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Anyone use heavier pad sticks?

I have some Hardimon Corpsmasters that I use sometimes in addition to my regular Colaiuta sigs.


Offcourse I play around with the rest of my sticks too just for variation and see how I feel about them:
- Full Pustjens line
- Gauger sticks
- Erskine Ride and Big Band
- SD-4
- SD-2 Bolero
- Jeff Porcaro sig
- John Riley sigs

I use the same sticks for almost everything and they're pretty heavy themselves. Prior to that, I had been using the SD1 Vic Firth for pad and something around the 5B size for playing. The Omar Hakim model felt great back then. In mid 2005 I started getting my own sticks from a national brand, based on the SD1 size but with a smaller head and made of hickory. I fell in love with it and alkept using the SD1 for the pad, until at some point realized I was actually playing with heavier sticks for everything except the practice pad.

Oh, and as for practice pads, I'm using the Meinl ones and I'm liking the 6" mountable one better than the 12". It just feels and sounds great. Might have something to do with mounting it on a cymbal stand instead of the snare stand used for the 12".

Interesting tht you used to use the lighter sticks on the pad.

I use the heavier sticks mainly for getting flow and balance. I sometimes do a bit of stick control with them, but as added weight they work well for geting some variation on finger control.

The Colaiuta sticks I use are pretty much 5Bs. I'll mainly use something else if I want to play really quiet and get a softer sound on the ride. The slightly different barrel tip on the Vinnie stick is a big sell for me, though. It sounds sooo FAT.

Interesting on the pads. Had a small Vic on a cymbal stand at work, but I always thought it felt wobbly. Guess it depends on the stand as well as the pad.


The Pustjens sticks are just slightly specialized sticks for orchestra. Some really long taper, big tip sticks in hickory and birch, some typical bolero sticks and some small, but really heavy sticks for their size in sandalwood, Really like those sandalwood ones, especially the tiny SD-4s, Great for soft doubling with definition. The SD-1s + the SD-4 as well as the Gauger stick are the main choices. Sometimes the Gauger is the best for snare too, but I haveit partly because I'm cheap and find the Pustenjs to precious to hit cymbal crashes and stuff if I have to. Looks like they don't make the sandalwoods anymore, which is a shame.

For those more ecologically minded or have a pad collection that needs something a bit more "exotic," check out Beetle Percussion.

http://beetlepercussion.com/

Odd-Arne Oseberg wrote:Interesting tht you used to use the lighter sticks on the pad.

I use the heavier sticks mainly for getting flow and balance. I sometimes do a bit of stick control with them, but as added weight they work well for geting some variation on finger control.

The Colaiuta sticks I use are pretty much 5Bs. I'll mainly use something else if I want to play really quiet and get a softer sound on the ride. The slightly different barrel tip on the Vinnie stick is a big sell for me, though. It sounds sooo FAT.

Interesting on the pads. Had a small Vic on a cymbal stand at work, but I always thought it felt wobbly. Guess it depends on the stand as well as the pad.


The Pustjens sticks are just slightly specialized sticks for orchestra. Some really long taper, big tip sticks in hickory and birch, some typical bolero sticks and some small, but really heavy sticks for their size in sandalwood, Really like those sandalwood ones, especially the tiny SD-4s, Great for soft doubling with definition. The SD-1s + the SD-4 as well as the Gauger stick are the main choices. Sometimes the Gauger is the best for snare too, but I haveit partly because I'm cheap and find the Pustenjs to precious to hit cymbal crashes and stuff if I have to. Looks like they don't make the sandalwoods anymore, which is a shame.

Might be the stand. I'm using a Yamaha single legged snare stand base combined with a small Yamaha cymbal arm, so it's pretty stable. It tends to travel around with the hitting, but I keep it in place with my feet.
I'm trying to make a more compact thing for travelling, using a Meinl arm. It comes with a multi-angle clamp so I might be able to clamp it to a chair/table/bed leg and take the pad to where I want. Takes up less space and weight than a full stand.

The stick thing was just absurd, yeah. But the SD1s feel so damn good on a pad and I'd been on the road for a while, so when I got back to practicing regularly, it took me a few days to realize it would be wiser to use my regular hickory sticks, which are basically a modified version, suitable for playing on the drumkit. Now I sometimes use Dom's Pad Sticks. Dom himself gave me a pair after a clinic we did together and they're a lot of fun with that huge head.

Never tried those pad sticks.

Probably a bit thinner than my Corpsmaster. Are they maple?

Odd-Arne Oseberg wrote:Anyone use heavier pad sticks?

I have some Hardimon Corpsmasters that I use sometimes in addition to my regular Colaiuta sigs.


Offcourse I play around with the rest of my sticks too just for variation and see how I feel about them:
- Full Pustjens line
- Gauger sticks
- Erskine Ride and Big Band
- SD-4
- SD-2 Bolero
- Jeff Porcaro sig
- John Riley sigs

I use the Vic Firth Dom Famularo Pad Stick... I thought it was a gimmick when I first saw them, but since using them on the pad, it’s weird to go back to regular sticks, and I don’t use light sticks. They’re great for working on rebound and giving your muscles a good “stretch”. They’re definitely big, but not heavy like a marching stick - I tried marching sticks years ago and couldn’t transition to regular sticks on the kit afterwards. The Pad Stick is maple, so they’re lighter and it’s easy to go back to my normal sticks...

Going heavy with the marching sticks definetly makes the Vinnie sigs(5Bs) feel like maple 7As. lol

I try not to overdo it. It's just for variation.

Also when working high Moeller and doubles they definetly let you know instantly if you're off balance. This seems to be the main reason why many advocate them. Just slow, focused, relaxed and propper technique.

I know Sam Ulano, writer of way too many books, is into metal sticks. He has another reason for that, but I'm not sure I'm really buying into that, for me anyway.

Moongel Practice Pad or just use a real snare drum. I haven't played a rubber pad regularly for years. The only times I'll use it is if I need to quietly work on something that has buzz rolls.