Love these sticks. In my go-to shop I asked for longer sticks and they gave me longer standard 5B and these freestyle 5B sticks to try out, And these freestyle sticks are my new favorites. The balance is awesome and these sticks feel like a extension of my arms. I’m not a tall guy and with the standard sticks I felt I always have “reach” to hit the drums and now I can sit relaxt and still hit the drums.
I recently purchased a pair of Freestyle 5A’s. Love them. They have a great taper and an elongated neck and shoulder as well as a nice thicker acorn bead. I like the way they feel when holding and playing with them so they just work for me.
I just bought a pair, 7a's, a few days for a show over the wknd. First time for the brand. I tried them at the store on a practice pad with my thought process being to just find a different feel to the stick vs. what I was used to. They felt different from the first couple of single strokes and got purchased. I did use the pair for an entire night for 3 sets of rockin'/ swingin' blues and really enjoyed the ease of rebound to attack as well as the overall comfort of finger/ thumb grip. The length never was an issue. BTW, the drum groove at the end of this video is killer!
The 85A's are exactly what I've been looking for in a stick for a very long time. Very happy with the feel and playability and they're my new go-to pair.
I’m really loving the 5Bs. They are perfect for me. Love the length; I have big hands and been hoping for longer sticks for years. Please keep producing them. Some other tips would be cool too
David Hamilton funny story...a bunch of my friends skated. I never would though...I was scared if I bit it hard one day I could break an arm and not be able to play the drums. Truth
Extended taper makes me intrigued. Not sure if the longer length is ideal but I’m willing to try. If only a Maple 2b version was available. Big light sticks are better for my hands.
I started out using many different sticks and got into Vic Metals which are 17” x .635” and when they broke too easily, I switched to Mike Wengren signature by Vater that is 17” x .625”, however neither of those sticks were specially made to equal out that balance from the extra meat on the back end of the stick like these tapers do. So, now I like to play a lot with around a 5B-2B grip size, I love my Danny Carey Sigs both nylon and wood and I love the Promark ActivGrip series, especially the Mike Portnoy 420x that takes away some beef, but gives me some extra length. So I’m really stoked to try these freestyles out. I just kinda found out about them, but from what I read and hear, they should fit my style well. I’m just unsure of exactly how they taper them n stuff with each sizing because depending on if it’s a 7A or a 2B it’s not just the stock’s thickness that’ll differ, it’s also the taper. So that’ll be interesting even though I’m starting with just one pair of 5Bs. Their my size and at an inch longer, that’s usually exactly what I look for in other sticks. A little extra reach, some more room to move my hand up and down and still be able to have a controllable fulcrum, be able to “choke up” on the stick and still be balanced if I need to choke up to get a troublesome pattern on the ride or something. Just a lot of stuff lol. But thanks for explaining that the larger taper and larger stick actually about DOUBLE your fulcrum area, which is dope. The firegrains are good also, very good on weight when compared to one another and the can be a 5B stick that’s not crazy heavy, but due to its density, it still gives me nice rim/accented shots with control to then just do the pullback/drag kinda thing that goes along with the push-pull ghost notes.
+vicfirthdrumsticks *The Freestyle range is exactly what I envision for New Orleans and Chicago revival.* Unlike the majority of modern kit drummers, I set the parts of my TAMA®/Hoshino® poplarbuilt kit in truly old-school fashion, with the IMS145 center drum set low and canted diagonally forward, and the IMT08A, IMT10A, and IMT12A rack toms also canted rightwards. (Neither possible nor necessary for the IPF14A and IMF16A floor toms.) I've actually worked out the eventual placement for double kicks; with dual IMB22E's, or one IMB22E and one IPB22E, I'll shift the tom rack left and set a percussion tree right in addition to moving the primary ride in.
Love these sticks. In my go-to shop I asked for longer sticks and they gave me longer standard 5B and these freestyle 5B sticks to try out, And these freestyle sticks are my new favorites. The balance is awesome and these sticks feel like a extension of my arms. I’m not a tall guy and with the standard sticks I felt I always have “reach” to hit the drums and now I can sit relaxt and still hit the drums.
I recently purchased a pair of Freestyle 5A’s. Love them. They have a great taper and an elongated neck and shoulder as well as a nice thicker acorn bead. I like the way they feel when holding and playing with them so they just work for me.
