My ongoing love affair with Vintage 2B sticks

I’ve loved 2B sticks for a long time.

Like most drummers, I started out with them. They provided more of a heft than 5A, the other standard size for young drummers, but were still silencer enough to serve as a good concert stick. In the 1940s and 50s, they also served as an alternative marching stick for the youngest drummers in school and community bands.

2B models from this era up through the early 1980s offered a medium to long taper and kept more weight at the butt end, which I still prefer. I’ve found that newer 2B sticks have tended towards a much shorter, less gradual taper and more weight towards the front end of the stick, which completely changes the balance and feel.

So over time, I’ve gathered older 2B sticks. I’ve used them in community bands and for pad chopping.

The nicest pairs live in this old Promark stick bag, from the late 1970s.

This isn’t the entire collection, which also includes some older Promark oak sticks from the late 1970s and early 80s that I use and enjoy often.

L-R: Jeff Rich vintage style, 2023; Fibes, 1970’s; Slingerland Haskell Harr, 1960s; Slingerland 2B standard, 1960s; Ludwig, 1970s; Ralston (possible Japanese stencil brand), 1960s; WFL, 1940s; Mercury US (stencil brand?), 1950s.

All but the Jeff Rich are made from hickory. I believe the Rich sticks were turned from bubinga or similar, heavier wood.

The tips here tend towards more of an elongated acorn shape, which would have been good for Rudimental and concert work, and would have forced the player to be consistent with stick angles when playing rolls.

It’s good to remember that in the 1950s and earlier, most Rudimental drumming happened on drums with wooden hoops, meaning that a rim shot wouldn’t have broken the stick as easily. Sticks from this era lasted longer as a result. If they were later used on metal hoops, their age and previous use may have meant they’d break more easily, making sticks from before the early 50s harder to find intact now.

Because sticks from this era were not matched for weight or pitch at the factory, drummers had to sort through a case of the same size and company to find pairs that would match. One of my fondest memories is of visiting Captain Whizeagles music store in downtown Portland when I was a middle schooler in the mid 1970s, and Fred and Toody Cole (the owners, and also founders of the seminal band Dead Moon) were happy to let me gently tap and roll sticks on their glass counter to sort out and rubber-band pairs, for myself and for the shop. If I sorted the whole lot, they’d give me a free pair, and then they’d mark up the rest because the matching had been done for the customer. Smart! 

I continue my search for older sets of 2B sticks. If you have any to rehome, reach out and let’s talk.

Happy drumming.