It started out with baseball bats. Well, actually, the whole thing was inspired by session drummer Joe Pollard’s frustration over hitting his drums with “sticks the size of baseball bats” to combat the colossal volume levels unleashed by amped-up, wattage-crazed guitarists on 1970s concert stages. Pollard’s solution was an electronic drum that could be plugged into an amp or P.A. system and allow drummers to wage volume wars on a uniform battlefield. He traveled the country with the dream that someone would build him such a kit, and he even showed manufacturers a DIY prototype. No one wanted to know. In 1975, while trying to interest someone at Tycobrahe, Pollard was passed off to technician Mark Barton. He wasn’t much impressed by Pollard’s prototype, but he immediately embraced the concept of “strike head, get tone.” Pollard’s and Barton’s baby, the Syndrum, blew minds at the 1977 NAMM show in Atlanta, […]