I just bought a pair, 7a's, a few days for a show over the wknd. First time for the brand. I tried them at the store on a practice pad with my thought process being to just find a different feel to the stick vs. what I was used to. They felt different from the first couple of single strokes and got purchased. I did use the pair for an entire night for 3 sets of rockin'/ swingin' blues and really enjoyed the ease of rebound to attack as well as the overall comfort of finger/ thumb grip. The length never was an issue.
BTW, the drum groove at the end of this video is killer!
The 85A's are exactly what I've been looking for in a stick for a very long time. Very happy with the feel and playability and they're my new go-to pair.
I started switching over to freestyle 5a and I love it! Feels like it gives me more room to play with than a regular 5a
You explained it perfectly, thanks Stephen.
I’m really loving the 5Bs. They are perfect for me. Love the length; I have big hands and been hoping for longer sticks for years. Please keep producing them. Some other tips would be cool too
I’ve been looking into these. Do they feel heavier?
Thank you! Finally someone helpful. Even my girl understood :)
Really loving this series of sticks. 5B's are my jam
85a and 5a🤠👍
Stephen Taylor - killer on the skateboard!
David Hamilton funny story...a bunch of my friends skated. I never would though...I was scared if I bit it hard one day I could break an arm and not be able to play the drums. Truth
Extended taper makes me intrigued. Not sure if the longer length is ideal but I’m willing to try. If only a Maple 2b version was available. Big light sticks are better for my hands.
I started out using many different sticks and got into Vic Metals which are 17” x .635” and when they broke too easily, I switched to Mike Wengren signature by Vater that is 17” x .625”, however neither of those sticks were specially made to equal out that balance from the extra meat on the back end of the stick like these tapers do.
So, now I like to play a lot with around a 5B-2B grip size, I love my Danny Carey Sigs both nylon and wood and I love the Promark ActivGrip series, especially the Mike Portnoy 420x that takes away some beef, but gives me some extra length.
So I’m really stoked to try these freestyles out. I just kinda found out about them, but from what I read and hear, they should fit my style well. I’m just unsure of exactly how they taper them n stuff with each sizing because depending on if it’s a 7A or a 2B it’s not just the stock’s thickness that’ll differ, it’s also the taper. So that’ll be interesting even though I’m starting with just one pair of 5Bs. Their my size and at an inch longer, that’s usually exactly what I look for in other sticks. A little extra reach, some more room to move my hand up and down and still be able to have a controllable fulcrum, be able to “choke up” on the stick and still be balanced if I need to choke up to get a troublesome pattern on the ride or something.
Just a lot of stuff lol.
But thanks for explaining that the larger taper and larger stick actually about DOUBLE your fulcrum area, which is dope.
The firegrains are good also, very good on weight when compared to one another and the can be a 5B stick that’s not crazy heavy, but due to its density, it still gives me nice rim/accented shots with control to then just do the pullback/drag kinda thing that goes along with the push-pull ghost notes.
I’ve got free style 5b there perfect
+vicfirthdrumsticks *The Freestyle range is exactly what I envision for New Orleans and Chicago revival.* Unlike the majority of modern kit drummers, I set the parts of my TAMA®/Hoshino® poplarbuilt kit in truly old-school fashion, with the IMS145 center drum set low and canted diagonally forward, and the IMT08A, IMT10A, and IMT12A rack toms also canted rightwards. (Neither possible nor necessary for the IPF14A and IMF16A floor toms.) I've actually worked out the eventual placement for double kicks; with dual IMB22E's, or one IMB22E and one IPB22E, I'll shift the tom rack left and set a percussion tree right in addition to moving the primary ride in.
will there be a freestyle stick with a different tip?
Been using the 5a and I think I'm sticking with it. No pun intended.
This is great because I have very large hands...I gotta get me some of these!
I know this wasn’t the point of this video, but what are the cymbals you played? Love the set up and your awesome content?
Jacob Friedman thanks jacob! Cymbals: all Zildjian...14” k light hats, 18” k sweet crash, 21” k sweet ride, 22” renaissance ride. Hope that helps!
@@StephenTaylorDrums nice
Stick it!
I want a 20" inch stick just for street cred