Stick Gripps

Hello everybody! Today’s review is about StickGripp! I found this company on Facebook and thought I’d ask them if they were interested in a review and lo and behold, they were! So here it is!

First let me say that for years I was an endorser for another grip company that has some great product but it added quite a bit of girth to my sticks, btw, I play 2Bs so it made my sticks feel REALLY big, plus I never got how to install them on my sticks. I would have to send them my sticks to install them for me. Now there is Stick Gripps!

Basically, they are a rubberized sleeve that you place over your stick, they also provide O-rings that go under the grip to help prevent the stick from slipping out of your hand….pretty nifty! How do you install them? Easy. All you need is a heat gun. You position the O-ring where you want it, place the Stickgripp sleeve over the butt end of the stick and use the heat gun to shrink it down to the stick. They are one size fits all! I put one on a 2B stick and another one on a 5B stick and had zero problems! So easy even a drummer can do it!  I know not everyone has a heat gun laying around so I thought I would try using a blow dryer to heat them…not that all drummers have a hair dryer laying around but I knew someone would probably ask…while you CAN do it with a hair dryer, it takes forever to get it hot enough to shrink. A lighter would probably do the job faster.

Options for your Stick Gripps? Oh yes! They come in Black, Red, White, Blue, Green, Purple, Clear and Yellow. They also make them for mallets as well which come in the same colors except clear. You can also get pretty much anything you want printed on them, your name, signature, band name, company name etc. The cool thing about the clear ones is that if you’re a stick endorser,  now you can have a stick grip  that won’t cover up the stick company’s name!

Are they durable? I’ve only had mine a short time so I can’t really attest to their durability but according to their webpage, if they start to come loose, you can reheat them and they will shrink back down tight again.

I’m definitely going to get some more Stick Gripps for myself! They are available at Guitar Center and through their webpage at http://stickgripps.com.

Until next time!

Twin Cities Drum Shells Revisited!

Ok, this is more of a follow up review for the Twin Cities Custom Drum Shells I did back in December. I have just completed the drum I made with the shell from that review and let me tell you, I LOVE this drum!  Since a picture is worth 1000 words, I figured a picture AND a video would be worth a million so I have posted both a photo of the finished drum and a quick video of how it sounds. Please only pay attention to the sound of the drum and not my playing…

Give Twin Cities some love, they deserve it. They make some incredible shells!

http://www.tcdrumshells.com

Link to video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pWIFWdBZSY

Joshua Tree Percussion

Joshua Tree Percussion

www.jtpercussion.com

 This is for the stave drummers out there. For those who don’t know the difference between a ply shell drum and a stave shell drum, here’s a quick lesson. Ply shell drums are made by glue pieces of veneer together (each piece being a “ply”), so when someone says a 10 ply shell, there are 10 pieces of veneer glued together to make the shell. Stave shells are made by taking pieces of wood and gluing them side by side together as would be done in making a barrel and then turned on a lathe to be made round.  There are pros and cons to both methods but since we’re talking staves in this review I will stick with staves.

Pros

Less glue is involved and is localized to just the edge joints where in a ply shell, the glue has to be spread evenly over the entire surface of the veneer.

There is a WIDE range of wood species that can be used because you’re not limited to what is supplied in veneer (I know, there are A LOT of different veneers out there).

Cons

Really, the only one I can think of at this writing is cost. Stave shells are far more expensive than ply shells.

Ok, class is over.

Joshua Tree Percussion was the first stave shell maker I encountered when I started building drums. I have made five snare drums from their shells and the customers who purchased the drums were elated with their purchases.

JTP shells come in MANY, MANY, MANY different species and they are constantly adding more. AS of this writing, here is what they offer:  Rock Maple, Soft Maple, Red Oak, White Oak, Birch, Beech, Ash, Pecan/Hickory, Phillippine Mahogany, Cherry, Black Walnut, Purpleheart, Yellowheart (Pau Amarillo), Figured Soft Maple, Figured Birch, African Mahogany, Padauk, Bubinga, Birdseye Maple, Jatoba, Wenge, Honduran Mahogany, Lacewood, Peruvian Walnut, Sapele, Zebrawood, Quilted Maple, Jarrah, Cocobolo, Chechen, Bocote, Bloodwood, Cumaru (Brazilian Teak), Teak, Canarywood, Macassar Ebony, Gabon Ebony, Asian Striped Ebony, African Blackwood, and Koa.  The species are categorized by price, with prices ranging from $100 for a 3x13 to $475 for a 7x14. These prices are for raw shells.

Their webpage is very helpful and informative. They even have the Janka Scale (measures the hardness of wood) on their page as well as suggestions to think of while designing your drums. They also carry tube lugs , hoops, throw offs and anything else you need for one stop shopping!

These guys have been around quite a while and make a sound product! Below are the four drums that I have built from their shells.

6x14 Mahogany Stave 

5x14 Oak Stave

7x13 Oak Stave

3x14 Walnut Stave

7x13 Quilted Oak Stave

So if you’re looking for something different, try a stave shell and I suggest Joshua Tree Percussion. There are a lot of different stave shell makers nowadays and most of them are pretty good but JTP has been doing it for a LONG time! They’re the first ones I think of when I do a stave!