The handle is a new development

In order to facilitate every playing/grip style, we wanted to create a grip which offers controlled handling without limiting the player to a certain playing technique, no matter if it is held in the middle, at 2/3 of its length or close to the end. We achieved this with the Precision Control Grip: This consists of a thin net under aspecial shrink tube which provides comfortable support, it is unobtrusive and nonrestrictive. Two adjustable rubber rings on the handle can be positioned individually to serve either as a quick positioning of the handle point, or as a grip area boundary.

The position and length of the grip area is deliberate and was found in terms of playability, sound and comfort as “just right”. This area is also glued so that the rods can never slip orchange position. Because only the attack sound, rather than the typical hotrod sound is heard when playing double ended triplets with the upper end of the tipper, we decided that the HedRod should be unidirectional. Therefore the upper end of the tipper is solidly constructed regarding to the attack sound. The basic materials we use for all models are top quality, hand selected wooden rods (beech/walnut/bamboo) indifferent diameters and bamboo sticks.

Each beech stick is individually oiled and waxed. The bamboo sticks are left natural. The arrangement of the rods depends on the model and is either parallel to the axis of the tipper or slightly twisted in order to achieve a different click behaviour. 3-O-Ring-Setting: Compared to other hotrods, the HedRods have an additional rubber ring. This provides much more flexibility in the adjustment of the handling and has direct influence on the sound.

What exactly can be adjusted by these rings? Hotrods provide the ability to change the subjective perception of material behavior during play. A Hotrod always feels a little “softer” than a tipper made of solid wood. This property can be changed in asurprisingly large range:

The front ring: this is used to set the “click behaviour” of the rods, the farther forward it sits, the less the rods move during impact, the typical clicking noise decreases. Of course it then follows that the click sound increases the further you move the ring towards the handle, because the rods have more freedom to move. Depending on the design of the rods, a sound similar to that produced by jazz brushes can be achieved.

The two rear rings: You can determine how solid the Hedrod feels by adjusting these. For example, if the front ring is at the very end of the HedRod and the two rear rings close to the handle, a very clear attack close to that of a solid tipper will be the result, however, it will still have the softer feel of a hodrod. The reason for this is that the rods can move considerably between the foremost O-ring and the top of the handle – this causes energyt o be dampened and you will feel a less attacking response. At the same time, less ‘unsprung mass’ hits the drum head and a lower bass volume is the result. In short, you can now adjust the movement by moving the rings.

Compared to other hotrod models on the market this additional rubber ring provides the ability to achieve a feeling that almost equals that of a solid wood tipper, because it is possible to make the full length of the HedRod almost completely immobile.