ProMark Drum Sticks - Rich Redmond Drumsticks - ActiveGrip For Secure, Comfortable Grip - Gets Tackier As Your Hands Sweat - Active Grip Finish, Oval Wood Tip, Hickory Wood - 1 Pair

They're slightly longer than any of my other sticks (not even an entire tip), which is nice because now I'm hitting my cymbals with a slightly thicker part of the taper. This keeps the sticks useable longer. The front weighting makes them basically play themselves. The active grip coating took a little getting used to, because it wears currently on my hands, so I had to acquire new blisters and then calluses. I love it now, though. I drop sticks with noticeably less frequency and don't have to grip as hard to keep them from flying out of my sweaty hands. I get at least 12 hours of heavy playing out of a pair, and much more if I'm not beating the snot out of my kit. This is about normal or better relative to other sticks I've used.

bueno

Awesome set of drum sticks!!! Perfect for Drums Alive!!!!!

This was my first time trying ActiveGrip sticks and so far I am very pleased. I will definitely be purchasing more of these.

These are great sticks. I prefer the size/feel of the Rich Redmond 5B to the Mike Portnoy 420x ActiveGrip sticks (which are 5A) but both are good. The sticks are balanced well and not 'sticky'; they are more comfortable and gentler on my hands than wrapping sticks. I have purchased these elsewhere and they last a long time with no damage to the sticks or coating (and I play hard with lots of rim shots). I think these sticks are actually more durable than uncoated sticks. However, as other reviewers have stated, it may not be best to buy these from Amazon if you can't inspect them. The sticks that were sent appear to be 'seconds' - the red printing on them is smeared. I initially thought the active grip coating was scratched and chipped in a few locations because there are a few white spots and lines on each stick. However, when I went to a music store to buy the same sticks, I discovered that all of them had white spots. Apparently, white material from the packaging stuck to all of their sticks, but not just where the packaging was located on the base of each stick. The white lines and spots were on the surface and were able to be cleaned/scratched off of the sticks, leaving the coating underneath in-tact. So, I decided to keep the sticks from Amazon because the sticks are straight and I don't care that the red printing is smeared.