Gum Rubber drumpad mod - silent drums and great rebound

vtjustinb · #1 12-14-2007, 01:26 AM

So like many people on this board I'm a drummer, and one of the things that disappointed me most about the RB drumset is its lack of rebound. Rebound lets you work more efficiently with your stroke, and as Mr. Newton will tell you "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Essentially, the energy you put into the downstroke can be returned in free upstroke energy if that energy is not absorbed into the heat of collision, the deformation of the pad, and the shock absorbed into your hand/stick. Without rebound, I was a sad panda.

Another problem with the pads is that they are loud as anything, so there have been a lot of pad mods to try to quiet them down. I've seen mouse pads, foamboard, and drumset silencers--but none of those seemed ideal from a rebound stance. They have some bounce to them, but I really was interested in something that would not feel dead and allow you to roll easier.

I own several practice pads, and they all use gum rubber as a playing surface so I looked into getting some gum rubber to use as pad toppers. I found a local shop that does fab work for hosing, rubber gaskets, and other industrial needs and asked if I could get some sheet gum rubber from them. They had several thicknesses available, and since they cut pipe gaskets all day they had no problem making disks for me so I didn't have to buy a circle cutter.

I got four 7" OD (outside diameter) disks that were 3/16" thick, and they had them ready for me the same day. The cost? With tax the pads cost me $13 for all 4. Yes $13.

So I got them home and put them on the set and they feel outstanding. The toms feel like toms, the snare feels like a snare, and they are MUCH quieter than any other mod I've heard so far (at least ones that have made videos). I'd say the sound reduction is at least 66%, and that scales well if you're really wailing on them. In fact as hard as I tried I couldn't get the pads to be annoyingly loud, so I'd say most people would be very happy with the sound of the pads.

I also noticed no changes in sensitivity whatsoever. Because the pads rebound well I actually noticed an increase in sensity on rolls and other bounced techniques, just because the diddles are stronger on a surface that doesn't absorb so much of the rebound.

So in short, look around locally and see if you can track down some gum rubber. It's extremely cheap (some people spending $50 on practice pads to do a similar mod make me cry), it is one of the best noise dampening materials you can find, and it will make your drums feel like drums.

Odwill · #2 12-14-2007, 01:30 AM

wow thats great. Also being a drummer having that extra rebound would make some stick work 100 times less fatiguing. I wish I had a place that did that kind of thing around me.

vtjustinb · #3 12-14-2007, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Odwill

wow thats great. Also being a drummer having that extra rebound would make some stick work 100 times less fatiguing. I wish I had a place that did that kind of thing around me.

You probably do. Just do google searches for gum rubber in your city and see if it pings anything.

Chances are there's some industrial shop that works with gum rubber, and like I mentioned if you can track one down specifically that does pipe gaskets or rubber hosing you're probably in business.

I did look around at usual places (home depot, lowes) and nobody had anything like this. There's probably a good chance you can find places online that sell sheet gum rubber as well, and probably wouldn't be too expensive to ship to you. I still think there's probably someone that has it locally, but you might have to do some digging. Consider calling local landscaping businesses to see who they go through for hose work and piping, or maybe even the city utility board to see where they get theirs.

Sharpshoota34 · #4 12-14-2007, 01:37 AM

Would you be able to take some pics or even a video perhaps? This sounds interesting. I'm satisfied with CigDangle's felt/foam mod, but I just wanna see if there's anything better out there, especially if it helps with the rebound.

vtjustinb · #5 12-14-2007, 01:39 AM

Yeah I'll try to post video and a few pics tonight.

lucifer vandross · #6 12-14-2007, 03:03 AM

i called austin seals ( i live in austin) they do it, but they don't stock it and they want 6 a disk. they do ship though (so i assume anyone from anywhere could order). i am going to keep looking, but even $6 a disk is cheaper than the cutter (of course when i started this i bought a circle cutter last night at michael's where my roommate happens to work and happened to give me a 40% discount. i might return it though, if i can find the reciept)... anyway not as good a deal as recieved by the OP... but maybe we could do a bulk thing if enough people are interested. I'm still looking though.

boboette · #7 12-14-2007, 04:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vtjustinb

You probably do. Just do google searches for gum rubber in your city and see if it pings anything.

I googled "rubber gasket" and lots of places pop up. That's a better search term than gum rubber.

edit: actually under yellow pages, "rubber products retail" yield the best results. Other categories seem to be mostly wholesalers. I called two companies under Rubber Products Retail and they would happily do it for me.

vtjustinb, do you think 1/16 or 2/16 will work as well? I'm thinking the thinner the better? also does the pad covers the rim color? If so I'll probably do 6 3/4 diameter. Thanks!

Ultrace · #8 12-14-2007, 04:41 AM

How well do these sit within the drum head recesses? Did you have to use some sort of adhesive, or does gravity or snugness hold them in? I'd think that whacking on them with the drumsticks would cause shifting or for the pads to pop out...

Lareden · #9 12-14-2007, 04:57 AM

Great info! There's a hose shop on my way home from work, I'm gonna stop there today.

vtjustinb · #10 12-14-2007, 05:11 AM

To answer a few questions:

- 7" OD sits snug inside of the plastic "rim" of the pad. If you still wanted to see the color you would probably want to make it a little smaller, or you could just put some sort of color designator at the top of the pads.

- As far as the "thinner is better" question I'd actually say maybe, but 3/16" felt really good to me. Vic Firth makes a 1/8" thick "slimpad" that is supposed to more closely emulate the taughtness of a marching snare. It still feels pretty good, but it's a bit louder than the 3/16" practice pad (mainly because the rubber is mounted on a disk of MDF) and a bit less rebound. I think the thing that would keep me from trying 1/8" would be that the RB pads themselves are just plastic with a rubber film sprayed on top, and I'd be worried that 1/8" wouldn't be enough bounce. Logically the thinner rubber should be more "responsive" than the thicker rubber I suppose, but like I mentioned the 3/16" didn't drop any notes so I'm not positive that's even worth worrying about.

- Thanks for the suggestion on rubber gasket--that's probably a good thing to look up as well.

- You definitely don't want to just sit these disks on top of the pads without adhering them to the surface. They'll loose quite a bit of rebound if they aren't tightly adhered. Beacuse of that, I'd suggest not even taping them--but rather opting for some 3M sheet adhesive. Cut the sheet in the shape of the disk, and slap it on your pads. I'm planning on doing the same when my replacement drums arrive. As of right now I'm just using tape and the heads feel a little... crunchy... for lack of a better term.

The sheet adhesive works well though--I know VF's pads use 3M adhesive sheets to secure their gum rubber to the wood disks as well.