Vic Firth Rute

Excellent delivery, love these sticks

Great for light jazz, especially in a small room. Takes the attack down but still lets the drums resonate fully. You won't be using any bounce technique with these, but that isn't what they are for. You comp like you would with sticks but it is just a mellower sound. I am surprised how much I like these.

I had bought a pair of these in 2009, and to this day not a single dowel has broken off, and I use them on at least two songs at every gig, and all the time at rehearsals. They outlast Hot Rods, and the Steve Smith felt-core model by years! No comparison. The dowels have gotten a little "fuzzy", but not have broken off.The wide rubber "band" allowed me to adjust the focus of the sound from tight to mushy, very nice, makes definite tonal changes.To those who need to play quieter than you are able...these are a god-send.I tried all manner of light, jazzy sticks, and settled on the Vic Firth "ECHO", that are my go-to pair.However, they can still be too loud, even with my light touch.Just got my second pair of these yesterday from Amazon, and the WIDE rubber band has been replaced with a more typical small/round rubber band. I hope that this makes no difference, and it might actually be an improvement, because I only bought another pair since my old, wide rubber rings had begun to slip, and creep toward the end of the stick as I play.Highly recommended if you like using multi-rod sticks.

I've taken to use these quite often in places where volume is an issue. I really like these sticks, but there are a few oversights in my opinion. One, the handle is a bit slick. I've had to grip a bit harder as the material seems to make them a bit more prone to slipping. Fixed by the addition of some grip tape.Two, the rubber pieces that you can adjust on the rods themselves easily ride up. The first time using them, I was playing rather quickly with lots of roughs and rolls. I kept having to push the bands back down, as a few times they almost flew off! I added small rubber bands to the front of them and they hold them in place well. It should have been a no brainer to add some kind of stopping mechanism to that so the bands would not move up or down involuntarily.Both of those issues are solved easily, but I question why they weren't by the manufacturer. However, they are good sounding and useful to have in a drummers stick bag.

I've been using Rute for a few years as my main drumstick. Instead of banging away and drowning out everyone or using 7As and trying to play quietly, the Rutes let me open up and not play too loud. I use them for rock and worship music. They are effective enough that my worship leader asks drummer to use a bundled-rod stick for our small room.The nice thing about Rutes is the handle. It is a bit larger than a 2B or a Hardimon, but is easy to handle. A benefit of having a wood handle is being able to still play really woody rim clicks. The stick is so long that the sweet spot for clicks on my 14" maple snare is places the rods against the other side of the rim.There are two shortcomings. The bundled rods make the length of the attack much longer than with sticks. This can muddy the sound for many types of music. The other is that it takes a bit of time to get used to the way it attacks the drum. Double strokes must be really drawn out since the stick doesn't rebound off the head as high as a stick.In summary:Pros-Play full stroke with quiet soundWoody rim clicksHandle feels like a stickAdjustable tightness of rodsCons-Longer attackTakes time to get used to

Didn’t know how they would work. Nice tool.

On the plus side, they sound a little crisper than Hot Rods. However, the construction is just off. In cross section, the bundle forms a trapezoid shape rather than a symmetrical hexagon, as though three rods are missing. They do have three fewer rods than Hot Rods. If you grasp them at the ends they do feel like rods are missing. The rods are of uneven length, as though they forgot the final step of sanding them even. The solid wood handles are a nice idea but they are way too fat, a whopping 3/4" ! They are longer than regular drumsticks and it makes them feel weird to play. The extra length and super fat handles make them very odd-feeling sticks.

Love them