4" carefully and by hand, to reduce unwanted extra noise.

Since I don't plan to ever mount this pad in a stand, I may ultimately decide to remove the threaded mount altogether and fille the hole with wood putty or epoxy to take out the hollow sound at the center. We'll see.

But it's a fun pad to play, and the feel reminds me enough of the old tan RealFeel that I could be quite content to chop on this pad and not bother looking for the other, which by now has become a unicorn of sorts.

Next up: a pair of sticks from the small-batch company La BackBeat. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, Frank Kincel has been making drum sticks since 2013, and his stick designs are simple and based on years of drumming experience -- and input from professional drummers.
I found La BackBeat one evening by "falling down a rabbit hole" on the internet and landing there. I really liked what I saw, and ordered a few pairs in different sizes.

Frank's philosophy is to make smaller batches really well, rather than to rush the process for the sake of high turnaround and faster sales. He says that on a really good day he can turn out 200 to 400 sticks per day. (Compare that to a large mass producer like Vater or Vic Firth for some perspective.)  It shows in his work, and his work ethic. He offers three grades of drum sticks: Pro Grade, Player Grade and Wonky. Pro Grade sticks are finished and matched for weight and pitch. Player grade are not matched for pitch, but are straight and fully finished. "Wonky" sticks are just that -- sticks that came out slightly off-kilter but make a good practice stick, or work for the player who goes through sticks quickly and doesn't worry so much about pitch and weight but just wants a bag of sticks they can reach into when they break one.

Frank uses US hickory for his sticks, and designates stick sizes by diameter and tip shape first, with the addition of an "X" indicating longer-reach sticks.

What really sets LaBB apart from other small-batch stick makers is the pricing.
Right now, Most Pro Grade sticks that are in stock cost ten bucks a pair; Player Grade are seven bucks a pair and Wonky sticks are five bucks a pair.
So I wouldn't call LaBB a "boutique" maker at all. Just a guy making drum sticks that any drummer can afford to buy in quantity and stay reasonably supplied.

I decided to try a couple pairs of the model 635, a beefy stick that feels like a 2B on steroids. I chose the Player Grade to save a little money.
Even with the slight difference in pitch, it's a great pad stick, and would also work as a marching stick for smaller hands. It feels solid, fine-grained and sturdy. The taper is a bit lacking but for this application that's not such a big deal.
(Don't worry; LaBB also offers jazz and pop sticks that are shaped and finished more appropriately for those styles, and I'll review those sticks later.)

The feel of these Model 635 sticks on the Cardinal pad is terrific, like they were meant to be paired together.

And a closer look reveals just how fine-grained these sticks are.
Here are the sticks, showing the short, fat taper and the big oval tip.
The last two photos show a comparison with the Vater 2B, both for size and also for grain.
The Vater sticks have a more coarse grain and also a more coarse finish.
In fact, the reason I was so excited about finding LaBB sticks is because, while I liked the balance of Vater sticks, I kept getting tiny splinters in my hands. That was enough of a turn-off for me to go looking for something else.

 

I'm pretty happy with these sticks, not only on this pad but on others pads I enjoy, like the red Barney Beats pad from Evans and the Chop Pad from Rudimental Drummers.
Because the production at LaBB is relatively low, it's best to check back regularly (like a few times a week!) to see if the pair you want is back on the shelf, and when it is, buy several pairs at a time.
 

And I'd recommend this pad for anyone who wishes they had a tan RealFeel. The response and rebound are similar enough that you could be happy with this one and stop looking for unicorns.

 

Happy Chopping!

DIY practice pads (for kids and others on a budget)

Let's face it. Decent practice pads are not cheap. Even the RockJam pad, can run $20 or more with shipping. On top of that, a lot of stuff still ends up in the landfill when it doesn't have to, including scrap wood.

So after a great conversation about DIY practice pads for those on a tight budget, here's a simple way to make your own practice pad from repurposed wood planks (cut to size if necessary) and gum rubber.

Gum rubber, available in 12" x 24” sheets from Grainger Industrial on eBay. I use heavy-duty industrial scissors to trim to size. Make the rubber at least 1/2" to 1" smaller than the wood platform all the way around. Make sure both surface are clean and dry. (Depending on the wood surface, you may wish to sand it lightly for better adhesion.) If you want to make several drum pads, you might want to divide the 12x24" sheet into equal sections of 6" or 8" square so you can get more pads out of the gum rubber; it's not necessary to have a 12" practice pad if you're just working on rudiments or chopping out a part, and making a 6" square pad on an 8" or 9" square wood platform is a cost-effective way of getting more perfectly good pads from one sheet of rubber.

Working in a well-ventilated area (like an open garage), apply a thin line of super glue gel in a spiral, starting in the center and working outward in a spiral (each line about 1/4" apart from the next) to about 1/4" from the edge of the rubber, then carefully place the rubber panel glue-side down on the wood platform and weight down (with heavy books or other practice pads) and let dry overnight.

On the reverse side, you can use pieces of an old thin gaming mat -- glue them with the rubber side showing -- to give the pad a non-skid surface. Glue down and weight down the same way and let dry overnight.

1/4” thick is perfect for chopping rudiments. 1/8" thick may be preferable for those who play Kevlar-headed drums.

Here’s the very first one I made. It travels well and fits in my book bag; when I've toured as a singer-songwriter, this is the pad I've taken with me on the road.

Those with young drum lines may want to buy larger sheets of gum rubber and turn this into a DIY project for your drum line. Repurposed wood gets saved from the landfill and you can use it as a team-bonding activity. Just be sure to do this in a well-ventilated place (like a large garage with the door up, or a park bench).