Here's a comparison I'd been wanting to do for some time.
What makes a stick a bonafide "Practice Pad" stick, or even just a "Practice" stick?
Of course, the answers vary widely. But I wanted to take a look for myself, so here's a comparison of five different sticks that have all been recommended as appropriate for use on a practice pad.
Below, top to bottom:
Dom's Pad Stick (Vater)
Shedder (Vater)
Concert One (Promark)
Connecticut Drummer (Cooperman)
Parley (Cooperman)
All sticks are made with hickory except Dom's Pad Stick, which is made of maple.
If you take a good look at the differences in tip shape and size, you'll see that there's little consensus on what makes a good pad stick. However, most of the tips have a round shape, which does rebound well on both pads and drumheads.
The tapers are different too, with some considerably longer than others. A very long taper can throw more of the weight to the rear of the stick, making for something that feels lighter in the hand. A beefier and/or shorter taper will have the opposite effect, throwing more of the weight up front depending on the size and length of taper and tip. The length of the overall stick and thickness at the grip area also make a difference.
So one should not expect a one-size-fits-all solution here.
Also, these are five of over a dozen or more sticks that have been advertised as being intended or ideal for practice situations. Depending on your playing style they may or may not work for you.
With the disclaimers out of the way, let's examine each stick more closely.
1. Dom's Pad Stick, now made by Vater, was originally made by Vic Firth over thirty years ago. The dimensions haven't really changed, nor has the wood of choice. Designed by drummer and teacher Dom Famularo, they are really meant for practice pad work and not for much else. If you're primarily a kit or concert/orchestral drummer, you may like these a lot, as they are nicely balanced front and rear. Maple makes them the lightest stick by far in our group, which may not be to everyone's liking.
Dimensions: not available at Vater's web site, but 16.25" long by roughly .660" diameter.
2. Shedder by Vater, designed as a practice stick for concert and rock
drummers, is a nice hickory stick for warming up on a pad or a drum. It
has the same dimensions and taper as my go-to marching and practice
stick, Vater's MV-20, and feels almost the same. The difference is the
shape of the tip (see photo at left).
Dimensions: 16.25" long by .650" in diameter. I'd
consider this as both a very nice, quick pad stick, and also as an alternate marching stick for smaller hands, or as a very useful heavy metal stick.
3. Concert One by Promark, meant as a purpose-designed stick for concert use, also makes a very nice practice stick on a pad or a drum. I was unsure of these at first blush, but after ten minutes with them on a pad I found I liked them. Tips are on the large side, as big as the tips on Dom's Pad Stick.
Dimensions: 16.88" by .650".
*4. Connecticut Drummer by Cooperman, among the most expensive sticks in this group, is also not meant to be a "practice" stick per se (it's usually a favorite of rope-tension drummers), but it wouldn't be a bad choice. The large, oval-shaped tips (the largest tips by far in this group) bring out a big sound from a drum without too much effort, and the elegant medium-long taper makes this a well-balanced stick with presence and power. Smaller hands will probably not be as comfortable with these as with some other models in the group.
Dimensions: 17" long by .688"
*5. Parley by Cooperman, again at over $30 a pair, is not going to get into everyone's hands. But for the discerning advanced drummer, this might become a favorite warmup stick. The round tips are just slightly larger than Dom's; and the very long taper makes it a very fast stick, giving lively rebound with a rather light feel.
Dimensions: 17" long by .688"
(*Note: on the Cooperman sticks: Cooperman sort their sticks by weight as well as pitch, meaning that one pair of a certain model will weigh a few grams more or less than another pair of the same model. #4 weigh 78 grams, while #5 weigh 70 grams. That's a noticable difference in the hands, and something to bear in mind should you buy a pair of either of these sticks.)
I don't know how helpful it will be, but I've made a video of each pair of sticks in action on a practice pad, so you see how they look in the hands.
(You can see it here: https://www.facebook.com/beth.hamon.9/videos/1002648790575377)
There are other makes and models of sticks that are meant to be ideal for practice, which I didn't include here because they're mostly not readily available in the USA. You can order them online, but be prepared to pay a small fortune in shipping (and VAT where applicable).
Obviously, the best thing to do is to try them out yourself.
Have fun and happy drumming!
