Been goin through alot of sticks lately, conducting an experiment

Ive been breaking my usual vic firth rock sticks lately(I play mostly 80s hard rock and tend to hit rather hard) so I decided to scale down my drumstick diameter and test other brands to see which one lasts longer. I got 5b and quantum 3000s regal tip, promark 5bs, and vater fatback 3as. I'm honestly not a big fan of promark, they just feel wierd in my hands, so im leaning towards either vater or regal tip. opinions?
 
Try the Danny Carrey signature sticks. They are Vic Firth. They are pretty close to a 5b. They have a groove on the sticks to rest your folcrum. Try them.
 
Try the Danny Carrey signature sticks. They are Vic Firth. They are pretty close to a 5b. They have a groove on the sticks to rest your folcrum. Try them.

I have them, I like them for finger control practice but beyond that I don't care for them.

Having the groove seems like a great idea and even feels nice when it's stationary, but when I get to playing I feel it hinders me.
 
i do a bit of stick twirling and things like that sounds like the groove would be in the way of that. i appreciate the suggestion regardless
 
You said "lately".
So, did you change your technique?
Or the guys in the band just like to crank it waaaaaaay up?

One solution would be amplifying the kit. (Gary Chester always pointed out that after guitars/bass/keys reach a certain level in volume, it becomes rather silly to try and compete with it on an acoustic instrument.)

Or maybe you could also look into your technique again with a teacher?
I used to break sticks *all the time*, but since adjusting my technique, I only ever wear them out.

Another Vic Firth signature stick you could try is the Thomas Lang model. Kind of a baseball bat disguised as a drum stick. ;-)

Patrice
 
i havent changed my technique at all, i actually have been seeing a teacher for the past few months and he recommended downsizing my sticks. the only thing thats changed is band practice and giging is alot more frequent
 
Has the rate of breakage gone up at the same increase and the recurrence of practicing/gigging?

Gigging in particular you may find yourself hitting harder and potentially a little less accurately as adrenaline gets you going.
 
Has the rate of breakage gone up at the same increase and the recurrence of practicing/gigging?

Gigging in particular you may find yourself hitting harder and potentially a little less accurately as adrenaline gets you going.

Although I'm not OP, this is definitely accurate for me. I play aggressive music and no matter how many times I tell myself "not tonight" I still get jacked up when I play live and hit harder than during any practice leading to increased destruction.
 
This may not apply to you, but it wasn't until I really started working on finger technique that I started being less destructive.

For instance, and this is going to be sacrilege to many on this forum, but I've broken far too many cymbals for me to count. Professional cymbals...50-100 cymbals and I don't even play out much. But it was due to a lot of poor technique. And not just the fact that I might be swinging through the cymbals but that I wasn't relaxing my grip enough to allow the stick to do what it wants to do.

Therefore I was breaking cymbals, sticks and destroying my hands (horrible blistering, bleeding every single show). But I have been working on finger technique a lot this past year and the blistering is nearly gone and I hope my cymbal breaking days might be behind me.

Yet! I think I might be generating more volume by not chocking the sticks while I'm hitting. Again, this might not apply to you, but I'm just sharing :)
 
i dont have grip issues, thanx for the input regardless though man. im not entirely sure wat is really the issue, ive been playing for 6 years and this has been probably my most active year in learning, developing a more solid technique and giging alot. i was seeing a teacher for about 6 months but my day job got in the way of that.
 
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