I'm working on making my own drum pad, and the problem I keep running into is finding a rubber company that can ship me a rubber sheet with a nice color. If you have ever looked into it yourself you'll notice that most of the rubbers offered are a really dull color and the color varies drastically.

My question is does anyone know of a company that produces gum rubber with a consistant more visually pleasing color.

Also drum companies like heavy hitter, vic firth and Reel feel have consistant nice looking pads where do they get there Gum rubber?

I'm guessing that those bigger companies are ordering that rubber custom made, which is possible for them because they order in bulk but for someone just looking to made one pad or even just a few, I'm sure it would be cost prohibitive. I did a quick search for rubber dye, this one is pretty cheap but only comes in black. The only other rubber dye I found runs about 95 bucks.

im curious because Bill Bachman started heavy hitter in his basement so he had to of had found a place that could make a more consistant color

http://www.rubbercal.com/Sheet_Rubber_Pics.html
maybe i cant really tell ^^

I have samples from rubber cal they look gross!

yeah?

oh well i tried

But more importantly, how do they PLAY?

I actually thought about ordering some gum rubber from them to make a tenor pad. I don't care much about color -- I'm going to hit it, not admire its looks. And the color probably wouldn't even be visible since I'd be putting homemade Mylar laminates over the rubber.

Go to a place called allstategasket.com the rubber from there played really well and they were cheaper than rubber cal.