Carbosticks!!

[fritzmusic]

http://www.hohnerusa.com/pdistributioncarbo.htm


Carbon fiber drumsticks. I'm always up to trying something new...anyone else ever tried these? I am a heavy rimshotter on the snare and amazingly, wood sticks last me longer than those AHEAD sticks although I absolutely love the feel of AHEADs but I still want a stick that is as responsive (or more) as the AHEADs yet more durable than anything on the market. Any thoughts?

[Drummyjoey]

Thanks for posting this! My dad has always told me how these were his favorite sticks ever. (so durable he says) I don't know if this was the brand, but I might order him some. Apparently they went off the market and he hasn't been able to find them since.

I would say give them a try...

[Tim Brown]

I haven't tried Carbosticks, but I do use Aquarian X-10 Graphite sticks with Red Shock sleeves.

http://www.aquariandrumheads.com/pro...play.asp?id=26

I've used them for over 20 years. They are great sticks. I've got 1 pair that is literally 20 years old.


Gil Moore from Triumph was endorsing them, and I tried them out and loved them.


Tim

[Drummyjoey]

Hey Tim where do you get the aquarian sticks? I was originally trying to get my dad those a while back but couldn't seem to find them anywhere. I finally ordered them online but they were out of stock.

[Brad_C]

I have a set of carbo sticks and well I like them (they look like candy canes), but only on electric. I find on an acoustic kit I don't get the right sound on the drums compared to a good old set of wooden sticks.

[Tim Brown]

Originally Posted by Drummyjoey

Hey Tim where do you get the aquarian sticks? I was originally trying to get my dad those a while back but couldn't seem to find them anywhere. I finally ordered them online but they were out of stock.

Here are the X-10 Lites.

http://www.music123.com/Aquarian-X10...-i127159.music

Here are the regular X-10 sticks.
http://www.music123.com/Aquarian-X10...-i127134.music

I pretty much buy everything online, and have for the last 10 years. The music stores in my area suck - we have a Guitar Center, but to me that sucks just as bad as any of the other places - it's just bigger.


Tim

[jaykeMURD]

I tried a set of CarboSticks and didn't like the action or feel to them at all. Didn't seem to have the bounce or recoil of a regular, wooden stick. They do last a long time though!

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by fritzmusic

http://www.hohnerusa.com/pdistributioncarbo.htm
Carbon fiber drumsticks. I'm always up to trying something new...anyone else ever tried these? I am a heavy rimshotter on the snare and amazingly, wood sticks last me longer than those AHEAD sticks although I absolutely love the feel of AHEADs but I still want a stick that is as responsive (or more) as the AHEADs yet more durable than anything on the market. Any thoughts?

I have some 5As from them. Personally, I like them. They don't have quite the recoil of wood, and they're heavier. For me, I kind of like that, as it gives the illusion of greater control....

[tom5]

Originally Posted by fritzmusic

http://www.hohnerusa.com/pdistributioncarbo.htm


Carbon fiber drumsticks. I'm always up to trying something new...anyone else ever tried these? I am a heavy rimshotter on the snare and amazingly, wood sticks last me longer than those AHEAD sticks although I absolutely love the feel of AHEADs but I still want a stick that is as responsive (or more) as the AHEADs yet more durable than anything on the market. Any thoughts?

Alright, well for me, nothing will beat hickory or maple. But I do have a pair of Aheads 5A's, 3 years now, I only had to change the sleeves. I only use them when I run out of wood sticks or whenever I feel like it. Which isn't too often. I used to use them alot when I first got them. As for your comment about your Aheads breaking because of rimshots... Ahead sticks are not meant for rimshots...so you arent supposed to rimshot with Aheads or else they will break pretty fast. I believe it says in the instructions or somwhere in the box... as for carbon fiber sticks, i havent used them, but I don't think they are that different from Aheads.

P.s. All sticks will break faster if you use rimshots consistantly...well alot faster than if you didnt do rimshots.

