House of Drumming.com

Kurtis wrote:

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.

Shame on you! You should have been working your card file..........

drumnhands wrote:

Kurtis wrote:

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.

Shame on you! You should have been working your card file..........

...or not knowing anything about the gear that you're selling, drumming, or music in general.

there were guys that worked their card file like crazy. they had been there for years and were always on that phone working that GP

I always check pitches of sticks before I buy them. I like the higher pitched ones, since the wood is denser than the lower pitch ones. I also try to get sets of sticks close to the same pitch. I also like to mark the ends of my pairs specific with numbers to match them up before I put them in my stickbag.

Mike

Interesting. I could care less, the moment a stick is nicked, chipped or otherwise it's "pitch" changes anyway. That and the volume is far to large to bother with.

like I got time to look in the stick bag and make sure I grab the right one? Haha or if one stick breaks, do you grab TWO sticks so they are supposedly even?

You start putting the light of reality onto stuff like that and the silliness becomes very apparent.

YamahaPlayer wrote:You start putting the light of reality onto stuff like that and the silliness becomes very apparent.

I don't think it is silly at all. I've bought bricks of sticks and found that there is a wide range of weights in there. I don't blindly grab a new one when I play, there is one ready to go on top of my Free Standing stick bag. Plus I've got one in a holder on my hi hat. I've been in situations where I grabbed a pair of sticks to find one to be heavy and one super light. It's distracting. I also like a consistent weight in my sticks. Sure, nicks and chipping will change the sound and weight, but you can always have a starting point. I know there are pros out there with stick deals that request bricks of sticks in specific weight ranges. I'm not at that level, so I pick them out myself. With this method, I haven't gotten a bad stick that breaks in the first song for years. It works for me.

Mike

I see both sides of the coin but for me personally, pitch matching isn't really something I care much about. It's just not practical for me. We buy several hundred pairs of sticks at the first of each touring year. I'm a VF endorser and they are all shipped pitch paired in those little paper sleeves and bundled into bricks. The first thing I do is pull the sleeves off and toss a dozen or so pairs into my stickbag. Before each show I just grab two and warm up. If one feels lighter than the other, I just toss it back in the bag and grab another. They're all usually very consistent and close in weight so I don't spend much time at all searching. If I happen to drop one during the show I just grab another. If it feels too light (I prefer heavier ones all around) I can suffer through a few bars until I have a chance to grab another. After playing for so many years in clubs and not having a tech, I've gotten really good at playing one-handed while I fix something broken or tuning up a loose lug!

One trick I learned a long time ago to really hear the pitch of a particular stick is to hold it lightly in my hand and tap the middle of it against my head. It looks silly but it works! You can really hear the distinct pitch of each stick if it's resonating right by your ear. Anymore, I go by feel anyway. If it feels okay and balanced in my hand, I'm fine with it. I've had many times in the past where the pitch was near identical but the feel was WAY off so I've stopped caring so much about it.


just my .02.....


Pat

What kind of scale are you guys using to weigh sticks? I find it hard to believe your at home scales are more accurate then the ones at VicFirth. (Don't know about other companies).

I find it rather amusing to picture a bunch of people weighing out their own sticks on inaccurate scales and pitching matching them, etc... AFTER they've already been through far more accurate process's of them same.

IMO, if it doesn't matter to the best - and it doesn't. Then it won't matter to me.

You think Tony, Buddy, etc had sticks even close to the level they make today?

YamahaPlayer wrote:What kind of scale are you guys using to weigh sticks? I find it hard to believe your at home scales are more accurate then the ones at VicFirth. (Don't know about other companies).

I find it rather amusing to picture a bunch of people weighing out their own sticks on inaccurate scales and pitching matching them, etc... AFTER they've already been through far more accurate process's of them same.

IMO, if it doesn't matter to the best - and it doesn't. Then it won't matter to me.

You think Tony, Buddy, etc had sticks even close to the level they make today?

Hey mate,
I admire your steadfast and polar views on things, although I don't always agree with you. You are like a dog with a bone! Makes for good debate...

MP

I've found a big variance between Vic's 5Bs, my main axe. I pay attention to the weight, but only by feel in my hand. Usually in a music store's display of 15 pair I can find 2 or 3 I like.

I find their pitch matching to be decent per-pair, but I really only care about that on a pad. Although sometimes I like having non-matched sticks when working out certain things at speed so I can hear things hand-to-hand.