Too many sticks?

The Black Page Dude

Senior Member
Hey all,

So lately I have been experiencing a very weird phenomena. Over the last 20 years of my drumming career I have used mainly VF 5A with the odd experimentation with SD1 Generals, Zildjian Session Masters and Virgil Donati's signature Vater stick. I went through a big stick phase a few years back.

In the past 2 years I have had no issues with 5A's other than since my "big stick" phase, I have not been 100% comfortable with the 5A's upon my return to the land of normal size wood. Because of this I have been trying loads of different models and have recently come to be incredibly comfortable with not one, but two, models of stick. The Aaron Spears signature and the Buddy Rich signature. I should mention I love the blended tip of both.

So here is the weird part. When I play with my cover bands (country, rock) I favor the Aaron Spears, and yet when I play electronic drums or play with my personal musical project (world music, r&b oriented) I favor Buddy's sticks. Anybody else experience this?!? I guess I am just not monogamous when it comes to sticks?!?!?
 
Last edited:
Yes, I bought a whole 10 pairs of Aaron Spears sticks a couple years ago. Haven't tried the BR sticks yet though. I have other sticks, like Steve Smith sigs, Vater Fusion, 5AXN, 5BN, etc., but I keep finding my way back to the Aaron Spears stick. By far my favorite wood tip stick. No doubt.
 
I've used many, many sizes of sticks over the last 40+ years, from thinnish 1As to Golden Oak 2Bs, to synthetics. I eventually got myself down to 3 sizes, Vic Firth AJ5 (thinnish "Jazz" stick for lightest playing,) 8D for more moderate playing, and 5AX for touring (plays like a heavy 5B.)

It's not odd to use different sticks for different types of kits (V-drums vs acoustic,) different sizes (bop kit vs Bonham kit,) different venues/genres (jazz gig in a dinner club vs rock gig on a concert stage,) or age (comfort of weight and grip based on hand size.)

Bermuda
 
Back
Top