[DxRocker]

Let me tell you boys something...

When you continously smack two objects against eachother, one of both is going to brake. That's just the way the laws of physics work. Ask yourselfs... if the sticks are not braking... what is it that WILL get broken?

Ahead sticks and alikes are known for their cymbal-breaking potential.

Not only that, they are known not to absorb vibrations as common wood sticks. Wood sticks prevent these vibrations (from hitting gear) to reach your wrists.
Ahead sticks and alike do not do this. Therefor, the vibrations go straight to your wrist wich can be the cause of serious injury in the long run.

Also, Ahead sticks are made of aluminium. The brand Ahead is actually know for producing aluminium baseball bats. Do you really wish to smack your expensive cymbals with such things? You may be thinking: the aluminium doesn't touch your cymbals, cause they are protected by a plastic sleeve.

My answer: that plastic sleeve is only 1-2 millimeters thick , wich is not enough. Also, if you think that sleeve will really protect your cymbals, I invite you to take a hammer, wrap it in 5cm thick plastic and wrap another 2cm of foam around that and smack your foot with it. See if you can brake your foot with all that "protection" on it...

Be adviced: beware of sticks made of any other material then wood.

Chances are big that it will destroy your hoops, cymbals and wrists.
Ask yourself: what kind of stick comes with manual? what kind of stick tells you not to do rimshots with it?

Do as you please off course, but be warned.

[litrick]

I bought a pair of carbo sticks and i didnt like them at all they lasted as long as my vic firth 3A's and were nearly 3x the price and they marked my cymbals and i cant get it off with any of the cybal polishes i tried


PS Good point Dx Rocker

[drummr2112]

Originally Posted by DxRocker

Let me tell you boys something...

When you continously smack two objects against eachother, one of both is going to brake. That's just the way the laws of physics work. Ask yourselfs... if the sticks are not braking... what is it that WILL get broken?

Ahead sticks and alikes are known for their cymbal-breaking potential.

Not only that, they are known not to absorb vibrations as common wood sticks. Wood sticks prevent these vibrations (from hitting gear) to reach your wrists.
Ahead sticks and alike do not do this. Therefor, the vibrations go straight to your wrist wich can be the cause of serious injury in the long run.

Also, Ahead sticks are made of aluminium. The brand Ahead is actually know for producing aluminium baseball bats. Do you really wish to smack your expensive cymbals with such things? You may be thinking: the aluminium doesn't touch your cymbals, cause they are protected by a plastic sleeve.

My answer: that plastic sleeve is only 1-2 millimeters thick , wich is not enough. Also, if you think that sleeve will really protect your cymbals, I invite you to take a hammer, wrap it in 5cm thick plastic and wrap another 2cm of foam around that and smack your foot with it. See if you can brake your foot with all that "protection" on it...

Be adviced: beware of sticks made of any other material then wood.

Chances are big that it will destroy your hoops, cymbals and wrists.
Ask yourself: what kind of stick comes with manual? what kind of stick tells you not to do rimshots with it?

Do as you please off course, but be warned.

You are absolutely right. I had a pair of Aheads about 10 years ago and I went through cymbals constantly. I'll never go that route again.

However, if you a light hitter and keep new sleeves, then you probably would be ok with them.

[DxRocker]

Originally Posted by drummr2112

However, if you a light hitter and keep new sleeves, then you probably would be ok with them.

Suppose you are doing a gig. In the middle of the song, the sleeve breaks, what do you do? Not much choice: you have to continue playing. At this point (light hitter or not) you are hitting your cymbals with PURE aluminium.

And if we suppose that the sleeves don't break... you still have your wrists to worry about.

A drumstick has to break. It's mandatory. If your sticks are breaking, that means that your hoops, cymbals and wrists aren't.

[Bulls Hit]

Originally Posted by DxRocker

A drumstick has to break. It's mandatory. If your sticks are breaking, that means that your hoops, cymbals and wrists aren't.

