Nylon Tips Feel "Hollow"

A

AlaskanPipeline

Member
About half of the pairs of nylon tipped sticks I buy, even from the same model have a very "hollow" feel when I play the drums and cymbals. None of them are warped, but it makes a huge difference on the cymbals when I play them. It brings out all of the weird high pitched overtones of the cymbal on which ever cymbal I use. Am I the only one who has run into this?
 
Well I use them because I do like the sound when I get a "good" pair. I also like the consistency on the cymbals because they don't chip. But like I said, on some of the sticks I purchase, they have a weird feel to them and they even affect the rebound of it. Whenever I get one of the "hollow" pairs, it makes my cymbals sound like a completely different cymbal.
 
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I actually prefer nylon tip sticks when I use my ride cymbal. Wood tips don't seem to make it sing the way I like. Especially when I need some good volume from the cymbal.
 
I've really grown to like nylon tips. I never really hated them in the first place.

I recently started using the Regal Tip 3A. It feels much better than the VF 7As I had been using. They only come in nylon tip, but I really like the way they sound on my cymbals; all of them. So I may not switch back for a while. Plus, I don't have any chipped tips.
 
Somebody gave me a pair once... about 20 years ago...

And at one point in time there were discussions about nylon tips cracking cymbals. But... over time we see that it probably isn't the case.

I never saw any benefit from nylon tips, except they did leave marks on the cymbals and were hard to remove. For those of you who incessantly clean your cymbals perhaps this could be viewed as further impetus to clean your cymbals yet even more than is absolutely necessary!
 
I prefer nylon tips because it seemed that wooden tips always chipped and made for a weak/flat sounding ride. I switched over 20 years ago, maybe wooden tips are better now?
 
True nylon bring out an uneasy high pitched noise at times. Other times it's the perfect ping for me. But whats strange is I have a pair of VF akira jimbo sticks and the way the tip is shaped it sounds nearly identical to a nylon tip. I couldn't believe it, but I was comparing it to 3 different nylon tips and it sounded just about the same but without with less of the high ring sound.
 
I like Regal Tip nylon because of the segmented or scored nylon tip. It has a more wood-like sound than the full tip ones.
 
Not a huge fan of nylons... One thing I do like to use them for is if I get stuck on a set of ZBT or B8 or what have you, you know, crappy stamped cymbals... The nylon can somehow make those cheap cymbals sound a bit better.

I think it's going to be very specific to the cymbals you use. I don't notice much difference on the tubs.
 
I don't think I was clear enough... I LIKE nylons, just almost half of the pairs I buy, especially Vic Firth ones come out feeling hollow with a weird feel on the cymbals. I've only gotten 2 or 3 Vater "lemons" but with Vic, it's about half of them.
 
I don't like how nylon tips feel on the drums.

Something about the nylon hitting plastic feels wrong to me. I want to feel that wood in my hands.
 
The only tip I like is a round tip, wood or nylon. It's not as harsh on cymbals. There are precious little choices in round nylon tipped sticks.

Regal Tip's "E: series stick...it's an acorn shape but it is a ribbed nylon tip...that sounds pretty close to wood. About halfway in between a VF 5A and a 5AN.

That said, as a longtime VF round wood tip player, I recently switched to Vater Fusion sticks. Round nylon tip. They are wearing slower than VF AFAICT. So far I really like them. I wish the butt end was more rounded. It's kind of squared off. I guess I could do that myself. They do dent my tom heads pretty quick.

All that said, I wish there was a wood tip that didn't chip. Like Ironwood or something.
 
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