Vic Firth 'joins forces' with Zildjian

[patdrums]

Zildjian cookware.....now there's an idea! How about a K Custom Session Wok? Make some stir fry before the gig, then clean it out and take it to the stage! : )

All joking aside, I do love to cook and since I'm a VF endorser I grabbed a set of Mario Batali salt and pepper mills from the gourmet division. They are VERY nice. I use them all the time. Plus, it's really cool to have something made by VF on my kitchen counter and not just in my stickbag! It did seem kind of odd at first that they wanted to move into such a completely unrelated business but if you think about it, they're already tooled up for it. It didn't cost them much to get rolling. They already have the wood stock sitting there and all they had to do was program the lathe profiles to make them and install the mechanisms. They've done a great job with them. My fiance' has been a chef for years. She's used the best and she loves them.

If Zildjian ever did decide to branch out into pots and pans, I'd HAVE to get some just on principle!

[Odd-Arne Oseberg]

I mostly use Zildjian Colaiuta sticks which by design are just great, however they need to get a lot better at pitchpairing them. If there's any change at all, hopefully they learn a bit from Vic on this point, because this issue (which is a big one obviously) is the only one I have and it should be an easy enough thing to fix.

[YamahaPlayer]

Totally, the VF mill's are awesome. My GF is also a chef and digs on them... is there a thing with drummers dating chef's?


I never understood the pitch matching thing, because frankly it doesn't matter as soon as a stick gets nicked, worn, chipped, etc... which happens fairly fast.

That and I bet in a blind test nobody would be able to tell if a given drummer was playing with pitch match sticks or otherwise while listening to them play. For that matter I bet a person couldn't tell if one stick was even a totally different model then the other.

[cjbdrm]

IMO pitch matching drumsticks is very practical- one might not hear a difference on drums, but on cymbals, practice pads, and other harder playing surfaces, you can. Having mis-matched sticks can be distracting while trying to clean up your rudiments and rolls, for example.

I usually buy a brick of VF 5A's and/or 5B's and pair them up myself- I try to match them by pitch AND weight (using a food scale)...sometimes the pitch correlates to weight, but not always. Then I mark the ends of the sticks with perm marker to differentate the pairs from each other in the stick bag...

YMMV

[chris Hendrich]

I really hope the Zildjian Stick quality improves. Love the Vinnie stick, but the quality sometimes is like the sticks you can get 10 pairs for 10 bucks.

[YamahaPlayer]

I usually buy a brick of VF 5A's and/or 5B's and pair them up myself- I try to match them by pitch AND weight (using a food scale)...sometimes the pitch correlates to weight, but not always. Then I mark the ends of the sticks with perm marker to differentate the pairs from each other in the stick bag...

Are sure you're not buying 2nds? Those always come in bags. Bricks of regular sticks always come in their boxes with a plastic strap around them.

[Kurtis]

For that matter I bet a person couldn't tell if one stick was even a totally different model then the other.

are you talking a person who isn't a drummer couldn't tell? of course you can tell one brand from the next. when i worked at GC we did just that. when it was slow we used to do just that. firth, vater and promark 5b's. got it right every single time. other sizes also. it is quite obvious to me at least.

[deseipel]

I could never get consistently good sticks from Zildjian. The wood quality is the issue. The wood is very light weight, which is great, but it's not durable at the same time.

I'm actually interested in some maple sticks though...

[YamahaPlayer]

For that matter I bet a person couldn't tell if one stick was even a totally different model then the other.

are you talking a person who isn't a drummer couldn't tell? of course you can tell one brand from the next. when i worked at GC we did just that. when it was slow we used to do just that. firth, vater and promark 5b's. got it right every single time. other sizes also. it is quite obvious to me at least.

No, read the context of the previous sentence. In a blind test of a listener, I doubt anyone would be able to tell the difference of sticks being different, let alone pitch matched.

IE: A guy standing there listening to someone play a gig would never know if the sticks were pitch matched, or even different models from hand to hand. Even in a recording situation I highly doubt anyone could tell because the wear on sticks alone destroys any pitch matching that may have been true for when they were new.

I could never get consistently good sticks from Zildjian. The wood quality is the issue. The wood is very light weight, which is great, but it's not durable at the same time.

I'm actually interested in some maple sticks though...

Maple is even lighter and less durable then Hickory. Yes, Zildjian sticks absolutely suck. I haven't met any player who actually uses them (who doesn't get them for free).

[Clint Hopkins]

Now see, I have a different take on the Zildjian sticks. They are completely consistent if you ever need a Talking Drum beater.