Stick Wear

S

skunkendilly

Senior Member
Hi Fellow Drummers
I seem to be wearing through my sticks at an alarming rate.
Particularly when I play the hi hat. I do not feel that I am chopping the edge of the hats with the stick but the evidence shows otherwise. Do any of you folks suffer a similar problem and have you taken measures to change your style or technique? Or is is just one of those things? I gigged on Saturday night and when I packed the kit up the floor around the hi hat and snare stand was covered in EXPENSIVE sawdust.
Man, those sticks cost!
Skunk.
 
I used to have the same problem. I have since re-learned how to play, mostly with the tips, using the shoulder and shaft of the sticks for effect rather than the main playing spot on the sticks.

I can get a much more consistent sound now. It's easier, too--the sticks actually rebound off of the high hats!!!
 
I play open handed, so I can place my hats low and hit them square on the top with the shoulder of the stick. I think that the hi-hat is the part of the kit that damages my sticks the least (not counting the kick drum, off course), though I play it the most.
 
i'm a heavy hitter and go through sticks fairly quick myself, but so what? their 8$ a pair - not 80$...

...and i find i play either hard or quite soft, i honestly don't like that middle ground (where truthfully the better players excel), to me the drums are all passion, but, just me rambling ;-)

try the technique changes mentioned above, or try Oak sticks...
 
I got thru a pair of 5bx vic firths in 3-7 days. It's crazy.
 
I second the idea to lower your hats a little. Just an inch should change the angle that the shoulder of your sticks hit the top cymbal.

Is the same true for your left hand (snare) stick. Tilt your snare back just a little and that should help reduce the rimshot stick damage. Unless of course, that is the sound your after with lots of rimshots... ...then you'll just have to suck it up on going through sticks.
 
for me it's crash riding.

My sticks get really really skinny right on the shoulder where I ride the cymbals.

they can go from 5b's to 7a's in a week!
 
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