Anyone use huge stick sizes?

stellar92010

Senior Member
I started at Promark 808s, went to 2B's, now at 2S's. 17" long and .695 diameter without much taper and big heads. Each time I went up in size, they felt uncomfortable for about a day, then I got used to them, and don't like the feel of the smaller sticks anymore.....so...

I just ordered some Promark 3S marching sticks--17" long and .728 diameter. I'm not sure why but I just really like the hefty feel of weight, and the particular balance those large sticks have. Anyone else feel that way?
 
I'm not a very big guy and I sometimes use the Thomas Lang signature sticks. Sometimes a bigger stick can give you more control and feel more comfortable. Someone used the analogy once of writing with a thick pen versus a thin pen.
 
I played with big sticks for a long time.. Then I accidentally ran out, and all I had sitting around were vater recording. I found I could do more with them, but using big sticks for a while was probably good for my development.

One cool thing is that your hand is slightly more open.
 
I have 2S and I switch between them and 5B as well as 5A. If my hands are getting tired, I will downsize....I love the feel of a 2S and I feel it strengthens my wrists/hands for when I want to use 5B or 5A.

For me there are situations where the 2S will encourage me to behave badly...and play too loud so there are times where a gig location informs my decision on what to use. I recently had an outdoor occasion at a large park on a large concrete stage....huge stage...where the band members were spread quite far apart...2S all the way and boy was that fun!
 
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I've been playing with a pair of IP-1s for a while (I believe they are .650 but I'm not sure). Very fun and I think I even get better control with a larger stick. The only problem is that the tip shape doesn't work very well on drumset- I'm still trying to find a comparable stick that has an acorn tip. My next one (after I tried Chad Smiths, Danny Careys, etc) to try will be the Thomas Lang signature model.
 
I just ordered some Promark 3S marching sticks--17" long and .728 diameter.

Your poor cymbals and drumheads :(

All kidding aside, seriously, those might actually damage your cymbals if you're not careful.
I tend to like heavier sticks, like those made of oak, but recently I've been enjoying my Ahead 5As; they've got the heft, without having the width of a baseball bat.
 
I play sometimes with Danny Carey signature sticks, they're pretty huge, but so is he.

Excellent stick. I bought 4 pairs a few months ago and they hold up great. They play like a heavier 2B but feel a little more like a 5B because of the taper.

One of the best sticks out there IMO.
 
The biggest stick I have used is the Peter Erskine Big Band Stick. It has a pretty beefy butt end with a long taper.

At first, I found I could play a lot easier with the larger stick. But eventually I noticed I couldn't get around the kit quite as quickly as with a smaller stick.

I recently discoverd the Vic Firth SD Combo maple stick. WOW!!! It's actually about the size of my 7As but it's so light since it's maple. Amazing stick. I could execute pattens even faster than with the Big Band stick and get around the kit with ease. Plus, that barrel tip has great articulation on the cymbals.

I'm quite a stick junkie so all this may change in a few months...
 
I was talking about that with my teacher, 'cause he showed me how to hit cymbals so they don't break. And then when I asked him about how loud the big Paiste cymbals are with these big sticks he ust said, I guess this is a good time to learn dynamics. LOL. He does have a point. I imagine I want to play dynamically like I do on guitar, but I'm still in the mode of hitting everything pretty hard. So I'll have to be careful.
 
I had a buddy that played a pair of big sticks, like a broom handle, they did feel really good in my relatively large hands, but they were a little loud for my taste.
 
I have played nearly every size and diameter of stick under the sun. I have small hands but I have found that smaller sticks don't work for me in certain situations -- my hands will feel like they're losing their grip and so I get the death claw grip, which makes it worse.

I love Vic Firth's Vic Grip, but as with many other grip sticks, it seemed to get a large stock in stores and then disappeared.

I also love longer sticks, and typically play at least a 16.5" stick. Living in the middle of the state, it can be a challenge to find a stretch stick. I tend to stock up when I'm in Seattle.

If a stick is rather thick -- like the Vic Rock or the Gavin Harrison signature stick -- I tend to use it on certain types of music where I know the weight of all that wood isn't going to cause me long-term damage. I tend to stick to 5B stretches or similar sticks for the majority of my playing.

If you're a big guy with big hands, a big stick makes sense, but a big stick doesn't have to mean hard playing any more than a small stick means you are only going to play softly. (Within structural limits of the stick, of course. Try playing arena rock with a Vic Firth SD5 Echo and see what happens.)
 
To me there's a trade off. I like the tone that a fatter stick gives, but anything after 5B and I'm working too hard. The agility suffers. So basically 5B is my preferred stick, the fattest I can go without losing speed.
 
I play with Vic Firth Extreme 5B's. Not huge but fairly big. I enjoy running rudiments with marching drum sticks occasionally. I have a pair of MS6 Chop Outs that I really like for that. They are 17 1/8" long and .705" diameter.
 
If you're a big guy with big hands, a big stick makes sense, but a big stick doesn't have to mean hard playing any more than a small stick means you are only going to play softly. (Within structural limits of the stick, of course. Try playing arena rock with a Vic Firth SD5 Echo and see what happens.)

I'm a smaller guy (5'5") and I have normal size hands, but I play what most would consider a big stick. The twist is that I play maple sticks instead of hickory. This lets me play a larger stick without the weight of hickory. I've played Vic Firth SD9 sticks for about 4 years now and love them. They are a tiny bit thicker than a 5B and are 16 1/2" long. I mostly play a mix of rock and loud Texas country, and everything from unmic'ed indoor gigs to bigger outdoor venues and I can play as loud of soft as I need to without having to change sticks.
 
The largest sticks I use on the kit are 2bs, with 5Bs and Benny Greb sigs being the norm.

I used to march drum corp and we used large sticks (too many years ago to remember the exact model) but I can't imagine using them for a general purpose stick on the kit. Not for the material I play, anyway.
 
I got the 3S sticks today. those things are so fat that I've finally met my match. The 2S sticks feel much better, and now they feel small in comparison. Looks like 2S's for me.
 
Not 'huge', but I use Vic Firth Rock sticks. They're the same diameter as 2B but with less of a taper, and I think they're also a little bit longer.
Other than them, just 5Bs. Anything smaller just feels too tiny, and I tend to hack through them on the edge of my hats in no time.
 
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