Expensive, breakable, liable to fly out of your hand at the worst time … love ‘em or hate ‘em, drum sticks are a fact of life. While the leg of a chair or a stick picked up on a walk would work, modern drumsticks are high-performance tools that are tailored down to the finest detail to do the job required. The majority of sticks are made from wood, but there are other options. For a real dive into the subject, check out the websites of a few drum stick makers.
Wooden Sticks
White hickory is by far the most commonly used wood to make sticks. Hickory is very strong and has a good balance of weight and flexibility. Maple is often favoured by drummers who are looking for a lighter stick, softer attack or both. Oak is heavier and more rigid than hickory and is a good fit for heavy players who like the feel of a more solid implement. There are also devotes of bamboo and persimmon wood.
A recent innovation is torrified wood: wood that has been baked in an oven. This process hardens the wood making it stronger and more rigid. It also results in a distinctive dark hue to the wood.
Engineered wood sticks appear occasionally. Think plywood. The theory is that a sandwich of wooden plies will yield more consistent sticks that will be stronger and less prone to the variances of natural wood.
Metal sticks
These have been around in various forms since the ‘60s and possibly earlier. The most successful are usually made from aluminum tubing with some sort of nylon tip and shoulder added. Metal sticks are extremely consistent and some drummers just love them. There are also sticks made from solid aluminum and even steel. These are very heavy and are generally intended for ‘weight training’ on the practice pad (with caution).
Other
Nylon and other synthetics have been tried and mostly ignored by drummers, though there have been occasional successes such as carbon fibre and graphite sticks.
Signature Models
Occasionally a drummer and stick-maker will work together to create a unique model. Mostly the mods consist of tweaks to existing designs, but small changes can make a noticeable difference in how the sticks sound, feel and behave. As well as the artist's signature, the sticks sometimes feature cool graphics. By the way, the majority of sticks these days are variations on the 5A and 5B models.
Boutique Makers
There are a lot of small shops making sticks. In addition to all the standard models, they may offer distinctive features such as exotic woods and vintage designs. Many will do custom work and some will add your own artwork.
Drum Stick Sizing
Originally, different models were given a letter to represent its application and a number to signify the stick’s thickness: A = Orchestra, B = Band, S = Street. Sizing runs from large to small, so a 6A stick is thicker than a 7A. There is little correlation between classes of stick, e.g. a 5A and a 5B are different in length, thickness and profile. Some companies have created their own codes for different models: RK, HD, B Bop, etc.
Profile
A taper in the stick enhances its rebound, articulation and feel. The majority of sticks have a taper that begins about a third of the way from the tip. Some sticks have a longer taper and some specialty sticks have a taper that runs nearly the length of the stick. A bit of taper starting in the grip area and running to the butt enhances a stick’s power.
What about the tip?
Every type of wood stick has its own sound. This is influenced by the size, shape and profile of the tip. You can choose from barrel, round, acorn, oval, teardrop, and arrowhead as well as no tip -- some call these double bummers … two butts. The other tip choice is nylon. This stuff is strong (Kevlar is a type of nylon) and it combines hard-wearing qualities with excellent sound quality.
There’s lots to choose from, so the stick of your dreams is out there, although it may take some time to track it down. A visit to a few stick-maker’s sites will serve up a lot of details about their product some produce catalogs that you can download.
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