Okay, I know these guys are kind of off the beaten path as far as brands go, but does anyone have an opinion on them? My only experience was with their tenor/bass mallets back when I was playing in HS, (Not great, but it was cheap stuff that we got on closeout one year or something) and I haven't heard anything about them since then. Anyone ever use their marching stuff recently, and if so, what's your opinion?

yeah actually, our bds use american drum stuff. Im not a proponent of it, and i've been recommending the switch to corpsmaster mallets a lot. I just cant stand that rubber grip. I don't know. It's just not for me.

Where tenor mallets are concerned, let me put it this way: We used AD tenor mallets my freshman and sophomore (my first year on tenors) years of high school and then we switched to Silver Fox and the SFs were leagues better (and these were early SF mallets, which had some problems). My opinion then -- American Drum mallets sucked. That was 1990 and they haven't changed them a bit -- usable, but sucky. Pretty much ProMark without grippy handles. The mallets were probably state-of-the-art in the early '80s and they've just never updated them. Really, if they just added softer rubber textured grips -- that, literally, everyone else uses -- and adjusted the balance a bit most of their tenor mallets would be OK (it's not like it's rocket science.)

The Bass mallets (which we also used) left black gunk on our hands. The @#%$# wooden end caps on the butt end tended to break off, which was more cosmetic than anything else but still annoying. The balance always seemed a bit off, too. Once more, usable but could stand some serious improvement and haven't changed since my HS days.

Their marching snare sticks are actually pretty decent, there just isn't much of a selection -- what they have either fits your style or not. Good quality if you like what they have.

Ive had experience with the Bass and Tenor mallets by AD

The Tenor mallets, they had a weird feel, the grips just made my hands sweat, no real traction, If it wernt for the fact that mallets are hard to use without grips, I woulda taken them off, But, I managed, They actually though, the rubber sounded better for an indoor use than outdoor corpmasters, but thats just a gimme, but, bottom line their No good IMO, but their useable as stated

The bass drum mallets, well, Im not a bassist, but, they worked, Of course, Our "assistant" directors ordered 3 big sets, and 2 bigger sets, imagine trying to play a 16 inch bass with a beater meant for a 32, yea...

I did work with the basses once, and I can say the grip, very annoying, the little handle on the bottom was very hand though, for a visual, Although none was used, Id still rather go with the corpmaster

Hope that helps

To me the Headhunter tenor mallets are the only thing worth playing with at all. Frankly other brands have comparible mallets so why even bother trying to find someone who sells AD stuff.

Compared to the alternatives available in 1990, the Headhunter tenor mallets were pretty good. But today, there are all sorts of tenor implements, many of which I like more than the Headhunters.

I recall using the headhunter mallet in the mid to late 90's. They seemed ok at the time...I remember when we got the Gambal cookie mallets...good stuff. Gambal mallets always treated me well. In fact I think I have one the last remaining Gambal cookie mallets.

AD does not seem to care about marketing sticks anymore. I called them a few years ago and they kind of blew me off. So couple a substandard mallet with OK customer service at best and thats not a winning combination.

I'm surprised you got bad customer service from them. I needed to call them about a defective mallet once. George (the owner) answered the phone, sent out a replacement pair that very day, and pretty much asked me out to lunch if we ever happened to cross paths. Super nice guy.

Seriously I bet there are a total of about 40 pairs in circulation. Its like the Premier marathon batter head...I have like 5 sitting in my basement. Very few people have these.

AD stuff is just outdated is the overall verdict I would say.