The Silver Fox Experiment

After 7 shows in 7 days, and about 10 hours of wear split among a pair of B.O.D.s and 3 pairs of BopMaster sticks, what did I find?

Well, first off, I took 6 pairs of Bopmasters with me and I could have made it through the week with just one pair! I like to have a few pairs around the kit in case I drop a stick so that’s why I ended up cycling through 3 pairs but the other pairs never even came out of the sleeves. Now the Bopmasters are a little thinner than what I normally use (Bopmasters are .515 and I usually use more like a .555) and I do reverse one stick to use the butt end for my snare backbeats so I worked out these sticks on both ends and they held up great. So, in this case “Hit Harder. Lasts Longer.” isn’t just marketing, I’d say it’s true. In fact, I’m so impressed wiith the sticks that I’m going to keep using these sticks for my upcoming shows in August and see how long it takes before they chip, crack or break.

Regarding the B.O.D.s, I love the idea of combining mallets and rods and I was extremely pleased with the sound of both the rod side (fat and sharp, not thin like some other company’s rods) and the mallet side (great weight for tom and cymbal work and not too hard or too soft).

From a durability standpoint, I think I would have liked them to last a little longer. Maybe treat the dowels with the same finish as the sticks or add a reinforcing strip of the same rubber used on the grip side to the end of the rod side? I do think my next Silverfox rod experiment will be to try the Clawstix which is a wood/plastic hybrid.

Bottom line? I’m excited to try more sticks rods and brushes from SilverFox and I may have found myself a new stick company.

🙂

(Hey SilverFox, want to make me a batch of Clawstix with a mallet on the end? hehe)