Peter erskine sticks

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dieconashi

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I got a set of these sticks for Christmas, and I'm loving them! I posted in the cymbal section because they make my ride sound fantastic. they have a great weight and length for me, but the bead is very small. That helps to give a great stick sound with a nice background wash. Night and day from the sticks i had before!
 
I assume you're talking about the Erskine Ride Stick? That's a favourite of a lot of guys simply because it does have a nice way with cymbals. The nylon version, which is no longer made, was very handy as well because it was the only nylon stick I could find that had a special small nylon tip in keeping with the wood version. A very handy alternative.

Once again I'd like to thank Vic Firth for quietly dropping this model and refusing to answer emails. Grrrrrr.
 
Hmmm ... when dieconashi says that "the bead is very small," I assume that he means the regular model called the "SPE." I use these a lot as I love a round tip. (That's what I personally like on cymbals, but different strokes of course...) There's another very similar stick out there from Pro-Mark ... the Michael Carvin signature model. Just a *slightly* more tapered shank. But, otherwise just about indistinguishable.

dieconashi said:
I got a set of these sticks for Christmas, and I'm loving them! I posted in the cymbal section because they make my ride sound fantastic. they have a great weight and length for me, but the bead is very small. That helps to give a great stick sound with a nice background wash. Night and day from the sticks i had before!
Click to expand...
 
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I'm a big fan of the Peter Erskine "regular" and "ride" sticks. The only problem I find is these sticks aren't well suited for situations where powerful, thumping tom sounds are required. You can use the sticks for that, but you'll expend more effort and the small tips dent the heads. So, for those situations, I switch to a stick with more beef (read: weight) and a larger, more rounded tip.
 
I'm not sure what the exact model is on them. I know he has several models, these just say peter erskine on them and have a small round tip.
 
Sounds like you have the SPE. There's also the Ride and Big Band stick.

(broken link removed)
 
I like all of Peter's signature sticks. The Big band is my favorite by far. They almost play themselves. They play much lighter than you would think for such a large diameter stick.
 
I used the SPE with the small round bead for a long time. Eventually, I moved on. I'm using Vater 7A Sugar Maple nylon-tipped sticks right now. I miss the round bead tip though. Too bad someone doesn't put out a small stick with a small, rounded nylon tips. I change the stick models I use about once every 5 years or so. Before the Erskines, I used the big white 'Buddy Rich' stick with the huge taper that just blended into the tip. They were really kinda goofy sticks, but I loved 'em for a while.

Stephen
 
I've been hooked on the Peter Erskine ride sticks for a while now. they sound good on the skins and the cymbals equally to me. they seem to hold up exceptionally well too.

mike
 
Love the ride model, its my go to stick of late.
I have had a few "warp" on me though while others stay true.
 
I read the thread title as "Peter Erskine Stinks".


I came in here with guns ablazin' ready to take on all comers. :director:

Glad I didn't blindly reply without reading a few posts first... :dontknow:
 
HA! xsabers, that is crazy talk. I'm not a jazz guy, but Peter Erskine is in my top 3 favorite drummers. He emailed me once or twice, and they are treasured jewels of my inbox :)
 
I love the Peter Erskine Big Band stick.........it works for everything.........but I DO like the RIDE stick for softer stuff........

never liked the regular Erskine with ball tip stick...

BTW, I read that his ride stick was developed with the Ludwig Buddy Rich stick in mind. Peter loved the shaft and feel but wanted a smaller tip.
 
I received some Buddy Rich sticks as gift this holiday, and I love them as well, very articulate, nice feel. I will give these Erskine sticks a try too.
 
I prefer the Erskine ride stick (best jazz ride stick that I've come across over the years), and it's almost identical to the old '60's Don Lamond stick, my first favorite stick with my first drum kit (Slingerland) in 60's). Same length and bead but maybe a tiny bit thicker in diameter at shoulder and beyond. I like the Erskine shoulder diameter for touch-crash effects when riding in straight ahead jazz on the bead alternating for accents with the shoulder of the stick. I play straight ahead jazz with 21" K special dry ride with 6 copper rivets and 20" dry light on the left with 8 copper rivets. Copper is hard to find in rivets but more subtle than the steel without the added dampening effect of steel rivets on already very dry cymbals that I much prefer.
 
hardbopguy said:
I prefer the Erskine ride stick (best jazz ride stick that I've come across over the years), and it's almost identical to the old '60's Don Lamond stick, my first favorite stick with my first drum kit (Slingerland) in 60's). Same length and bead but maybe a tiny bit thicker in diameter at shoulder and beyond. I like the Erskine shoulder diameter for touch-crash effects when riding in straight ahead jazz on the bead alternating for accents with the shoulder of the stick. I play straight ahead jazz with 21" K special dry ride with 6 copper rivets and 20" dry light on the left with 8 copper rivets. Copper is hard to find in rivets but more subtle than the steel without the added dampening effect of steel rivets on already very dry cymbals that I much prefer.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum.
I use that 21" as well with 3 rivets. Great sound.
 
