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Drumsticks & Mallets

Sticks, brushes, rods, and keyboard mallets

Hickory, maple, and oak sticks by model number; wire and nylon brushes; and the yarn, cord, and felt mallets that concert percussion is played with.

Models

View all (23)

  • Innovative Percussion Keyboard Mallets

    Drumstick · United States

    Innovative Percussion's keyboard mallets are graded by hardness across marimba, vibraphone, and xylophone, and the series numbers are common shorthand in percussion parts and teaching.

  • Mike Balter Pro Vibe

    Drumstick · United States

    Balter's Pro Vibe mallets are cord-wound and numbered by hardness, and the numbering has become a common way for composers to specify a mallet without naming a brand.

  • Innovative Percussion Timpani Mallets

    Drumstick · United States

    The timpani range is specified by core material and felt density rather than only by hardness, which is what determines whether a roll speaks or thuds.

  • Los Cabos Red Hickory 5A

    Drumstick · Canada

    Los Cabos cuts its Red Hickory sticks from the tree's darker heartwood, which is denser than the white sapwood most sticks are made from, and leaves them unlacquered.

  • Regal Tip Blasticks

    Drumstick · United States

    Blasticks bundle stiff nylon bristles rather than wooden dowels, which gives more volume than a brush and more spread than a rod.

  • Mike Balter Unwound Series

    Drumstick · United States

    The unwound mallets cover xylophone, glockenspiel, and bell work, where a yarn or cord head would produce no attack at all.

  • Ahead 5A

    Drumstick · United States

    An Ahead stick is an aluminium alloy core inside a polyurethane sleeve, with a replaceable tip. They last far longer than wood, transmit less shock, and feel unmistakably different — which is why drummers either use them exclusively or not at all.

  • Vater Sweet Ride

    Drumstick · United States

    The Sweet Ride's tip and taper are chosen for the ping it produces on a ride rather than for how it feels on a snare, which is an unusual way round to design a stick.

  • Vic Firth American Classic 5B

    Drumstick · United States

    A 5B is thicker and heavier than a 5A at the same length, and is the usual choice for rock playing where a 5A feels insubstantial.

  • Vic Firth Corpsmaster

    Drumstick · United States

    The Corpsmaster range covers field snare sticks, tenor mallets, and marching bass mallets, specified by weight and taper for the extreme head tensions marching percussion uses.

  • Vater Manhattan 7A

    Drumstick · United States

    The Manhattan 7A is thin and long with a small round tip, giving a light, articulate cymbal sound at low volume.

  • Vic Firth T1 General Timpani Mallet

    Drumstick · United States

    The T1 General is the timpani mallet a player reaches for when the part does not specify: a medium felt head on a wood shaft, in the series Firth designed for his own orchestral work.

Makers

  • Vater Percussion

    Vater grew out of a Boston drum shop and makes sticks in the United States with a large signature catalogue and a set of house models — Power 5A, Fusion, Manhattan 7A — that many drummers use without knowing the brand's history.

  • Mike Balter Mallets

    Mike Balter has made yarn, cord, and rubber mallets for marimba, vibraphone, and xylophone since the early 1980s, with a numbered hardness system that has become a common shorthand in percussion scores and teaching.

  • Innovative Percussion

    Innovative Percussion specialises in the implements the drum set catalogues ignore: keyboard mallets by hardness, timpani mallets by core, and the marching sticks and mallets that a corps line is specified around.

  • Los Cabos Drumsticks

    Los Cabos makes sticks in New Brunswick from Canadian white hickory, red hickory, and maple, and finishes them unlacquered so the grain is the grip.

  • Vic Firth

    Vic Firth was principal timpanist of the Boston Symphony and started making mallets because he could not buy what he wanted. The company he built became the largest drumstick maker in the world, with the pair-matching-by-weight-and-pitch process as its selling point and the American Classic 5A as its default.

  • Ahead

    Ahead sticks are an aluminium alloy core inside a replaceable polyurethane sleeve, which makes them last far longer than wood and transmit noticeably less shock. The same company makes the armour-plated cases seen on touring kits.

  • Regal Tip

    Joe Calato patented the nylon drumstick tip in the 1950s, which changed how cymbals sounded on record. Regal Tip still makes sticks and brushes in Niagara Falls, and its wire brushes are a professional standard.

  • Promark

    Herb Brochstein founded Promark in Houston and was first to bring Japanese white oak sticks to American drummers. Now part of D'Addario, the company is known for the FireGrain heat-treated hickory process and the Rebound and Forward balance families.

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