DrumArt Drum Sticks

“In Drum Art sticks you find the same precision, care and craftsman’s passion that characterises our snare drums. We know how important it is for a drummer to have sticks that comply with his needs. That is why we have specially designed balanced and calibrated sticks, to guarantee rebound and optimised response. We use hickory and maple wood.

First, homogeneous and perfectly compact blocks are selected, and wood fibres orientated. Blocks are then machined to give them their final shape. A finishing treatment gives the sticks the highest touch comfort. At this step every single stick is ready for the final selection: a sophisticated check system to test its balance and calibration. Sticks are then set in couples in a case, ready to do
whatever the drummer wishes, except playing themselves.”

We were provided with pairs of 7A, 5A, 5B & 5B Concert and 2BM for review, although you can also get 5AL, 5BM, ‘Marching’, ’Class’ models as well as two signature designs. All of the review models - indeed, all of the models as far as I can see - were wood tipped.

The 7A model isn’t listed on the Drum Art website (presently at least) and so I can’t give you exact specs on it. However, it is about the same diameter as a regular 7A model, maybe slightly fatter, and has an acorn shaped tip. However, it does have slightly more reach than a more regular 7A, ie it‘s a bit longer. Despite having some extra weight to it, I found it to be quite usable in my rather small hands.

The 5A is 406mm long and 14.25mm wide and has an acorn shaped tip which seemed very marginally fatter than the 7A model.

The 5Bs are essentially the same as each other except the Concert version has a more ball-ended tip to it against the regular large acorn design. Both models are 410mm long and 15.25 mm in diameter. The regular model’s tip gives it a slightly fatter sound on a cymbal, whereas the Concert model would provide more finesse on both drums and cymbals.

Last of the bunch, the 2BM model - which again isn‘t directly listed on the website, but will be around the 410mm long and 16mm in diameter mark - was also the biggest of the models provided and made from maple. Being made of maple, they’re lighter than a hickory version and so if you like a fatter stick but aren’t keen on the added weight such a stick brings, this might be for you.

Although it’s always difficult to make a judgment on how consistent a run of sticks are when you only get to test one pair of each model, there was still an overall consistency between the sticks we were given.

The feel of each model was nice and they were well finished, however, I think the most obvious thing about them is that all of these sticks look quality before you even pick them up, which is reassuring. It’s obvious that the wood/dowels used for these sticks is of a high grade. Having said that though, the downside to this is that they retail at £9.99 per pair which is slightly more than some of the larger stick makers. Despite this being the case, if you don’t get through a lot of sticks when you play and want something with some class, you may wish to give these a try.

For more, go over to - http://www.drumart.it/bacchette_en.html

David Bateman
February 2010