I use art tape to put lines around the base. Not only does it mark but it allows me to "feel" the stick better. Like the 2mm wide art tape for scrapbooking.
I do mark my sticks. I used to take an ink pen and press really hard & number them, but now i use paint pens and just put colored dots on the butt end. It works great & lasts. I dig your videos bro
That's a great idea. I used to save the sleeves, but they wound up getting lost in the stick bag or falling out at a gig. Then thought about using rubber bands but same problem. Thanks for the tip!
I first used to write a number on them with a Sharpe but i bought a wood burner a while back so at the ends i usually burn a letter or 1 digit number and my son one day did a wood burning of this cool looking 50's rocket ship on a piece of wood so i now put my version of that (i can't draw at all) on one stick usually before or after the spot where my stick hits the snare rim (i play mainly rim shot to get that metal beefy sound) that way i make sure to rotate them so one doesn't ware faster than the other.
I've played the three popular brands my whole life (Vic Firth, Vater and Pro-Mark) and have noticed that Pro-Marks are the only sticks I can mismatch and not tell a huge difference. Vic's and Vaters both play great but the pair matching seems to be more critical whereas Pro-Marks seem more consistent. Pro-marks also seem to give me less blisters.
I mark my marching sticks and mallets by abbreviating the name of the stick model. So for example- Innovative Percussion FS-1's I write "FS1", Pro Mark Scott Johnson Scooters I write "SJS", Vic Firth Bill Bachman Billy Clubs I mark with a big ass "B", and so on and so forth. Drum set sticks I use letters, symbols, numbers- whatever..
You're framing is genius. I see the first image and don't need to watch the rest of the video. I'm not kidding, I have the video at 0:00 and I already know what the point of marking your sticks is.
Love the videos, great job. YES I mark my sticks. I used to use permanent marker, but now I burn them. Stove top with electric burners, heat it to red hot, you can burn dots, circles, I do X's, and the asterisk (3-line X), also combinations of those. The markings stay put and are very visible when you burn them in. Not sure how to post photos of examples.
I wrap my sticks in electrical tape because it keeps them from breaking and splintering. I’ve taken up the practice of beat the shit out of everything, old habits I can’t shake. But I always wrap them with a different pattern or colors. There infinite possibilities, all the colors and you can do different kinds of stripes and patters.
For my marching sticks, I initial each pair with a different color (since everyone in the drumline uses the same kind of sticks) For set, I just do different colored dots.
I used to try to keep the the sleeves but thy got torn and are hard to manage so I just put stick tape on the bottom of my old pair and didn't on the new ones
If I was just playing snare or pad I might worry about pitch pairing. But since one stick is on the snare and the other is on a cymbal 95% of the time, I don't feel like it's an issue.
*this is a bit long, but...* lol I don't mark my sticks, although I did try to keep them in pairs for a bit of time. For me I just can't tell apart the sound of the sticks on the drums. I also don't find it that important to hear the sound of the stick while playing. There could be cases where it would be important to have matched stick based on sound, I don't think that is really something that is needed to normal playing. With that said, the weight from stick to stick can very. So that could be an issue. I still think it is more of a marketing thing than an actual important issue for playing. However I do think that it would be important if you were in a recording studio, but still I doubt someone listening to an album would be like, "I can't listen to this track, because the drummer didn't use matched sticks." lol Of course this come be because when I was first learning to play on a kit, I would use what ever sticks I had that weren't broken (at one point I had a 2b in one hand and a 5b in the other). Also in high school I played mix sticks sometimes (because it was high school, that's why), and no one ever noticed (that was just the stick that was on hand at that monument in time). I just found that putting the heavier stick in the dominant hand worked fine, and after a few minutes you couldn't tell they were really mixed. Of course when I could get a "matched" pair it was always a great feeling. So for me, it isn't very important, but now that I am older I prefer to have sticks that are at lease the same size (I use Vater 5a's now), although the pairs are mixed and I just grab a pair and jam.
I dont mark them. I rim shot too consistently and break the sticks. I only use one size and if I have to use a lended pair thats a different size, I'll deal with it even if its mis matched haha
I remember one time I went to guitar center to but a pair of Vater 3a's and I could tell some jackass put two sticks from two different pairs in the same sleeve because they were so different.
***** jamming cymbal felts on the back of a stick is pretty popular, though not very permanent. It also stretches the felt pretty bad if you plan to reuse it. You can also wrap your own mallets with yarn, but at that point your best bet is to buy some. Personally, I like the Vic Firth dual tones/ swizzle, or what ever they call them these days.
I love to watch the world burn, therefore I do not mark my sticks or keep them "paired". I mix them up like crazy immediately upon purchasing them, and now I can't use the, "my sticks aren't pitch paired, that's why I'm bad at drums" excuse!!
