How many sticks make a break for freedom when you're on a gig?!

I'm fortunate that I don't "drop" them very often, but occasionally I get one caught on the underside of a cymbal when trying to go around the kit, and it goes flying šŸ˜‰

Poor form, and trying to do too much, of course
 
I used to use grip tape, and I LOVED the stuff. However, the grip tape material from every company has gone WAAAAY down hill since covid. I don't know if materials are cheaper now OR if the stock is just old because it's been sitting off the coast of California in a shipping container for 6 months. I don't know, but the stuff is awful now. I get about 45 min. of playing in before it starts dissolving in my hands. You'll notice that these sticks look barely used; however, the tape is shot. I've tried Vater, Meinl, and Pro Mark. They are all terrible now. They used to be great.


View attachment 129968


These days, I'm using these Vic Firth sticks. I bought a brick of them from Dennis at Long Island Drum Center, and so far they are holding up well! I've tried Zildjian Dips before, and they left blisters on my hands. The VF sticks have just enough grip but not so much that they will leave blisters.

have you tried the Promark Active Grip sticks yet? They get warm and sticky ( no pun intended) but the black material does not wear off. it's some wierd magic coating....
 
Used to be a real problem for me, to the point it was dangerous to stand near the kit. It wasn't a slipping issue, they would just fly out of my hands. Seems to have mostly solved itself.
 
Sometimes I don't drop any, sometimes I drop 4 or 5 during a show. It's not sweaty hands, I just lose my grip sometimes. Many years ago I started using QwikStix holders and they put my spare sticks right at my fingertips. I just reach down, don't even have to look, and I can grab a stick on my left or right. When that song is over, I replace any sticks I grabbed so that there are always two available on each side.

_qwikStix.jpg
 
have you tried the Promark Active Grip sticks yet? They get warm and sticky ( no pun intended) but the black material does not wear off. it's some wierd magic coating....

I gave up on Pro Mark. Their failure rate is much higher than Vic Firth. I buy sticks like 4-5 pairs at a time, and Pro Mark tends to have more ā€œbad runsā€ much more often than VF in my experience. Every once in a while, Iā€™ll run across nylon tips that flew off of my PMā€™s back in the early 2000ā€™s. Iā€™m STILL finding them.
 
Funnily enough........I don't seem to lose sticks at gigs, I probably have a bilateral death grip on them.

For faster songs like Basket Case and that horrendously fast one from Matchbox 20, I'm pretty sure that my hands are Supa glued to the sticks.

But practice?......they are always clacking together and I lose a stick a minimum of once.
 
Itā€™s funnyā€¦ some days Iā€™ll be dropping sticks left and right for no reason. Most of the times I donā€™t drop them at all. I use Mr. Zogā€™s Sex Wax to get a good grip. It works for me.
 
I drop one a night usually, maybe two once in a great while.
 
Sometimes I don't drop any, sometimes I drop 4 or 5 during a show. It's not sweaty hands, I just lose my grip sometimes. Many years ago I started using QwikStix holders and they put my spare sticks right at my fingertips. I just reach down, don't even have to look, and I can grab a stick on my left or right. When that song is over, I replace any sticks I grabbed so that there are always two available on each side.

View attachment 129984
Just out of curiosity, why are your sticks in the QwikStix holders on your left facing tip out? Do you play with the butts out with your left hand?
 
For me it's between 3 and 6 most nights. But I also have days where it's less, and the occasional "no drop night". I've been really intentful in the last two years to really relax and loosen my grip to correct some cramping issues I had. This in turn made me drop a bit more sticks but the trade off is a more fluid sounding style and a easier time getting to the end of our pretty energetic sets cramp-free with a bit of gas left in the tank for the encore.

Like Bermuda, I have 2 stick holders, one screwed on one of my floor's leg and the other on my hi hat stand, so there's always a stick ready to grab, no matter wich hand drops.

I also rub my sticks with VF's stick wax. It gives them a good amount of tackiness and helps a lot compensating for both too sweaty and too dry hands.
 
Just out of curiosity, why are your sticks in the QwikStix holders on your left facing tip out? Do you play with the butts out with your left hand?

Yep! Consequently, the sticks have different wear patterns, and then become left-only and right-only sticks... until they're replaced with a new stick.
 
There is no rhyme or reason to stick dropping for me. I can go weeks without dropping a stick, then have a day of calamity.

Fortunately, I rarely drop sticks, and have never had a stick bag on my kit when playing live. ProMark gave me one of these back in the early '90s and it's been part of my kit ever since. I've never needed more than 2 pairs of sticks at easy reach.
L69856000000000-00-500x500.jpg
I had the same thing on my kit, only I had the round silver tube version. And like @bermuda, I had one on either side. One clipped to the hat stand for my left hand, one between the floors for my right.
 
For grippiness, I was using hand lotion at the start of every set. Rub it on your hands, then the sticks.. I keep it in the pocket of my stick bag.
But now I'm using Pine Tar in stick form, the stuff for bats. It probably ain't for everybody. A little goes a long way. Washes off easily.
 
Not a fan of grippy sticks being a Moeller guy, they absolutely wreck my hands. I love the sticks being loose in the hand.

My stick drops usually happen when I get the stick caught under my ride if I'm moving around the kit or I catch a rim
 
Yeah, there's something about just barely holding the sticks on a slow blues song, ticking on the ride, that's so appealing. Just letting the stick weight do it all.
The Pine Tar mostly wears away by set end. Have to apply it every set.
 
Back
Top