On 9/22/10 7:45 AM, Steve Turner wrote:
On 09/22/2010 02:56 AM, Ross Hebeisen wrote:
I would think some good old **** elm aka american elm would make a
hellava bat. will not split very easy, it has stringy cross grain and
light weight. kinda like the olde **** elm club.

Perhaps, but I'd have to think by now that with the huge popularity of
baseball that people have experimented with bats made from almost every
wood, but have rejected most species for one reason or other. Going back
(once again) to what I know, I can see many parallels between baseball
bats and drum sticks. You can make 20 pairs of identical drum sticks
from 20 different types of wood, and they will all feel different in a
drummer's hand. Some won't hold up to the punishment for 5 minutes, some
are way too heavy, some are too light, and some are too rigid and
transfer unwanted shock straight to your hands. Very few will have just
the right weight and feel, the right "resonance" and "flex", but when
they do you KNOW it. I'd have to think that experienced baseball players
are just like any other expert in their craft; they like to have just
the right tool for the job.


When I got my lathe, one of the first things I did was make a bunch of
drumsticks.
I was a man on a mission, making sticks from every hardwood and exotic
in my pile.
I quickly learned that there was a good reason most stick makers have
settled on oak, hickory, and maple to make their sticks, and cost is
only part of the equation.

The sticks I made from anything but oak and maple (didn't try hickory),
including a bunch of exotics like cocabolo, wenge, bubinga, padouk,
ebony and others either snapped in a a couple minutes or left my hands
feeling like I'd used a ROS for 7 hrs straight.

The pair I made from oak was the best feeling sticks I've ever played,
but the other thing I quickly learned was that my time was much more
valuable and it took me a lot longer than the stick companies to make a
$4 pair of sticks. :-)


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

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