Vater Signatures STEWART COPELAND Standard Limited Edition

I am not going to lie, I am a huge Police fan, especially of Stewert Copeland and how he integrated so many different rhythms into contemporary rock reggae of western world. I love his jazz influences and I always felt as a player, he and I both shared similar views of style and rhythmic approach.

About 2 years ago I saw these Vader sticks for sale in the music shop, and immediately was purchasing a pair. I expected something, either extreme joy, or quick regret when I got them home and blasted away on my set. These sticks do not disappoint. Who ever at Vader worked with Stew to develop these sticks did a fantastic job. They fill a void in stick offerings which has been missing for years. They have a very light feel, are easy to hold in my hands ( i have somewhat average to small hands) and the most amazing part about these sticks are the bead. The bead is a rounded-oval type that I think is perfect for hi-hat magic, cymbal clarity that cannot be produced with a wood tip, or typical plastic bead found on Vic-forth stuff. The best part about these is they incorporate the feel of a 7a stick, but the length of a 5B. They are long! Really long, which is awesome, and I can think of no downsides to a longer stick.

I have found with this approach to stick production, vader has created a universal stick. I cannot think of a music style these sticks can’t do, or do well at that. I love them and hope they are not a limited edition thing, as they really do fill in a void that should be filled by a stick that can perform well and cover a varied degree of styles of percussion and not break via a strong hit or two.

I had been using Vic Firth sticks for the longest time before I stumbled across the brand “Vater”. Out of curiosity, I purchased a pair; later to find out that they were the Stuart Copeland model. Like every other piece of equipment I’ve ever used, this has some good qualities, and also bad ones.

Right off the bat, the thing that first attracted me to these sticks was the look of them. Vater chooses only the best pieces of wood for their sticks, so you’re not going to have any weird blotches of discoloration in the stick, which is good for the visual aspect of them. But on to the playing. Right after pulling them directly out of the sleeve, I tapped them on a pad in the store, and noticed that they were pitch matched; which is good when it comes to playing anything on the same drum or anything rudimental, because you’re going to get the same exact sound out of each stick. After I purchased these sticks, I got home and took them directly to the pads. I noticed that I got very good response and tonality out of the sticks. Also, my double strokes were very even. After I took them to the set, I fell in love. Haven’t used any other sticks ever since.

One little bad thing about these pair of sticks was not only the wear and tear of the heads and shafts, but the fact that if you play hard, and sweat, the wood will absorb this and turn the end of the stick into a softer, more prone to cracking type wood. But don’t let this turn you away from these sticks; it’s going to be very VERY hard to find sticks that don’t do this.

Overall I would recommend these sticks to anybody. They’re great sounding, have great response, are great looking, and come from one of the best drummers around, Stuart Copeland.