Course it doesn't. I've used the same pair of kevlar sticks on the same Imperial Star snare for the last 20 years.

dgatwood mentioned they were heavier than wood, and that's why Ilike them. Greater density means they're heavy enough without being fat. The 20 years is just a bonus

[tom5]

Originally Posted by DxRocker

Suppose you are doing a gig. In the middle of the song, the sleeve breaks, what do you do? Not much choice: you have to continue playing. At this point (light hitter or not) you are hitting your cymbals with PURE aluminium.

And if we suppose that the sleeves don't break... you still have your wrists to worry about.

A drumstick has to break. It's mandatory. If your sticks are breaking, that means that your hoops, cymbals and wrists aren't.

You must really hate Ahead sticks etc...And you don't realy know much about them, or technique for that matter which if you have the riight stuff, you won't break cymbals or drums using any type of stick...or even the stick for that matter. If you pay attention to how you play, you should do fine. I know people who live by aheads, and they don't break them..they know how to play.

[DxRocker]

Originally Posted by tom5

You must really hate Ahead sticks etc...And you don't realy know much about them, or technique for that matter which if you have the riight stuff, you won't break cymbals or drums using any type of stick...or even the stick for that matter. If you pay attention to how you play, you should do fine. I know people who live by aheads, and they don't break them..they know how to play.

Right... I don't know anything about technique, nor do I know anything about sticks. I'm a complete morron who has been playing drums for 9 years.

I've never said that playing with these will guarantee cymbal breakage. I said that chances are a lot bigger. You don't have to believe me if you don't want to.

Hell, I invite you to take a copper bar and start smacking your cymbals "with good technique" without breaking them... You said "any type of stick" right? Well, go for it man, be my guest.

Can we agree that Dave Weckl has good technique? Maybe ask him how long his wood sticks last. As for that matter, maybe you can ask yourself as well why all the fine players play with wood sticks and only the three biggest morrons of the drumming community endorses aheads (tommy lee, lars ulrich and joey jordisson).

[bleyrad]

Originally Posted by DxRocker

A drumstick has to break. It's mandatory. If your sticks are breaking, that means that your hoops, cymbals and wrists aren't.

This is total bull. I'm not sure where you learned your supposed "laws of physics" but I sure hope they failed you or we are all in trouble.
The "one object has to break" scenario ONLY applies if the force exerted exceeds the sustainability of one of the materials, AND neither of the materials has enough or any shock absorption capabilities.
All drum surfaces have plenty of shock absorption capabilities, and all sticks do too (wood or not). The only surfaces that don't are the hoops, and you are not going to break a well-cast hoop however many times you hit it with whatever material of stick.

Wood sticks break because they are made of wood and do not have the required strength to sustain repeated hits. End of story. Has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the amount of damage done to the drums.

Here is an analogy that is actually valid. Take out your wallet, put it on the table, and strike it with the broad side of a toothpick until the toothpick breaks. Did the fact that the toothpick broke prevent damage to the wallet?
To find out, try the same experiment again with a similar-sized object that won't break - let's say a jewlery screwdriver or an allen key.
If your theory is correct, then we should see all sorts of damage to the wallet upon striking it with a small allen key.

In either case, if you do the experiment wrong (akin to hitting wrong), you can cause similar amounts of damage to the wallet. In fact, if you were to "pierce" the wallet with the toothpick, I think you could do more damage with this easily-breakable object than you ever could with the unbreakable one.

I don't intend to be mean, but stop spreading this bunk. Go back to school and keep your imaginary 'physics' to yourself.


PS - The Ahead sticks absorb shock far better than most hickory sticks, which are really rigid and vibrate a lot. Aluminum is actually quite a soft metal.
My wrists have REALLY been thanking me since I started using them. And I've never caused any cymbal or drum damage - I'm a heavy hitter, too. In most cases, you will really only break a cymbal if you don't know how to hit it properly.

