Slingy candy! Sweet just oozes off that kit.

that kit is ridiculous!!!!

Beautiful, right down to the Radio King calf heads. Hey, we use the same bead on our sticks! I love the way a wood acorn bead sounds on cymbals. The shaft on the sticks I use is thinner (more like a 7A) than those Big Band sticks, but they are a full 16" long and they have great feel/balance in my hands. How heavy is that stick you use? I need sticks to be a little lighter because I use my fingers when I play.

John

Hey John,

Thanks for the kind words.

They're the Vic Firth Big Band stick. It's the Peter Erskine model. They are I think lighter than the Buddy model.

Plus they're not that god awful white that's the Buddy Rich model.

BGT

BGT!

The VF "Buddy Rich Model" isn't even remotely close to the actual size/weight of the stick Buddy played. I think it's more of a commemerative model rather than a real attempt at making an actual Buddy Rich Model stick. The decision to paint them white also boggles the mind! I have a pretty complete collection of NOS Buddy Rich Model sticks from 1950 to 1980, covering all his different endorsements. He was pretty consistent with the size/length, with the main deviation being in/around the 70's when Cappella was making them for him. That said, his stick is very close to a 7a!, but with a little more thickness in the shoulder, but not quite a 5a. An amazingly small/light stick actually. That's why the Firth model is so bizarre. It's the direct antithesis to his actual model!

Your Slingerland's look GREAT by the way!!

Tommyp

Thanks Tommy,

I did, as any Buddy pyschofant fan would do, went out and bought the Firth Buddy model.

And was quite dissapointed......

As you said they aren't remotely close to what Buddy used.

As always you've got that great insight. I didn't realize that Cappela was supplying him for a brief period.

The Erskine model is to my feel quite light, I guess akin to what Buddy did use.

Now not to digress too much from this point, but as far as Buddy's high hat stand, did he use his Rogers from the 60's pretty much till the end?

I've been curious about that and the Rogers "L" arm which I believe he used during his "endorsement travels" shall we say with the different companies.

Thanks Tommy!!

Wow, Capella's! Are those sticks still around? I remember using them in the 70's, really great sticks. I 'think' they had a blue ink label, right? Man, I haven't seen any Capella's in years. If anybody knows where to get them, please let me know.

John

BGT!

The best pic of Buddy's Cappella sticks has to be on the cover of the 1974 album/CD "Stick It". He's holding them in his hand front and center. Those are the Cappellas. I have BOTH models in the BR stick collection. There were two as the 2nd model was a "little" thicker all way round, but still well within a normal 5a. It suggests that Buddy went to a "little" thicker stick later on... but still on the small side. BTW... I also have a pair of the VF Buddy Rich Model sticks... just to have 'em. Pyschofant indeed. LOL!!!!!!!!!!! Regarding your Rogers Swivo HH/"L" arm question:

Buddy had said in an interview somewhere that the BEST HH stand he had ever played was the W&A "Perfection" HH, and true enough... he used that stand pretty much from the beginning and THROUGH his WFL endorsement in the 50's.. ( although I do have pics of him playing the WFL HH stand too ) .. until .. his Rogers endorsement. The Rogers Swivo-Matic HH blew the W&A "Perfection" stand out of the water. The "Perfection" model was the BEST at the time 'cause there was nothing else to compare it to! It was one of the first HH's I believe. Anyway... the Rogers Swivo-Matic HH stayed in place from his Rogers endorsement, through Trixon/Vox, and Fibes, up until... Slingerland! When Buddy hooked on with Slingerland in late 1967/early 1968, they had the "Dynamo HH" stand, and Buddy used that throughout his entire Slingerland endorsement. The Rogers "L" arm is another story though...

... as Buddy used the Rogers "L" arms for ride/spalsh ALL the way through his Slingerland endorsement. So, from Rogers in 1960, to the end of Slingerland in 1976, including Trixon/Vox and Fibes in between! The Rogers "L" arms are just such a great design.. completely utilitarian, yet classy.. and .. they fit every manufacturers holders. Once back with Ludwig in 1977.. ( for the THIRD time! ) .. the Rogers "L" arms disappeared as the redesigned Ludwigs fit the bill for him just fine. As a matter of fact, Buddy KEPT his Ludwig Hercules hardware 'till the end and was using all of it with his restored Slingerland Radio Kings when he passed in April of 1987.

Tommyp

John!

Absolutely correct! The ORIGINAL Cappella stick of the 70's were imprinted with blue ink.. and .. as you may know, Cappella was making sticks for just about EVERYBODY back in the day, including three or four drum companies. They made sticks for Rogers and Gretsch, and also Slingerland. Later on, the Buddy Rich Model by Cappella was imprinted with red ink, and stayed that way 'till they went out of business a couple years ago. They were resurrected though!, as Carmine set the company back up and was producing sticks on a "one customer at a time" basis.. meaning: You would call, place your order, he would make your sticks, imprint with YOUR NAME.. ( if you wanted ) .. and ship 'em out. I got two batches of the BR Model made.. but .. wasn't knocked out. The weight inconsistency from pair to pair was troubling, and the finish was a tad odd I thought. Almost TOO slick. I played a bunch of them, and sold the rest to a Buddy collector friend of mine. Last I knew... Carmine had shut down the business again. The website link is currently dead. Not a good sign.

Tommyp