Tom Sawada
Paul Stromberg and Van (“Joe”) Luoma patented the Hot Rods back in 1985 as a way of bridging the gap between brushes and sticks.
Luoma, an accomplished drummer, collector and inventor felt the need for playing in quieter settings, without losing some of the feel of the sticks.
"The combination of the binding of the rods (...) yields a stick type drumstick which has the desired percussive strength, yet it is slightly flexible so that the combination including the interaction of the wooden rods among themselves when a drum is struck yields extraordinarily good tonal qualities.”
Soon after that, Promark introduced these new type of sticks to the market, gaining a great niche in the market, which was later followed by the rest of the drumstick manufacturers.
I love to read these patents, the unique approach to drumming shapes the sounds we enjoy and now take for granted, but once upon a time, these sounds did not exist.
Here’s the patent:
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And here is the one and only, Joe Luma:
