tiny wood chips.... EVERYWHERE

ceckha

Member
i've noticed that there are alot of little wood chips all around the immediate vacinity of my kit, haha. does anybody else notice this around their kits too or do you guys think its just cause i play hard and i don't have my cymbals at a really steep angle so the sides of my sticks dig into them?
 
haha yeah it makes a pretty significant mess. my parents don't seem to notice though.
 
I hit hard, ride on crashes and all and this doesn't happen. Maybe at the end of the life of my sticks they'll chip of a little bit but it's barely anything. I'm thinking that you're attacking your cymbals at an angle causing your sticks to dig in like you said. Watch out because that's how you break cymbals... And get wood chips all over the place.
 
I was going to create a thread about this, you beat me to it. The wood chips aren't much of a pain, it's the chips between the snare head and rim, they never come out!
 
Time for a pair of "Aheads"...Replaceable shafts. I know alot of people hate em, but they have a much bigger selection of sizes these days. Saved me ALOT of $ in the last 8 months. Along with the constant vacuuming of shredded wood chips. Just a suggestion....

edit- if you use hickory sticks, save the shreds for your next BBQ. : P
 
Oh yea, I hate the wood chips too. I am vaccuming all the time, but its just what we have to do. I have yet to try the ahead sticks, but I'm thinking more and more about it all the time.
 
Collect the dust and throw it about your room, it will absorb the sound and make any room have studio acoustics!

Rich and intelligent people prohibited.
 
I have only a slight problem with wood chippings, and I've found it is from hitting Rimshots on the snare, I don't hit the toms on the rims, and hit my cymbals correctly. But never the less, the HiHat and the Snare rimshots chew up the sticks.

A note on the Ahead sticks:
yes they have replacable shafts which are made of plastic, but the inner shaft is made out of metal. Since you have all posted in this thread you know that your sticks are being "chewed up" Well it won't stop if you get Ahead sticks, you will still play the same, you will still gradually chew up the shafts on the Ahead sticks.

Well you might say "big deal! so I'll go buy some replacement shafts". And to that I say, Ok well what happens when you wear a hole into the shaft of the Ahead stick and now the Inner Metal shaft is exposed? Will you notice it right away? VERY unlikely!

So for a while or even for a few more practice sessions you will be playing with these sticks that have the inner metal shaft exposed all the while, slamming your drum equipment: rims, cymbals, and HiHat with this (in effect) Metal stick. I don't think I have to tell you how damaging that will be. Especially to your crashes and your thinner cymbals such as your splashes.

I'm not saying don't get Ahead sticks, they have a good product and a novel idea. I'm just saying be careful with them, and pay attention to the shafts if you do in fact purchase Ahead sticks.

/climbs down from soapbox

My 2cents= we are hitting an object with another object, and eventually something will have to give. So instead of the $300 item giving in, why not let the $10 item give in. I would gladly accept 10 pairs of damaged sticks over 1 damaged cymbal.

Play smart, have fun
 
I really dont get wood chips for some reason. I break sticks, and that stuff, but no wood chips in sight lol.
 
I happened to have liked that soapbox spill over and thanks for that! I too would rather have the cheap damaged sticks than my kit getting thrashed anywhere!

I have only a slight problem with wood chippings, and I've found it is from hitting Rimshots on the snare, I don't hit the toms on the rims, and hit my cymbals correctly. But never the less, the HiHat and the Snare rimshots chew up the sticks.

A note on the Ahead sticks:
yes they have replacable shafts which are made of plastic, but the inner shaft is made out of metal. Since you have all posted in this thread you know that your sticks are being "chewed up" Well it won't stop if you get Ahead sticks, you will still play the same, you will still gradually chew up the shafts on the Ahead sticks.

Well you might say "big deal! so I'll go buy some replacement shafts". And to that I say, Ok well what happens when you wear a hole into the shaft of the Ahead stick and now the Inner Metal shaft is exposed? Will you notice it right away? VERY unlikely!

So for a while or even for a few more practice sessions you will be playing with these sticks that have the inner metal shaft exposed all the while, slamming your drum equipment: rims, cymbals, and HiHat with this (in effect) Metal stick. I don't think I have to tell you how damaging that will be. Especially to your crashes and your thinner cymbals such as your splashes.

I'm not saying don't get Ahead sticks, they have a good product and a novel idea. I'm just saying be careful with them, and pay attention to the shafts if you do in fact purchase Ahead sticks.

/climbs down from soapbox

My 2cents= we are hitting an object with another object, and eventually something will have to give. So instead of the $300 item giving in, why not let the $10 item give in. I would gladly accept 10 pairs of damaged sticks over 1 damaged cymbal.

Play smart, have fun
 
To avoid or at least minimize the amount of wood chipping my theory would be to not hit so many rims of the drums, for instance the rims of your toms. And as for your cymbals, try to hit them with glancing blows, that's a strike that is not straight down onto the cymbal but rather at an angle. There are many websites and I am sure even some threads on this forum that could instruct of the proper technique to play cymbals.

Certain things like the HiHat and your snare, (if you use rimshots and other techniques) will be more likely to eat at your sticks and for that you would just need to play softer and possibly use a different playing technique.
 
I play rim shots all over the place, on all my toms, and especially on my snare. My main snare sound in my main band is me doing faaaaaaaaaaaat rim shots (very far up the neck) which leads to just a TON of shavings. It looks hilarious.
 
I have only a slight problem with wood chippings, and I've found it is from hitting Rimshots on the snare, I don't hit the toms on the rims, and hit my cymbals correctly. But never the less, the HiHat and the Snare rimshots chew up the sticks.

A note on the Ahead sticks:
yes they have replacable shafts which are made of plastic, but the inner shaft is made out of metal. Since you have all posted in this thread you know that your sticks are being "chewed up" Well it won't stop if you get Ahead sticks, you will still play the same, you will still gradually chew up the shafts on the Ahead sticks.

Well you might say "big deal! so I'll go buy some replacement shafts". And to that I say, Ok well what happens when you wear a hole into the shaft of the Ahead stick and now the Inner Metal shaft is exposed? Will you notice it right away? VERY unlikely!

So for a while or even for a few more practice sessions you will be playing with these sticks that have the inner metal shaft exposed all the while, slamming your drum equipment: rims, cymbals, and HiHat with this (in effect) Metal stick. I don't think I have to tell you how damaging that will be. Especially to your crashes and your thinner cymbals such as your splashes.

I'm not saying don't get Ahead sticks, they have a good product and a novel idea. I'm just saying be careful with them, and pay attention to the shafts if you do in fact purchase Ahead sticks.

/climbs down from soapbox

My 2cents= we are hitting an object with another object, and eventually something will have to give. So instead of the $300 item giving in, why not let the $10 item give in. I would gladly accept 10 pairs of damaged sticks over 1 damaged cymbal.

Play smart, have fun

Good advice that I agree with.
 
To avoid or at least minimize the amount of wood chipping my theory would be to not hit so many rims of the drums, for instance the rims of your toms. And as for your cymbals, try to hit them with glancing blows, that's a strike that is not straight down onto the cymbal but rather at an angle. There are many websites and I am sure even some threads on this forum that could instruct of the proper technique to play cymbals.

Certain things like the HiHat and your snare, (if you use rimshots and other techniques) will be more likely to eat at your sticks and for that you would just need to play softer and possibly use a different playing technique.

i don't use rims on my toms and only occasionally do rim shots on the snare. and i do play my cymbals with glancing blows. that was one of the first things i was taught about playing cymbals when i first started learning drums.

and all the people that have said they hate having wood shavings collect in their rims, thats what inspired me to post this topic haha. i was changing heads and when i took off my floor tom rim there was a ton in there.
 
I used to always have a mound of sawdust around my kit. But as I started lowering my cymbals and angling them towards me more, it stopped.
 
Back
Top