Is it just me or dose it bother anyone else that ralph hardimons differ so much in weight from pair to pair?

With all sticks there will be this problem. you need to find the sticks with the most dense wood. there is an easy way to do this, and this is also a great way to match sticks and check to see if the sticks are dead or not.

step 1: take one stick and put the tip in your ear.

Step 2: holding the stick at a normal point and only with your 2 point fulcrum

Step 3: with either your free hand, your friends hand, or the easiest way with the same hand, flick the stick with your fingernail.
This should let you hear the stick resonate very clearly in your ear.

Step 4: Identify if it is a high or low tone. High tones mean dense wood- keep that stick around. if you hear a low tone that means you got a softer stick, and this stick will be lighter. If the stick barley produces a sound and almost no resonance, just say NO, set the stick down and walk away..... or grab another pair, and repeat steps 1-4.

Step 5: Even though you have that pretty Vic Firth matched stick promise, that only means that they put the dense with the dense and the non dense with the non dense. You can also probably find a better matched pair if you grab a couple and match them yourself.

I personally have never had that big of a problem with Vic Firth or Promark, but i make sure my innovative sticks are always matched like this. Not to say innovative makes a bad stick...

I have never really had problems with a pair of Hardimons other than Having them split down the middle (hows that happen? lol) I've had most of my problems with Innovative percussions FS JC's but if you can come across a good pair of those then they are money.

i've had a couple of mismatched sticks my self, which pissed the hell out of me. just make sure u avoid this by testing the sticks before purchasing.

I don't know how I managed it, but I ordered a pair of Graham C. Johns snare sticks from Coopermans... they're two different colors. Perfectly matched otherwise, but ugh, the colors drive me nuts hahah... All of my ralphies have been well-matched, but I have noticed the weight difference you mentioned. All of mine tend to be on the heavy side though, I like them that way because I tend to play on snare and tenor through the course of the day since half our line learns by ear >=| *shrug* at least i don't break them that often ^^

Hardimons and mismatched pitches? NEVER! HAHA...yeah this is something that I think has been happening since these sticks came out, but does anyone out there remember the older versions of the Hardimons that were heavier and more dense? The tint of the paint was different as well...it was more white than cream. Anyways...yeah this is something that happens all the time with these sticks, but DK did a good job teaching you how to pair sticks ...now maybe he should go to Vic Firth and teach them...

It is not supposed to be the consumer's job to pitch match sticks. This is supposed to be done by the vendor. I think that you (DK) contradicted yourself by saying I have never had that problem, but then you go on to explain how you have to rip through a whole brick of sticks and start pairing them off yourself. That is the exact problem that everyone has. If you buy 10-20 pair then you will probably be fine...however, if you buy 1 pair, you are pretty much up the creek unless you get lucky and Vic Firth actually decided to match that pair that you bought...good luck with that...

in my experience, hardimons are usually pretty matched, but you will get the odd pair on occasion. Maybe you've just had bad luck so far. I've never heard of that method spoken about above though. It seems like a pretty good method. I should give it a try sometime

i have a pair of older ones, i like the heavier version

I really wish I could find a pair of the "old school" Hardimon's. They are way more balanced, and I cant stand the fact that they changed that stick SO drastically...

ive never really noticed a difference with the hardimons, the sticks that i have problems with are tom aungst outdoor every pair seem hollow, has anyone else noticed this?

So long as sticks are made of wood, there will be some variance -- heavy pairs, light pairs, mismatched pairs, warped pairs, etc. Blame mother nature for not making every tree exactly the same. It's not limited to any one stick model or manufacturer.

The last two bricks of Aungst's I ordered; every pair was mismatched and total crap for quality. They were shattering in a few hours.

The Hardimons, like a lot of VF stuff that enters into mass production, seemed to have a bad run in the early 2000's, but the last hundred pairs I've been through were nice.

Lately I've been getting some pairs of Scott Johnson's that are so dense, you'd swear they weren't wood- but an awesome heavy weight and a great high pitch that made the drums sound that nano-bit better.

All of the hardimans that i have used have all been crap. they were all different weights and i had 2 that were even different lengths!! yea, when you find a good pair they are money but that is like a 1 in 5-7 chance. take some time picking out a good pair and your good to go. I personally rather buying 6 individual pairs rather than a brick because i can pick my pairs and the extra few bucks is worth it.

it is always better to buy individual pairs over bricks, but the problem becomes availability. Most instructors don't just run to the local music store to pick up sticks. Thats were Steve Weiss comes into play. It is more efficient to buy in bricks and try to pitch match with in the brick then to have to deal with budget issues from the school and running to stores were they probably won't have enough in stock. Personally I always pitch match and roll my own sticks.. when the choice is mine..

my issues with bricks of sticks is we had a bunch of "bananas" in the bunch. that is ridiculous. pitch matching is one thing. when 4 out of the 6 pairs are warped ya Vic Firth got a call.

I have only played with Hardimon's on occasion, for the most part I
ve only used the Scott Johnson. However most of the pairs I've bought, the problem for me wasn't the mis-match, I just always felt they were a little back-heavy. I played with a pair of Pro-Mark System Blue sticks and aside from the finish on the wood, they were really balanced, it was however, ONE pair. I hope they come out really well a majority of the time, and I hope they fix that damn TERRIBLE finish.

If you want to talk about dense wood, pick up a pair of MS$ Magnums. Holy sticks of Tom Float those are the heaviest stick you will EVER play with!

My only pair of hardimons seem pretty light un-taped. and the two tips produce two different sounds. there pretty bad, but i love the sticks. great feel.

Yea, the Hardimons REALLY got on my nerves. Even more so when my instructor pulled out the old set he used (they are older then I am) and they are like a brick. True White, Half the tip is un-done, the stick is just rock solid and feels great.

The skow-jows have been nice to me, that and the Ms1. I've seen about 2-3 pairs of MS1's in person, and they are all the same feeling. Unlike a Ralphie where you get a pair and feel like you have a brick in one hand and a 5A in the other.

But I really don't know what happend with the Ralphie, that HAS to be VF's most popular marching stick, if not the most popular marching stick. But the quality is just getting worse and worse with every pair.

Am I the only one who hasn't come across a bad pair of Hardimons?

Simply put, No, But I'm sure a lot more people have had bad pairs, compared to the people who havn't had a problem. The ones that are built nice are amazing, but I've only found 1 1/2 pairs of those in all the Hardimons I've handled. Yes, One stick was great, the other was not so much, and Ive had one complete pair of amazing Ralphies.