Ahead Drumsticks  

So I bought a pair of 5B's, thinking that my days of constantly cleaning sawdust off my beautiful DWs and shelling out $$ to replace broken sticks were over.  Boy was I dead wrong.  Snapped right in two at the collar (with the sleeve still pristine) after about 2 weeks of playing.  LIKE AN IDIOT, I shelled out another $$ on 2B's to replace them.  Thinking it was just bad luck.  SNAP, same thing after 3 weeks.  The only good feature about these is they don't leave sawdust all over everything.  Hence the "2" rating.

The shafts are hollow aluminum, folks.  NOT durable at all, especially if you play a lot of rimshots (which I do).  The tips fly off at any given moment, poking holes in all but the strongest of heads.  Sure, you can superglue them, but that makes replacing the sleeves a tad difficult.  They probably would be better suited to less aggressive styles of music than hard rock or metal, but sadly that's the demographic Ahead markets toward.

No value at all.  The sleeves wear out rather quickly (if you don't break the shaft anyway) so you'll still be constantly buying replacement sleeves, new heads after the tips fly off and break them, and lots of cymbal polish to remove the scuff marks the tips leave before they fly off.  The grip absolutely sucks so you have to spend even more on grip tape or gloves just to hold on to the things.  I ate $$ on two pairs of sticks and replacement sleeves over the span of just over a month. which is TWICE as much as I spend on wood sticks in the same timeframe.

Don't waste your money or your time, brethren.  Wood sticks last 3 TIMES AS LONG as the sleeves, at least for my style of play.   I'd rather spend my energy dusting off drums than spending countless minutes and hours messing with supergluing tips and baking/blowdrying sleeves, IF the sticks themselves happen to survive.  I went back to my Pro Mark All American Hickory 2B's and haven't looked back.  While the idea of an unbreakable stick is innovative, some massively better quality control is needed to justify the cost per-pair.

You might think they are good quality but they aren't. Sure they "never break" but think why.     They are made of metal and to prevent metal to metal contact on cymbals that have plastic sleeves. The sleeves have a shorter life span then traditional oak or hickory drum sticks.     And for those who don't know, nylon tips make your cymbals look dirty and unattractive.     And if you've got nice expensive Paiste cymbals or any cymbals for that matter, then your going to be forking over dollars upon dollars in sleeves and cymbal shiner. I know. I used them.     They are a waste. I suggest Neil Peart 747 series by Promark.     Those are light and long lasting