Side by Side Comparison of: Vic Firth vs OnStage

These have a great balanced feel to them. They hold up to regular abuse. These are not sticks for intense drumming but for drummers who need sticks for fast action and reduced wrist fatigue. I love these and the price is more than worth it.

Perfect size. Not too large like a B and not to small like a 7a. Honestly I wish there was something between the 5a and 7a. I would give it a shot. Vic firth is wonderful. Sticks are great quality and are always weighted nicely. I bought a set of zildjian sticks recently and sent them right back due to bad match weighting. Vic Firth is quality all day, every day.

So my husband appears to be having his mid-life crisis. He (in his 40's) is requesting to have a full size drum set, mind you he has never played any instrument in his entire life!! So I spoke with my father, who is (and always has been) a drummer. He advised me to get a drum pad and recommended these sticks for him to try and see if he liked it before investing in anything huge. My husband really liked the sticks and said they felt good in his hands. He has looked at other brand sticks after getting these and can really tell the difference between this and the others. With these sticks-the weight of each stick is equal and perfectly balanced. I highly recommend the Vic Firth Drumsticks! Especially with the pricing being as fantastic as it was!Vic Firth American Classic 5A Drum Sticks

Thanks is excelent

Don't waste money on regal tips or any other type of drumsticks. These are durable, light, and they somehow give the snare a better tone. If you love yourself, your friends, that random drummer you saw playing the other day, there is no better gift then Vic Firth American Classics. If your into heavier heavy projection sticks try out the metal ones. They are as advertised.

excellent buy for very good sticks!

These sticks are ok. Enough bang for your buck especially if you just want to smack some drum heads at home every once in a while.

My wife uses these for her school music class - they survived the use and abuse of kindergarteners and 2nd graders and remained intact. Great product!

Good sticks for the price. They don't break they shred and look like a beaver got a hold of them but they don't break. Nice even matches, sound is crisp and nice ping on cymbals. I'll buy these again but it'll be a while gigging every weekend I've not moved pass the second pair yet. You'll be happy with these sticks! Twelve pair will last a seasoned drummer a good six months. That's if you're not playing heavy metal and enormous volume gigs. Good sticks for the simple bar scene.

other reviews have said the tips fall off easily...it's true they do, but if you stab them down on the ground they stay on better or glue them. :) . The sticks feel a little thicker than most 7a sticks out there, but not by much and feel balanced enough for me. I am very happy with the purchase. I have yet to break one, but I am not a hard hitter, so sticks typically last me a long long time... Stick bag was stolen and needed to replace everything. No warped or whacky sticks either which I was pretty happy with. Great deal.

I'll be honest, I was on the fence about these sticks. I've always preferred to buy name-brand products, and Vic Firth has always been my go-to brand for sticks, but I've been a bit strapped for cash lately, and decided to give these a shot.What do I think of them? They're great! So far, I haven't broken a single stick, and I've been playing everyday since I bought them over a month ago! They chip and dent just as often as Vic Firth sticks do, but because they seem to be a tad bit thicker, they're not breaking yet. A couple of times I've had the nylon tip fall off, but all I did was push it back on against a hard surface, and it stays on. I imagine that if it flew off you could always put a drop of crazy glue inside of tip before putting it back on the stick.All in all, for the price and the amount of sticks that you get, combined with how durable they seem to be, these are a great value. I recommend giving them a try if you're strapped for cash and can't afford name-brand sticks.

I have no idea how they work as drumsticks, I bought them for a dog costume.

Pretty decent sticks and fairly well balanced.But, i had to sand them off a little as the neck and shoulders were a little rough. I play an electric and if I didn't sand them, they would leave marks for sure.

Good basic sticks. Took one star off because will probably look for less expensive options in the future. My 13 yr old loses drum sticks constantly so will go the economical route next time.

This is coming from a beginner drummer, but the sticks are perfect for rock/heavier stuff due to the loud but rounded sound it gives, but for me personally, the weight and thickness made it a bit uncomfortable for me.So I chose to stick with the 7A primarily but will still use and try get used to these 5A.ALSO BUYER BEWARE.Maybe I just got unlucky but when I got these sticks, I took off the cardboard square used to hold the sticks but once I put that cardboard down a SILVERFISH almost1 inch long darted out.I was absolutely disgusted because it was very big (1inch is about their max size) and it was lucky I caught it, else it might have gone into my box of comic books that was nearby.So, CHECK FOR BUGS FIRST before you just toss anything away. You don't want something like silverfish to eat away at any of your books and stuff.

