My latest rabbit hole: all about sticks. Really FINE sticks.

I’ve really fallen down the rabbit hole of boutique, custom and collectible drumsticks lately.

They’re often easier and cheaper to find than some practice pads, they take up less space, and some of them are flat-out gorgeous.

Here are a few of the latest to come my way:

1. Cooperman #10: Nick Petrella “General”.  A heftier version of the original Petrella concert stick, with a bigger tip and a more robust feel. I was fortunate to find these in both Persimmon and Hickory; today, Cooperman is taking a break from making persimmon sticks until they can source old-growth wood again.

I wouldn’t be disappointed about hickory, though. Cooperman know what they’re doing when they turn wood into some of THE nicest, best-balanced sticks I’ve ever played. 

The persimmon version are lighter, and more rigid. 

They feel great in concert passages where you don’t have time to change sticks and a lighter touch is needed.

The hickory sticks have become my new best friend.

Since getting them over a week ago, I’ve been chopping with them every single day on a variety of pads (which, being home bound due to Long Covid, is 95% of my playing right now). They feel lively, extremely well-balanced and very comfortable in my hands. 

I like them so much I plan to buy another set or two at least.

2. I’ve been having a lot of fun hanging out at the Boutique and Collectible Sticks FB group. Run mostly by symphonic and concert players with some overlap in the ancient Rudimental drum scene, these enthusiasts have invited me to broaden my horizons well beyond hickory and maple, and far beyond mass-produced sticks I’ve been playing for decades. Through them, I am learning about all kinds of woods and the kinds of sticks each is best for. And I’ve made a few really good friends as well.

My latest stick acquisition came courtesy of a friend who got several pairs of padauk sticks some years ago, from a young man still learning the craft. My friend sent along a pair to me so I could experience what playing with padauk sticks feels like. So far, they’re fascinating. I wouldn’t say I’m converted or anything, not with my hickory #10’s hogging a lot of my drumming time. But padauk is an interesting wood. The sticks are lighter than hickory, but possess almost no shock-absorbing qualities. So I have to make mental and physical adjustments to play cleanly with them. Once I figured this out, my diddles became smooth and light, almost ethereal. I know that some fife and drum corps sticks are being turned in padauk today, but I’m not sure my hands would enjoy playing on the march for an afternoon with them. I need to hang out with them more.

These sticks arrived with an incipient split in the wood on one of them. So I carefully lifted the split , applied some Elmer’s Glue-All underneath and in the cracks around, and set it to dry.

After it was thoroughly dry, I removed the wrap, sanded the excess glue off the surface, and applied a light coat of clear nail polish over the area to seal it.

When that had dried thoroughly, I gently tapped them on the dining room table so see if I could hear anything odd. I couldn’t. So I chopped on a rubber pad with them for a little while and really liked the subtleties my hands were receiving. 

They’re drop-dead gorgeous sticks.

Other woods on my list of Sticks To Try probably include rosewood, ebony, zebrawood, walnut  and various kinds of maple. If aim able to find sticks in those woods affordably, I’ll share my findings here.

Here’s video I made earlier this morning, some freestyling with the hickory Cooperman #10’s. 

They are absolutely delicious to play with, and just might have become my go-to stick for pad work and rudimental chopping in general.

Happy chopping!

DIY Drummer: returning snare sound to an old HQ pad.

I scored a rare 8” HQ RealFeel pad which once held a snare-sound  cartridge. Without the cartridge, I got it for a song.

Then I decided I wanted to add back a snare cartridge, but since the factory cartridge was long gone and unavailable, I went with a replacement cartridge from Offworld Percussion.

Using only a couple hand tools I had on hand — and why worry about cosmetics, because who’s gonna see the bottom? — I cut out a little of the particleboard underneath to accommodate the slightly larger and round shape of the Offworld snare puck.

The magnet in the bottom,  designed as it was for the size and shape of the original cartridge, would not accommodate the placement of the metal studs in the puck, so I added some rare-earth magnets on each of the four sides, based on the location and distance of the studs.

