Wow, unbelievable the amount of negativity on this product not only on this forum, but on others as well. The arrogance of a few that say this is a "gimmick" and don't waste your time on it is really amazing!!! Have you drummers ever heard of a thumb pick?? A thumb pick is what many guitarists use that have trouble holding on to a tiny half inch piece of plastic for 3 hours with sweaty hands. Gig grips are no different. They won't ruin your grip, and as many have posted about what to do when you break a stick, YOU DEAL WITH IT AND GET THROUGH THE SONG!!! I've broken maybe 3 sticks in 35 years of playing everything from jazz to metal. If you're constantly breaking sticks you're either doing something wrong or move to fatter sticks dude!!! But don't knock a product that can help guys like me that have issues with holding a pair of sticks for 4 hours!!!!
Before defending a product, you should try it for yourself first. I mean, you're not speaking from experience, so how can you expect anyone to listen to you?
Anyway, if I break a stick, then I get rid of it immediately and grab another out of the
Pro-Mark Stick Depot SD400 (product page
here) that's attached to my cymbal stand, which is sitting to the left of my hi-hat stand. Why play with a broken stick if you don't have to? Why even put yourself in a position where you might have to finish a song with a broken stick? I have been playing for almost 20 years, and I have
never had to keep playing with a broken stick because I've always had that Stick Depot.
Also, this is
not like the thumb pick. It's not even in the same category because the thumb pick is for a totally different style of playing the guitar, most commonly seen by banjo players. Besides, even if there was a product like the Gig Grips for a guitarist (again, the thumb pick is
nothing like the Gig Grips), a guitarist doesn't have very many different ways that they can hold the pick, but we drummers have
several different ways we hold our sticks - seemingly endless ways, but there are two MAJOR ways: Traditional and Matched! If you play both and if you like being able to freely switch between the two, then you'd be screwed. Not only that, but what about the subtle changes? You have times where you need to grip further up on the stick, and then times where you need to grip further back. There are other times where the stick is held closer to the finger tips, and other times it's not. I mean, with the Gig Grips, it looks to me like you're stick in one grip. ONE GRIP. That's not good,
unless you are a beginner.
If you don't believe me about the thumb pick, then just do some Googling on it. It is most commonly used for playing the banjo.