Exactly what I wanted for my son to learn on when he cannot use a real drum! I have an older version from HS (mid-90's), but the rubber is dry and cracked and the bounce is long-gone. I read a lot of reviews on the other pads, but came back to the tried-and-true RealFeel and I am very happy with the decision. I may even buy another to replace mine.
If you are a gum rubber fan, this is the classic go to. Good for concert snare playing, but not awesome. Decent at marching stuff, but not awesome for snare drum given its softer feel. Great for lower tension rudimentary work and modern tenors. Ignore the double sided pad; neoprene is awful for your technique. However, in reference to the pad hands remark: any pad will give you pad hands. the only way to fix that is to play on the drum and learn how to adjust to instrument and practice implement.
In all my experience, I have found RealFeel pads to be the best. I recommend them to anyone in the market for a pad.
do your self some good and go with the vic firth heavy hitter stock pad. i have used this pad for about two months and when i tried to play on a real drum i had pad hands to the fullest. i could play blue devils ditty PERFECTLY on this pad, i tried to play it on my snare at school and it was HORRID. so if u want a great pad go with the vic firth. the bottom line is this pad is aweful!
