In 1981, young Zay Speed wanted to be a member of a Salt Lake City band named Parallax. (Oxford dictionary def: "Apparent difference in position or direction of object caused by change of observer's position.")

As Zay sat staring at the drum head in misery, (and at this point in an altered state of consciousness), he had a revelation as to how he might make a repair to the drum head that would restore and maintain it's integrity and improve the sound, though not in time for the audition.

Zay got the gig in spite of the damaged drum head. He used his inspiration to create the system that repaired the drum head, and improved the sound astonishingly well-creating a "canon" sound effect, rather than the more usual "bouncing basketball" effect that is more commonly heard. This special fuller sound is created by the independent vibration of both drum heads while the sound waves seek and find the path of least resistance: The Holz hole in the drumhead.

Experimentation showed Zay that there was an exact location on the drum head that produced maximum improvement in the resulting sound. Included in this concept is the idea of a specially designed cutting tool so that other drummers will not have Zay's "shattering" experience.

A little later the members of Parallax broke up the band to pursue individual interests-giving Zay time to take his invention to a group of engineers who evaluated his unique design, and felt the idea was worth patenting...thus the Holz Corporation was born.