I'd been using Novas (Vic Firth's budget version or "seconds" of these) and needed some more sticks quick so I opted to get some of these next day shipping.I'm a heavy hitter & break sticks regularly - no matter what brand. That being said I did notice that the real deal (over the Nova version) had a little better longevity - I'd say about 25%. The American Classics tended to break "better" chipping out at first before fracturing, thus being playable longer. The Novas tend to just fracture and get tossed.Keep in mind some batches of sticks of the same brand are better/worse than others. I'm guessing this mainly has to do with variance in the supply of wood - every tree is different & trees from different areas (possibly even countries) will differ in grain, density, etc.The AC's were also better matched in pairs. Whereas the Nova's tend to have noticeable weight differences - doesn't really bother me - price considered.Conclusion: American Classics are better but cost about twice as much (Personally I'd rather buy some Vaters at that price) but I think the economical choice if you break a lot sticks is to go with Novas. If your not heavy handed & you're picky about your sticks balancing as a pair and don't mind the price, go with the Classics.

These were good drumsticks. I used Vic Firth sticks for a long time, and they were always good. These particular sticks performed very well. They were 5A's, so they were lightweight, easy to grip, and were very easy to move around. When you play drums fast, it helps to have a stick that is not too heavy to use. These also had a lacquer coating, so they had a good grip. My only problem with these were that they had wooden tips. I learned that wooden tips seem to come apart and shred after a while, but only if you're hitting cymbals, not if you're just hitting drums. If you decide to buy these sticks, buy the kind with a nylon tip, they will last longer.

Tips are not attached very well, but sound good

I will start by stating that I'm a 3 year drummer - I'd say that I'm a hack, but then all the hacks would hate on me, so keep this in mind ...Overall, these are great sticks for the drumkit in your house. They are a tad bit wider than I'd prefer, but I can always run a pair through the belt sander if the width really bothers me (so far so good). What I really like about them is the weight - they're super light, which was why I bought 'em. Since I'm a sub-hack, I'll never take my drumkit out of our music room, and hitting the skins with a telephone pole will only damage my drum heads, (my) ears, and relationships with my (very patient, possibly deaf) family.The finish is quite slick, which is bad for me, as I'm a stick-pitcher on a good day, but about 4 inches of adhesive bandage (a whole roll for $1.50 from sprwlmrt) tightly wrapped around the bottom 5 inches of stick made these just about perfect. Perhaps the Rolling Stones will drive by my house someday, hear my hacked versions of their tunes and demand that I jam with them at the next Superbowl, at which point I'll invest in "real" sticks, but until then, these seem to be working well enough.Oh, and there's a ton of 'em, so if you happen to pitch a stick and impale someone in your imaginary audience, you'll have 23 left to finish your set.

I got these. I like them. Awesome s*** for practice! etc. BUT!: believe it or not, it is not exactly "nylon tip" as it says (!!) If you get it don't wonder. "DON'T SAY I DIDN'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU ".... it is very cheap . But good. So make your decision. Hope this review's helpful.

These are good drumsticks for the price. I'm quite heavy-handed and they've been holding up very well so far. There are certainly "better" drumsticks out there, but these are great practice and all-around sticks.

So dang, 12 pairs of sticks for a couple bucks a piece! Other than the price they feel on the lighter side for 5B's, and I can slam with them, abuse them on rimshots and if they get "chewed up" then who cares right? But the wood is solid and in spite of the price I wouldn't really consider them soft, weak and crappy. They are straight, at least the ones I've gotten.They feel OK for jamming at home although I find myself reaching for my Vic Firth's when playing live. So I recommend them for practicing. Out of two bulk sets(24) only 3-4 nylon tips have come off. Good for throwing out to the crowd!! Down side is the crappy feeling I get from the fact that they are MADE IN CHINA. But when you consider Pro Marks at $7-$8 a pair it's worth buying a pack of these just to have around and stock up on.

When you need sticks to burn, these are the sticks you should get. You cannot beat the price and they seem to last just as long as any other burners you could pick up on a "___" day sale at Guitar Center. I like that they have nylon tips. They are light weight and the proper thickness that the designation implies.

The quality is good, but it is really stiff. I don't know what kind material it made. It caused my wrist not feel good and sometimes felt sour second day after my drum practice.

Look nice and well balanced but broke two pairs fairly quickly due to my playing style. Purchased a value pack separately which have held up much better.

