a wtf moment...

Cymbalrider

Pioneer Member
Here at my college, we have a 'popular music' band that focuses mainly on modern stuff. I decided to expand my horizons from jazz and oldies and join the group. SO anyway, they use some worn out Roland TD-12 set, which I played on tonight. I elected to use my SD4s which I have had for a few months now and they only showed little signs of wear. I never play hard, and certainly not on an electric set (what's the point to?)......BUT in the middle of a song, one of the sticks snaps in half, horizontally (almost anyway with the way of the grain). Now, I've never seen a stick break this way before, and I've only broken 2-3 pairs of sticks in my life (the others were marching snare sticks during rimshot heavy shows back in high school marching band). This immediately causes a weird feeling because, 1-I don't break sticks and 2-it broke on a mesh pad??? Perhaps the stick was weakening anyway and the shock from the weird rebound of 'artificial drums' just made it give way. It's only maple too, so that might have something to do with it. Now, I loved these sticks, but I'm still in a good deal of shock and probably will be the rest of the week. Anyone know what would cause a maple stick to break in the middle on an electric set even without playing hard at all (I was playing a good mezzo forte, although the kit sounded like I was 'rockin out'--gotta love terrible triggering!)?????
 
I love maple sticks but they break all the time...
They splice in half before they get all banged
from rim shots sometimes...


Philippe.
 
lol...your just too beastly on that electronic kit.

I used to play on a older Roland kit at church...can't remember model. But, the pads are hard rubber with very little cushion. I got tired of breaking sticks so I would just get the cheapest pair of sticks money could buy and flip them over playing on fat side instead of tips. Problem solved.
 
I love maple sticks but they break all the time...
They splice in half before they get all banged
from rim shots sometimes...


Philippe.

Yeah you generally see a huge crack in forming even before they start getting really chipped up.
 
I was doing some thinking on it last night. Well the mesh heads were for some reason under high tension and they do have quite a strong flex to them. Maple sticks also have quite a good deal of flex as well. Based on the angle of the pad and the angle of the stick at the point of impact, I'm basically sure they just ended up going in opposite directions somehow, causing the break. I'm going to be sure and 'tune' that thing down the next time I get a chance. It makes sense now really, don't use thin fragile sticks on high tensioned pads with mesh things on them like trampolines. I'm sure there is some complex physics equation that would demonstrate this...
 
You may be right in your thought...but it's also worth mentioning that, despite the best product control, etc, bad sticks do get out there...wood with issues that you can't see, but when you hit them, they are gone.

Back in 10th grade I decided to try a pair of Ringo Starr signature sticks. I played maybe a minute of a song, playing pretty darn softly, and the stick split THE WHOLE WAY. The tip split in half, all the way up the neck and butt...I was suddenly holding two halves of a stick, which actually pinched my hand pretty badly. I've never seen a stick completely split like that before, so I'm sure it was just a manufacturing error.
 
It has to be the overall impact because I've broken two sticks on an electronic kit. No give whatsoever with those type of pads.
 
The wood grains are supposed to run along the axle of the stick, not perpendicular to it, so yours was probably a faulty stick. But clean breaks like the one you describe is what maple sticks do. I broke one on a cymal pad once (whailing at it though). I prefer hickory, they don't break unless you do something stupid.
 
The very reason that Major League Baseball is now holding meetings with the major bat manufaturers on the banning of maple bats. Way too dangerous when they blow up and send pieces the pitcher and 3rd Basemans way.
 
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Mm hmm happened to me.
Playing at a school function on a Yamaha electronic kit (can't remember which one but it had the red-lined silver control module)...rubber pads, halfway through the first song my SD4s broke...had em for about 3 months with no chipping except the typical 'furry splintering' on the end of the stick from hi-hats etc. I play with rimshots almost all the time and there wasn't even a splinter down the middle of the stick but then the stick snapped in half about 2/3 of the way along.
Because they were electronic kits I hadn't taken out a spare stick (obviously wasn't expecting a stick to break) so I had to play the rest of the song with half a stick...
No one noticed though...that's the beauty of an electronic kit...not

Cel
 
The funny thing is, there was no chipping, fraying, or anything going on with the stick. I guess, like a baseball bat, the impact hit the grains wrong and that's what caused it to snap. I tuned those heads down though yesterday so hopefully nothing will happen again that way.
 
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