we don't use the rim savers yet at UNC . . .

i played around with the Pearl ones (i assume they're pretty much all the same)

the savers chewing up the sticks was the exact same thing Savage said when I told him that I liked the rim savers . . .

my reponse to that was that we get sticks for free . . .
rims cost money . . .
I've not once in many many years got a new set of rims on my bass drum (although new drums are on the way so I'm not too sad)

we do play on them too much (rims) and too hard but it's a college line and well, it's a college line. We're not too worried about giving UNT a run for their money any time soon so it's basically a have fun, look respectable line.
it's my release to play in this line, if it were a competitive line, the story would be very different.

I have to second my support of Pro-Marks bass mallets. Now a days it seems like they're putting out a higher quality product and I have too many memories of getting a bad batch of VF's and seeing them split in half on the first click out of the bag. It happens to everybody regardless of brand. I did notice that the VF's didn't seem to hold their shape very long compared to some other brands.
I'll have to play with some IP's sometime and see how I like them.