[DxRocker]

Ok... this will be my final post in this thread because I'm sick of people who are not willing to listen and open their mind for one tiny inch. Before you say I'm the same... I've tried out the carbo sticks and know what I'm talking about. I've also witnessed AA sabians being totally destroyed in front of my eyes by a guy using aheads, and it wasn't his first time either. It never happened again since he went back to good old vic firths though.

Originally Posted by bleyrad

The "one object has to break" scenario ONLY applies if the force exerted exceeds the sustainability of one of the materials, AND neither of the materials has enough or any shock absorption capabilities.

Thank you for prooving my theory. A wooden stick is a shock-absorbing material wich is a LOT softer then cymbals. When you get into the music, it's quite common to start smaking the crashes and china's pretty hard.
If you use carbo sticks or a like, wich are a LOT harder then wood, they can not absorb the same amount of vibration as common wood sticks. This excess of vibration goes straight to the cymbal you are hitting, hence the impact becomes much bigger, wich causes a lot more vibration to the cymbal.

When you play rimshots with these, that excess of vibration goes straight to your wrists, because the hoops of your drum will not absorb vibrations like a moving cymbal will. You will never brake a hoop into pieces. What can possibly happen though is that your hoop will get dented from doing rimshot, wich in turn will affect the tuning of the drum. A dented hoop is as good as a broken hoop.

This does NOT mean that if you start playing with such sticks that you will brake a cymbal in the 5 minutes that follow. Most of the time you will not even brake anything.

If you play with horrible technique and wood sticks, chances are big that you will brake a cymbal. If you play with horrible technique and aheads, we don't speak of chances anymore. It's a certainty that your cymbals will brake.

If you play with fairly good technique and wood sticks, your cymbals are safe (assuming there are no weak spots in it due to production errors or stuff). If you play with fairly good technique and aheads... you have an "elevated" chance of breaking a cymbal.

As for the wrists: for people who are subject to easy injury and/or are weak boned and stuff, these sticks are total hell and will lead to a condition of wich I don't know the english name. That is a certainty of 110%

Your example of the wallet is void and you know it, because wallets are not a hard material that can crack when you smack them or drop them. You may take a 10-ton hammer and smack your wallet with it and it won't do a thing.
If you can't understand that, then I also don't expect you to understand the issue with carbo sticks.

Thank you and good night.


Happy drumming

[Bulls Hit]

Well for one thing, theories can never be 'proved'. They can only be disproved. However at least you've acknowledged that what you're saying is only a theory. And a pretty dodgy one at that.

You don't do yourself any favours saying things like "When you continously smack two objects against each other, one of both is going to brake. That's just the way the laws of physics work" or

"A drumstick has to break. It's mandatory. "

It's not mandatory. It's stupid. I suggest you don't have the first clue on the laws of physics.

You seem to be confusing Ahead sticks, which consist of a metal core covered with a plastic sleeve, with the so-called 'carbosticks' which are made from carbon fibre.

Yes they can break cymbals. So can wooden sticks. Use whichever ones you're comfortable with

[tourettes5139]

Dude, seriously. Brake vs. break.

[Tim Brown]

Originally Posted by DxRocker

Ok... this will be my final post in this thread because I'm sick of people who are not willing to listen and open their mind for one tiny inch. Before you say I'm the same... I've tried out the carbo sticks and know what I'm talking about. I've also witnessed AA sabians being totally destroyed in front of my eyes by a guy using aheads, and it wasn't his first time either. It never happened again since he went back to good old vic firths though.



Thank you for prooving my theory. A wooden stick is a shock-absorbing material wich is a LOT softer then cymbals. When you get into the music, it's quite common to start smaking the crashes and china's pretty hard.
If you use carbo sticks or a like, wich are a LOT harder then wood, they can not absorb the same amount of vibration as common wood sticks. This excess of vibration goes straight to the cymbal you are hitting, hence the impact becomes much bigger, wich causes a lot more vibration to the cymbal.

