DIY Marching Bass Drum Practice Pads

For a few years now I’ve been pondering a way to teach large numbers of students good Marching Bass technique without large numbers of Marching Bass Drums.  I would also like this to cost less than $500 dollars.  And be quiet so I can talk while we play.  And if the students could see their hands and be more accountable to playing areas that would be great too.

Easy, right?

There is no commercial solution to this list of demands, so I started solving it myself. What follows is the current attempt, with pictures!

For the overall design, I decided to use some cheap, bulk mouse pads for the playing surface.  All my dimensions are based off of that, and depending on what you might use, yours will vary.  The critical dimensions are as follows:

Head to head = 14″ That means (pad thickness x2)+(Bottom board length)+(lap joint thickness x2)=14″  Since the pad thickness is set and the lap joints can be predetermined, the part you adjust is the length of the bottom board.

Playing Surface Dimensions = Pad+0.2cm  In my case I used contact cement, and didn’t plan to be perfect so this was a good margin of error.

Support Pole = Bottom Board Length  This was just easier than remembering different numbers.  The pole is sunk into the sides the same depth as the lap joint.

Here are some materials I used.  1″ Poplar Dowels, 3/4″ Birch ply-wood, 1/2″ threaded pipes /w floor flanges, bolts for the flanges, screws for the dowels, air nails and wood glue all over.

I used a router table to cut the lap joints, and a drill press with a forstner bit for the dowel holes.  I would rather have done the joints with a stack dado blade on a table saw, but didn’t have that option the day I did the cuts.   The forstner bit is perfect for attaching the dowels because the dimple gives you the center of the dowel for securing the screw.

You can drill all the pieces quickly after measuring the first one by clamping a piece of wood to the table.  This ensures all the post holes will be consistent.  Placing this hole is the hardest part of the whole project, so only having to do it right once is a big time saver.

I used a chop saw for the poles.  Like the dowel hole, just set the right length on the first one and clamp a piece of wood as shown on the left for the rest.  You can chop through the rest in about a minute without needing to remeasure.

For assembly, lay the wood pieces out, then glue and press everything all together.  It takes two people to really get it lined up.  To set the dowel right, drill down into the dimple of the drill press hole, then set the dowel in place and drill into it from the other side of the hole you just made.  Now the dowel is aligned and pre-drilled for a screw. After everything is glued, use bar clamps for pressure, squares to make sure it’s all aligned, and THEN nail the pieces and screw in the dowel.

I used a simple polyurethane coat to protect the wood.  It took a few hours to coat ten units two times each and let them dry.  After that I attached the floor flanges with bolts and lock washers.

The scariest part for me was putting on the pads.  I used contact cement, which is basically a “no mistakes” process.  It paints on wet, curls the mousepads, then they flatten as they dry.  Contact cement only sticks to other contact cement and only when it’s dry, so it’s easy to handle, but you only get once chance to do it right.  I used three drumsticks to keep the pad off the wood.  I lined up the first edge, smoothed the pad on a little, and pulled the sticks out one at a time, smoothing as I went.  I did twenty surfaces in about 1.5 hours with no mistakes and no rushing.

After they finished drying I twisted on the pipes and used some simple Yamaha and Gibraltar drum set add-on clamps to attach them to old stand bases.  Unfortunately the pipes and flanges that are easily obtained at big hardware retailers won’t fit IN most cymbal stands, so clamping was necessary.

In the end the whole project cost about $325… which is over $500 less than buying the closest thing that’s out there.  My students immediately reported an improved sense of playing areas and hand position, and love being able to see how big they were playing.  I’m planning to use the pads for years to come, and think it will be a game-changer in developing new Bass Drummers.

If you’ve made something like this or have ideas about how to improve on my design I’d love to hear about it!