I must admit I really enjoyed the sticks. They feel natural and well-balanced. They're smaller than the 5B and my grip tends to naturally lean toward the 5A.My downside is that they are pretty weak under moderate to heavy usage. You can buy a new set of sticks and within one practice session have them start cracking down the middle. Playing at church regularly, I've gone through three sticks in a weekend. It's not exactly like I'm beating the crap out of them but I am using them pretty bluntly in order for the dynamics to come across. The tips will regularly chip-off leaving you with one side shipt and in doing so the tip will have rough edges which could damage your drum heads.

I always break these.. buy Vaters

Decent, but expensive. I don't notice anything better over the cheaper ones.

The tips keep coming apart in the wood grain. Once the tips are degraded, it doesn't sound the same. I had the same issue with the Jazz Classic sticks by Vic Firth--those broke in a day practicing jazz ride cymbal at a moderate volume. At least these lasted a week or two. I like the feel and balance of these 5A's but I can't spend so much replacing them when they don't hold up. I plan on trying Vaters next bc I've heard they're rugged. Or I might try a pair of Vic Firth with nylon tips.

Vinol tips fly away needs to be glue

Good sticks just have issues with tips coming off while playing I just re glue so far every pair has done this not sure if I just got a bad batch they missed getting glued one a little wood glue is applied no more issues

Bought for a friend who said they were OK but were really too light

these sticks are very light. but not bad price for the bundle.

Bought these as I seem to always misplace a drumstick or two and wanted to have several of the same so that it wouldn't be too much of a loss if one disappeared. The packaging was nice and the sticks were in fine shape. They feel good in the hand and worked well for my needs. Now why the three star review, I have one fairly major issue with these sticks. The nylon tips are not secured onto the drum stick in any way other than being fitted on, They come of all to easily when playing. I play on an electric kit, but if I was on an acoustic kit and the nylon piece came off I think that these could potential harm your drum heads before you noticed. It is easily remedied by a dab of super glue but I thought that it was worth mentioning.

I purchased these sticks to give to a few students in the high school marching band. They were learning how to play in a bucket ensemble and I was cringing each time one of their good sticks broke. Not coming from a strong financial district, buying a pair of $17 marching sticks hurt. We were able to find these and use them as a stick that we didn't care broke. We knew going into it that the sticks were not the highest quality and they would break. However, it is really nice to be able to give a pair of sticks to a student and not care if they brake. I would not recommend these sticks to a drum set player because they are really thick sticks and they had a little bit of a slick coating on them. So again, they would work well for a percussion ensemble with some young players, or front ensemble players that are using things like buckets, trash cans etc.

Purchased these exact same drumsticks in January. This newly purchased pair was used tonight and one stick broke immediately. The weight seemed off. These 2 pairs of sticks were 3 oz less than the pair bought in January. If you are a drummer you know this is significant. The wood looked different and the feel was different. The pairs bought in January still have not broken. But this pair broke after one song. Disappointing. Weights shouldn't change...Vic Firth needs to work on quality control. Disappointing.

Not sanded smooth. They are rough/splinters.

Too long ....wanted ahorter one.

Best balanced, and most versatile stick ever made. Unfortunately the tip will snap off on the ride cymbal if you're a medium to heavy hitter. I wish Vic Firth would fix this Achilles heel because the sticks are too pricey to have to wonder if the tips will make it through a song.

These are probably ok for someone who is a talented established drummer. These are not great for me. If you tend to go all Muppet Show on your set, I might recommend Shira Kashi Oak…less likely to split and fall apart.

They seem like a knock off to me. All of the Vic Firth 5A sticks I've bought in stores were way more solid than these. I could immediately feel the differance. The taper at the end is slightly different too. I just wonder if they changed the design or if these aren't the real deal.

The nylon tips fell off after just a few hours of playing.. a few didn't even last that long..

The sticks were bulky and did not handle well for little hands. In addition the rubber tops would fall off frequently.

I have to agree with most other users. Tips fly off frequently, is my number 1 complaint. The wood is fairly soft, so if you are 1 of those players that chip sticks all the time, these wont last very long, and break easily because of that.

So the first 2 sticks my Son used the nylon tips fell off! We shall see what the rest are like.

The tips fly off after about ten minutes of playing. I have taken to super glueing them back on.I am a very amateur drummer, but I can tell these are terrible quality. You truly get what you pay for with these sticks. They are supposed to be 7a, but they are much thicker than my Vic Firths.If you don't mind doing the superglue trick for all of the sticks in the box, they can be worth it. I won't be purchasing these again.*UPDATE* Super glue doesn't work. If I have to ring the bell on my ride, I can guarantee I won't have a tip anymore. Maybe if I had gotten the wooden tip, but the nylon tips make these worthless.

