Review: Protection Racket Drum Rug Mat Markers

I’ve always been somewhat obsessive-compulsive when it comes to setting up my drums. When I get everything set just the way I like it, I want it to stay that way. And when I need to tear down and set up for a gig, it’s always been a challenge to get everything positioned just right.

For this reason, many years ago I began taking my own drum rug to all of my gigs, and I would mark the rug somehow to help me get everything in just the right place. I used a couple of different methods for marking my rug. First, I’ve tried using a black magic marker, and traced an outline around my hi-hat and kick pedals and the feet of each cymbal and drum stand. This generally worked, but if you decided you wanted to change the position of something later, you pretty much had to buy a new rug.

The other method I used was pieces of duct tape. I would just place pieces of tape to mark out where the pedals and feet should be positioned. Again, this worked, but if you wanted to move something, you needed to remove the old tape, which often left a sticky residue on the carpet behind which could not be fully cleaned out of the rug. Another drawback of the tape was that it could simply lose its stickiness over time and come loose from the rug.

Thankfully, I’m not the only OCD drummer out there, and the good folks at Protection Racket (best known for their drum cases) have created just the thing–Drum Mat Markers. Mat Markers are simply pieces of one-sided velcro with a number printed on the top side of them. A set of Mat Markers includes 30 velcro circles for up to 10 ten tripod stands, along with a matching numbered velcro piece to attach to the lower tube of each stand so you know which stand’s feet belong within each group of circles. There are also an additional 4 velcro pieces (2 per pedal) for marking out your Hi-Hat and Kick Pedals.

The nicest thing about the Mat Markers is that if you ever decide you want to move something around after the fact, all you need to do is remove and re-apply the velcro to your rug. I’ve also found that the Mat Markers stay attached very snugly, even when rolling up my rug to take it to gigs. All-in-all, these are just what I’ve been looking for.

I will mention that the velcro will stick better to certain types of rugs than others. If you’re using a really tight-woven rug, it probably will not stick as well. But if you’re using one of the standard, softer rugs that are typically sold on the market as “drum rugs”, I think they will work well for you. If you’re really fond on a certain rug and insist upon using it, you may want to test it with another piece of velcro to see if it will stick, before buying the Mat Markers.

In conclusion, this is one of those simple, but innovative products that I, for one, am glad that someone thought of, and I’m certainly grateful that Protection Racket now has them out there on the market for OCD drummers like me.

Shop for Protection Racket Mat Markers at Zzounds.