Does anyone prefer rubber to mesh?

[Kris NH]

I'm a long-time acoustic drummer, and had a chance to demo a TD6 kit with rubber pads recently, and I really liked the feel. I've never played Roland's mesh pads, so I'm curious if there's anyone who actually prefers the rubber pads. How big is the issue of fatigue on the rubber pads, which I've heard mentioned? Thanks much...

Kris

[grog]

Search in here. There have been a few threads on mesh vs rubber and there are a couple of people who've said they prefer rubber pads over mesh.

www.myspace.com/rubberuniverse

[daveybabes]

Morning - Afternoon - Evening

I've only played on mesh and assumed it's a world apart and better than rubber, but by chance i was in the music store lookin at the Roland kits and some old guy asked me hey! young man (well yeah that's stretchin a point) what's the difference in these mesh and rubber, there was a stick there and so i picked it up and banged it on the mesh kit and said "well mate you can see this mesh one has good rebound" then i hit the rubber pad kit and was finishing the sentence " but these are not so good" and as i hit the pad the stick flirted back so far it nearly flew out of my hand

he said "oh" ha ha

was surprised at the good feel ... fatigue? u mean fatigue on you or the pads?

[pchanning]

heheheheeee, that sounds like a "I'll get my coat" moment

[Sabre]

I'm a long-time acoustic drummer, and had a chance to demo a TD6 kit with rubber pads recently, and I really liked the feel. I've never played Roland's mesh pads, so I'm curious if there's anyone who actually prefers the rubber pads. How big is the issue of fatigue on the rubber pads, which I've heard mentioned?

I always enjoyed the feel and response of playing the rubber pads, but I built some DIY toms with mesh heads to get the larger size. I still use a PD-8 as my hi-hat. If I had to go back to the rubber pads, it wouldn't bother me a bit. I'll probably never upgrade my KD-8 as I find the feel & response perfect. In regards to hand/wrist fatigue, I never experienced anything troubling. One nice thing about e-drums is that you don't have to play hard. I suppose if you were a 'heavy-hitter' you could possibly do some wrist damage over time, but modifying play style shouldn't be a difficult thing to master.

[rythm]

[DougM]

I still use the rubber pads from my 20+ year old Pearl DRX-1 set. I like their feel and they've held up well over the years. I've tried out a mesh set at a local music store and was amazed at how much faster I could play single strokes, but for my needs, rubber pads are fine.

[jrcel]

I prefer rubber for the fact that they're less trouble and over the years I've gotten used to drums tuned in a variety of ways, tuned high, tuned slack, with tape, no tape, no bottom heads, bottom heads, you just kind of adjust, it shouldn't really affect your performance. I'm used to rubber, I've never had wrist problems because when I play rubber, I don't play from the shoulder as I do with acoustics.

[Levon]

I have a TD6V SX or something like that.. mesh snare, rubber toms... and i Quite like the rubber pads.. especially when i assign the tom sounds to non drum sounds.. ie SFX sounds. i once tried a TD20, all mesh pads, and i did find it a bit odd doing drum fills on the all mesh pads. but for the snare, i prefer the response from a mesh pad.

[Drumzilla]

Mesh vs. Rubber

Suggestive title.

For the snare, mesh is the only way to go. For the toms, I might prefer the mesh (if I could afford it) but the rubber works fine.

If I had a higher end module (TD-9, TD-12, TD-20) I would want mesh heads to get the better separation between the head and rim triggers.

[SuperPuss]

Being a relative newbie to drumming and starting with a mesh snare and rubber toms, I find either fine for my playing.
I recently had the opportunity to jam with a band on an A kit and didn't find the transition to 'real' drums a problem at all. I also just purchased a set of Rototoms for my kit and have ordered some 8 x 8 toms I'm going to do an e conversion on. I'll be keeping my PD8's for other percussion though.

[tablatom]

I'm a long-time acoustic drummer, and had a chance to demo a TD6 kit with rubber pads recently, and I really liked the feel. I've never played Roland's mesh pads, so I'm curious if there's anyone who actually prefers the rubber pads. How big is the issue of fatigue on the rubber pads, which I've heard mentioned? Thanks much...

Kris