I play drums at my church and we have a plexi wrapped cage and a sound barrier top. I say all of this because I am a heavy handed drummer. We wear in ear monitors as well. I purchased these sticks because they are affordable and I love the 2b size. These are light in weight compared to others and I broke 5 sticks my first time rehearsing with these. I am not terribly dissapointed because they are very affordable. I would prefer that they be stronger so I will not purchase these again.

Very small to gears2 classic dont waste your money

Did not include the sticks.

The tip broke within the first hour I played with them.

We only had this 1 week and one of the sticks shattered. ??? !!!!! Hmmm did they change how they made them based on all the good reviews I wonder why/how this happened. ?

My hands always smell strongly of varnish after I use these sticks.

One of the sticks broke in just a few days, and I don't even hit that hard!

I've been a drummer for close to 20 years off and on. I've tried many sticks in my life. All variety of sizes and styles. Cheap and expensive. But these are hands down the worst sticks I have ever used. I bought a bulk pack of 7a sticks because they were a good price. However when I got them I soon realized that you get better quality sticks included in a guitar hero drum and you'd be better off using a wooden spoon than these. The first set I pulled out of the box looked nice. Very well sanded. Very light. But they immediately looked and felt cheap. My assumption was correct because literally within the first 30 sec of playing the tip broke off and flew into my face. Thinking I just had a bad one. I pulled another pair out and tried again. Same thing happened. So all in all I broke 5 sticks in less than 5 min before I gave up and became quite enraged. I didn't wanna risk trying the rest and just returned them. Unbelievably cheap quality. Save your money and get something, anything other than these.

Absolutely and entirely not worth any price. I've been drumming for just over 20 years now and I've always bought name brand sticks. Thinking this looked like a good deal and expecting nothing more than some sticks that would probably snap a lot faster than a trusted brand I decided to jump on the nylons. The nylons are absolute utter garbage. I am not even exaggerating to say that the nylon tips came flying off under even light to moderate drumming within a minute of playing. When the first tip came off I thought "Ok, must have just been a bad egg" then mid song grabbed another stick with identical results, followed by a 3rd one. All popped off in less than a minute of playing. The 2nd tip popped off when all I was doing was clicking the sticks on the rim of one of my toms. The 3rd stick popped off mid-drum fill and caused a couple of significant dents in my brand new heads because the revealed wood tip under the nylon is too narrow to attempt to play.If you buy these, you will be disappointed and worse yet, you will likely damage your drum heads and only cause further damage to your wallet. Stay away. Far, far away. I've learned my lesson.

Quite possibly the worst "cheap" sticks I've ever bought. Not sure why there are any good reviews on these. I might play a tad hard, but I nearly went through the entire package in one set. Even had a nylon tip fall off of one while taking it out of the bag. Don't waste your time if you actually hit your kit. They did make excellent kindling though!

The product was a nice furnished set of drum sticks at a reasonable price but contained a label that stated could cause skin cancer with chemicals. I appreciated the honesty but for the fact that this was not in the description, it made it a bad purchase. I was purchasing this product to teach the kids at the orphanage how to play the drums. The safety adviser recommended since it did contain the warning label it was better to not be used by the kids.

Crap! Let me start with my back ground. I play rock and metal mostly and I consider my self a hobbyist now more than a musician - I've never really played with a band in over 10 years. I play 3-4 days a week for :45 minutes to an hour or so each day. All that said ... Here we go:Nylon tips fly off - I damaged a head (dimpled) because I didn't notice until after one song! Sticks break like dry kindling - I went through 9 pairs in about 6 weeks. I went through 4 sticks in one song today... All I want are decent sticks that will last just for my purposes of "practicing." I bought 12 pairs of another no name brand of 5A sticks about 6 years ago and I still have some of them. I included a couple pictures - and the sticks in them aren't the worst ones.

Ive been a drummer for the better part of 20 years... These sticks are not worth it. Yeah, they are inexpensive and you get a lot of them, but save yourself the trouble and dented skins!... I figured why not, give them a shot, more of a goof chance than anything (hey, sometimes it pays off) but Im not mad that I did, I learned my lesson like so many others... Half of the sticks were warped, they break easily (after 2 hours of moderate playing) and Im not a hard hitter, the nylon tips are not glued on well, they come flying off, and caused me to dent 2 heads from the sharp tip. Furthermore, they are not sized properly. They are the diameter of a 5b, but the weight of a 5a, obviously due to inferior woods being used... I threw away the last 5 pairs that were left as I couldn't take the hassle and damage any more... Do yourself a favor, buy the Pro-Mark Japanese white oak sticks, they cost a bit more, but last 10 times longer than any other wood stick I have ever played, are perfectly balanced and tuned.