Product Review: Ahead aluminum drumsticks

 I’ll cut to the chase:

These are bad enough that I’m glad I got them at a discount. The packaging touts:

— Durability (yeah, okay, probably)

— Protection (for cymbals, at least)

— Safety (I’m not gonna play these long enough to find out if I get more or less tendinitis)

— Comfort (Ummm, NO.)

— Consistency and Efficiency (if they suck, these last two are moot)

Maybe I’ve played with wood sticks for too long. Maybe my technique needs a massive adjustment.  Or maybe these just feel sort of dead. I dunno. 

Playing an even roll on a pad or a tuned drum feels awful. It’s doable, but I am doing ALL the work. When I imagined trying to play a two-hour show with these, I shuddered. They are that horrible.

Aluminum. UGH. I should’ve known better. 

Aluminum bicycle frames offer a high degree of strength because the tubes are thick-walled and stiff enough to support a heavy rider or handle the repeated impacts of off-riding. The ride is pretty harsh, and riders are taught to let the bike “move” under them and use their joints to help absorb shocks.  That’s doable by a trained, fit rider on a short-track race course. 

But asking a drummer to do that, to absorb the shocks with the hands, fingers and wrists, from a stick with no give, is insane. It feels like a sure path to carpal tunnel or worse.

The sticks have replaceable plastic/nylon tips, replaceable plastic sheaths that cover some part of the stick underneath (I haven’t taken the sticks apart, because I have no desire to look further). 

The fact that these sticks have replacement parts may inspire confidence in some, but it just makes me shake my head. It’s bad enough that playing with these sticks regularly could really hurt my hands; how hard do I want to think if I have to buy replacement parts for my DRUMSTICKS?

..::Cue Wile E. Coyote raising dust cloud at bottom of ravine::..

I play drums, people. I HIT things with sticks. Stuff will sometimes break, even under my smaller hands. If the quality was worth the trade-offs I’d be more open to living with these for the sake of sustainability. But aluminum production is not super sustainable (even if the finished stick handles are recyclable), and when combined with Some Kind Of Plastic (see: front end of stick) it’s all just so unclear.

I admit it. I don’t get these sticks at all.

They’ll go in the 2B bag as a curiosity, or even a graphic example of a mistake; but it’s not like I’m gonna rush out and buy any more.  Sorry.

They look cool, absolutely. I’m sure lots of young rock drummers will want to try them, and some may consider switching to them as their regular stick.

I’m here to persuade them, and you, to avoid them. Aluminum is a great material for certain purposes. Drumming isn’t one of them.