I'll give you a topic... Which do you prefer: tenor sticks or mallets and why?... Discuss among yourselves.

I'll jump in.

I prefer sticks...or at least wood handles (ie...the VF vegas for instance).  It's a more natural feel in the hands and I've had better experience balancing them in the ensemble.  I also saw too many students trying to ";cheat"; with the bigger cookies found on most mallets.  The smaller beads forced them to work harder for a more correct stroke.

HUGE DISCLAIMER:  Of course that's just my own opinion in my own experience.  I always hesitate to offer that up when among the likes of those that hang here.  You know, it's that ";I'm always the least qualified guy in the room"; syndrome.  :D

I like the full sound of the heavy silver Vic mallets, but I like to play with Vic tenor sticks. 

Gambal Mallets

/thread.

I'm going to have to say mallets. The MTT's from VF are a favorite, not only because nowadays they are sorta ";old school";, but because i think that a tenor player that can play todays repertoire of tenor licks with MTT's, and CLEAN, is my hero. (Plus a person looks cooler making MTT's their bee-otch.)

BUT.....
Vegas are cool too, as well as the mallets that look like bass mallets, i can't recall the name

different [i]strokes[/i] for... nevermind. :)

You can rock the shots better with a ";Vega"; type stick - and for some reason, tenor players seem to think those are more fun to play with.  Even though I usually recommend having both regular mallets and sticks when I teach/clinic, I would say that ";in general,";the stick is still secondary to the mallet...  but that's my opinion - the Blue Devils would obviously disagree.  As far as I'm concerned, it's really a pick your poison either way w/ tenor players...(just joking!)

[quote author=Owen Taylor link=topic=2537.msg13596#msg13596 date=1214351782]
You can rock the shots better with a ";Vega"; type stick - and for some reason, tenor players seem to think those are more fun to play with.�� Even though I usually recommend having both regular mallets and sticks when I teach/clinic, I would say that ";in general,";the stick is still secondary to the mallet...�� but that's my opinion...[/quote]

I agree with your opinion Owen.  I also believe that you have to consider what kind of sound/style/effect you are looking for out of the tenor(s) when choosing your stick or mallet.

We'll be using full snare sticks this year.  We
will be using Jim's Innovative Stick, FS-JC:

[url]http://www.innovativepercussion.com/pages/products/product_group.asp?group_id=30[/url]

I believe Carolina Crown used those last year.  Given the heads we use (Evans Frost)
and the venue in which we perform (large stadium, 92,000 fans, lots of ambient noise),
the full snare stick makes sense for any number of reasons. I like the way it feels, sounds,
and definitely like being able to choke up on the stick and still have a good length of stick left to
work with.  It also proves helpful for ping shots (the only ones we employ in our arrangements).

I can understand a shorter stick and some of the mallet designs given the way tenors
are written for currently, but I am going with FS-JC from Innovative.  Perhaps my
choice is also guided by my experience as a tenor player in the old school days:-) 

Any implement selection ultimately should be dependent on the skill-set of the performers; the size of the
segment relative to the battery and to the musical ensemble; the venue in which the majority of the
performances will take place; the stylistic demands of the music; and the staging of the tenors and
percussion ensemble within the visual design.

Please pardon my lengthier musing on this topic.  Of course, a wise individual
once posed this thought:  Is it the stick?  Or is it the player?  Ah, to live in a
world with so many choices.
   
A pleasant good evening to you all!
Neal

I think I chose sticks for my tenor players because I am a snare player and partial to them.  Mallets seem clunky.  I like the vegas a lot but I chose shorties for my line. 

I like mallets much better than sticks. I learned to play with mallets and whenever I use sticks they feel very light and uncontrollable. I'm sure people who did it the other way around have similar feelings about mallets.

I think a good tenor player can get better and fuller  rimshots using mallets.

apparently now you can have the best of both worlds...

http://www.vicfirth.com/products/STATH.html

I'm gonna give them a shot with one of my lines this fall...  we'll see how it goes.

I am using the Tom Aungst tenor stick/mallets with both of my lines I am teaching this year, and they are GREAT.  Best of both worlds, and not too expensive either.

At finals I saw some lines rocking the full size mallet head on the big aluminum shaft and it sounded pretty darn good. It made me almost want to use mallets. Almost....

We've had great success the past indoor season with the Aungst hybrids and the kids seem to like them as well. My two cents on the matter is that i tend to prefer wooden shaft over metal (metal tends to not produce a bit more ";clangy"; ping/shot sound in my opinion). Also, the size of the mallet head i find has an affect on the angle of the implement when a player strikes the drum... the smaller the head, the steeper the angle to avoid the rims (its subtle but sometimes encourages bad habits).