When you play rimshots with these, that excess of vibration goes straight to your wrists, because the hoops of your drum will not absorb vibrations like a moving cymbal will. You will never brake a hoop into pieces. What can possibly happen though is that your hoop will get dented from doing rimshot, wich in turn will affect the tuning of the drum. A dented hoop is as good as a broken hoop.

This does NOT mean that if you start playing with such sticks that you will brake a cymbal in the 5 minutes that follow. Most of the time you will not even brake anything.

If you play with horrible technique and wood sticks, chances are big that you will brake a cymbal. If you play with horrible technique and aheads, we don't speak of chances anymore. It's a certainty that your cymbals will brake.

If you play with fairly good technique and wood sticks, your cymbals are safe (assuming there are no weak spots in it due to production errors or stuff). If you play with fairly good technique and aheads... you have an "elevated" chance of breaking a cymbal.

As for the wrists: for people who are subject to easy injury and/or are weak boned and stuff, these sticks are total hell and will lead to a condition of wich I don't know the english name. That is a certainty of 110%

Your example of the wallet is void and you know it, because wallets are not a hard material that can crack when you smack them or drop them. You may take a 10-ton hammer and smack your wallet with it and it won't do a thing.
If you can't understand that, then I also don't expect you to understand the issue with carbo sticks.

Thank you and good night.


Happy drumming

Hmmm funny, because you seem to be the one unwilling to listen, you're just wanting to spout your opinion.
Okay you've played for 9 years. Great!
I've played 3 times that amount of time. That and about $5 and I can get some "pseudo-coffee-flavored liquid" at Starbucks. (Sorry Starbucks fans - they have a ton of drinks, but none of it actually tastes like a regular old cup of COFFEE! )

I've broken a few cymbals using wooden sticks over the years, but after 20 years of using Aquarian Graphite sticks (which I record with exclusively, because I like the sound they have on the cymbals) I have not broken a cymbal yet with them.



Tim

[heroics321]

Kevlar and like platics are about twice as dense as maple, so of course wood is going to have slightly more give. how much? About as much as those little scars on the stick. You can easily break hardware, cymbols, and sticks with impropper technique from any type of stick... It has more to do with the force, direction, and angle of hit (as well as how you choke up on the stick and how your cymbols are mounted), than it has to do with matterials.

[scrubs]

Originally Posted by DxRocker

As for the wrists: for people who are subject to easy injury and/or are weak boned and stuff, these sticks are total hell and will lead to a condition of wich I don't know the english name. That is a certainty of 110%

This thread cracks me up.

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by heroics321

Kevlar and like platics are about twice as dense as maple, so of course wood is going to have slightly more give. how much? About as much as those little scars on the stick. You can easily break hardware, cymbols, and sticks with impropper technique from any type of stick... It has more to do with the force, direction, and angle of hit (as well as how you choke up on the stick and how your cymbols are mounted), than it has to do with matterials.

If the inability of the stick to give were the primary cause of cymbal breakage, it seems like one could just make the aluminum tubes hollow. Alternately, use silver instead of aluminum, as it is slightly softer than hickory in terms of compression hardness, as best I can calculate. (Hickory seems to have a Brinell hardness of about 30.8 MPa. A brazilian walnut stick, 137, would have a hardness a little over half that of aluminum, 245.)

[heroics321]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

If the inability of the stick to give were the primary cause of cymbal breakage, it seems like one could just make the aluminum tubes hollow. Alternately, use silver instead of aluminum, as it is slightly softer than hickory in terms of compression hardness, as best I can calculate. (Hickory seems to have a Brinell hardness of about 30.8 MPa. A brazilian walnut stick, 137, would have a hardness a little over half that of aluminum, 245.)

Psht. Aluminum? What kind of garbage are you spewing? Honeycombed titanium sticks are where it's at...