When the glue dried, I dropped in the puck. It held when I turned it over. (And since I had a hunch that this was going to work, I bought the shaker puck and the cymbal stand adapter as well.)

Results: a decent, workable hack

Lesson? Use your resources.

The result? A nice, useful pad. 

(Best used on flat, horizontal surface with NO tilt.)

Happy chopping.

My life with Rudimental Drummers Chop Pads -- UPDATE

In September of 2020 I took delivery of a Rudimental Drummers Chop Pad.

It was love at first strike.

I loved the response, the volume level and the ease with which I could adjust tuning for concert or marching sticks. I liked it so much, in fact, that I later ordered another RD pad, a Travel-sized version of the Chop pad, so I could have one to travel with.

Over the last nearly two years, I've been able to figure out what exactly I want in a daily practice pad. Thanks in part to my experiences with RD Pads, here's a list:

-- Response/feel. If the pad doesn't feel rght, there is no point in buying it.
-- Sound (or, in this case, lack thereof). I play on pads in large part to keep the volume lower and thereby preserve my marriage, so a pad that won't let me play a little harder without the neighbors complaining is of little use to me.
-- Versatility. After decades of collecting, researching and trying hundreds of different pads, I've decided that I want a pad which offers some versatility. I should be able to make minor tuning adjustments -- or even change the head, if desired -- so I can use it with different sticks and in different applications and still get the response I want.

For me, the best practice pad for daily studio use is one that feels like an actual drum and allows me to replace the heads.

My Chop Pads fit the bill nicely.

Recently, I decided that, to make my pads more versatile for my purposes, I wanted to outfit each with a Remo Pinstripe head. This would allow me to lower the tension a little and use a wider range of sticks.

Further, I wanted to find a Stick-Saver rim for the Baby Chop. when mine was made, Rene at RD told me he wasn't able to procure a Stick-Saver rim in that size. After months of searching, I found one and swapped it in.

Today, both the Big Chop and the Baby Chop are my most reliable, stable, consistent pads. I play the Big Chop nearly every day and love the way it responds and sounds.

(Reminder: The Chop Pad is designed for mid- to high-tension, but not nearly as high as on a modern marching snare! If you need something that can be tensioned that tightly, I suggest you look at RD's Drum Corps Pad, which comes with additional metal reinforcements that are designed to work with Kevlar heads.)

Rubber-on-wood pads have their purposes, and are fine for students on a budget.

For a pad that sees daily, steady use, save your pennies and spring for a tunable pad with replaceable heads. It will pay for itself in less than a year, when you realize it's the pad you practice on most of the time.

The Chop Pad -- and other pads for different types of drumming -- are available from Rudimental Drummers. Each pad is made by hand, one at a time. Delivery to the USA from The Netherlands runs between 5 and 8 weeks. They are, for my money, the BEST tuneable pad I've ever used.

Happy drumming!


(NOTE: I was not paid to write this unsolicited review and update, nor was I given any freebies from Rudimental Drummers. I paid for my pads just like everyone else.)

Pad workaround for those who play rope and other low-tension drums

If you are playing a drum that requires older-school technique -- "pulling" strokes out of the head because the drum requires it -- here's a neat little trick.

On an Aquarian Super-Pad, place a black foam drum mute.

This will still allow you to enjoy some rebound while practicing that particular technique. (Modern drum pads like the Evans and Vic Firth, made as they are for the Kevlar Kids,  are too bouncy for this.)

Try it and see what you think. Here's an example, using a 13" Super-Pad with a 10" Evans SoundOff mute (and Cooperman Fasticks)

 

What's nice about this setup is the flexibility it offers for different kinds of sticks and different approaches to cleaning up rudimental passages.

And while the Rudimental Drummers Rope Pad is amazing, it's also not super-affordable for everyone. So here's a workaround on a budget.

Happy drumming.