Thanks for the welcome 10 lug. The K Dry Lite on the left has 8 rivets, like I said, and its really, really dry, so I put 8 rivets in that one. It's the same cymbal that Erskine uses for his left side ride (Zildjian calls it the Left Side Ride) but factory puts 3 steel rivets in cluster on it, like his. Mine isn't labeled Left Side Ride and came with just K on it and no rivets. I at first added 4 top, bottom, and sides, but it was not enough, so I put 4 more between each of those to keep it symmetrical. 6 would have been enough. For hats I use 14"old New Beat Bottom underneath and K Special Dry 14" Top on top. At home I practice with 20" K flat (6 rivets) and 18" K flat (no rivets) and K light hat on top with old New Beat top on the bottom. That keeps noise down in the house and the flats are great with singers or in acoustically bright and echoey rooms. In the past I've used 2 first generation 20" K Cons, a Medium and a heavyish Light(they don't need rivets!), but I much prefer the K Special Dry and K Dry Lite for all but outside gigs, which I rarely get.
 
Hardbopguy,

Thanks for the heads up on copper rivets, steel does have a dampening effect on some cymbals. Weird as I've got a late 80's K Light Ride that has steel rivets and a soft brush hit produces a long lingering sustained sizzle. Have a more recent K Con Med. Thin "Low" and just when it begins to sizzle nicely it dies. Each have three rivets though placement of rivets are different. I'm looking for copper rivets this week, again thanks! Oh yeah, the thread ; been using Erskine sticks since they came out. Both styles very nuanced on drums and cymbals.
Regards
DonS
 
The small split copper rivets that I've used for years usually have to be special ordered from a hardware store, but a good hardware store can get them in a week. Drum shops never have anything but the steel in small and larger sizes. Zildjian factory went from large steel in 90s finally to the smaller ones. Stay away from large rivets, I'd say. Since I'm old school, I like to space them around outside of cymbal evenly spaced, though I've tried clusters with 3 rivets an inch apart (1.5 or 2 inches from edge) I've always gone back to symmetrical placings around periphery of cymbal 1.5 or 2 inches from edge. Istanbul factory puts 3 on periphery (equally spaced around outside of cymbal at 12, 3, and 9 o'clock, classic jazzers always did this but clustering came later). I think 6 small copper rivets is the ticket. If you go with 3 on top bottom and sides, then if it isn't enough try small steel, and if still not enough sizzle then back to copper to keep things symmetrical you have to go to 8, but stay away from steel for more than 3 rivets. So six at 12 at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 o'clock on a clock face is, I think ideal--at least for the effect I want and much prefer. Local jazzers always ask where I get them and they have stopped by my place to get a few to try out. All love them. A co-owner of drum shop here I think bought them out-- the only hardware store that used to have them in stock. Now you can still special order them but they don't stock them anymore . Also, if 6 would be too much, you can do every other rivet or leave six oclock hole empty. Insist on drum tech using smallest hole size also--you can make them yourself with drill as I used to do but start with a nail punch so drill doesn't dance around making unwanted engraving. A drum tech is safest since they use factory punch to make the holes.

As for this thread Vic Firth A6 or A1s are very close to the Erskine sticks with slightly larger bead. Still, for me, Erskine's are my preference.
 
I can second, third, fourth the beauty of copper rivets. I have a few cymbals that now have them ... and if you want a darker, mellower sizzle sound -- much less harsh than steel -- these are just the thing.

Here's a 22" new stamp that has two very closely-spaced rivet holes at 12:00. I think Adam used a combo of 1 copper, 1 steel in this cymbal -- and then took the steel rivet out. So, as it is here, there's just a single copper rivet in it. I've left that setup alone as I think it's just perfect for this cymbal:

Adam on drums, obviously. Bill Maley (http://www.classicvintagedrums.com) on video, obviously.


Anyone have additional videos or sound files of cymbals with copper rivets? I'd love to hear some!
 
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