The Complete Handbook of Drum Stick & Brush Accessories
A Practical Reference for Selecting, Using, and Maintaining Drumsticks, Brushes, Mallets, and Their Essential Accessories
by Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
The definitive reference guide for drumstick and brush accessories: specs, selection, installation, maintenance, and business.
About this book
Most drummers treat sticks and brushes as disposable commodities, but the accessories that support them - grips, tips, protectors, holders, and maintenance tools - are engineered components with real specifications and trade-offs. This handbook gives you the impartial, technical grounding to evaluate those components, whether you are a studio professional extending the life of your preferred model, a retailer building a profitable accessory section, or a repair tech who gets asked, "Why does my grip keep sliding?" every week.
Inside, you will find a complete taxonomy of accessory types with their relevant physical specifications (hardness durometers, adhesive classes, diameter tolerances, and materials chemistry), a decision framework for matching accessories to grip style, instrument type, and playing environment, and straightforward procedures for correct installation, day-to-day use, and maintenance. Troubleshooting chapters cover the most common real-world failures, including tip wear patterns, coating delamination, and broken nylon sleeves, with practical solutions that do not require a workshop full of specialized tools.
The final sections address the professional ecosystem: how major brands position their accessory lines, what wholesale and private-label models look like, and where the accessory market is heading in terms of materials, sustainability, and manufacturing. A dedicated FAQ and a glossary of key terms complete a reference you will keep near your kit, not on a shelf.
Reader Reviews
John Lewis
★★★★★Finally, someone wrote the book that should have existed decades ago. I'm a session player in Nashville and I've been through more stick grips than I can count, mostly guessing at what would work. Chapter 1 alone was worth the price - it walks through the real mechanics of why a grip fails, not just marketing talk about 'feel'. The chapter on troubleshooting saved me hours of trial and error. This is the kind of no-nonsense reference I keep in my stick bag, not on the shelf.
James Wright
★★★★★The book is thorough and well-organized, I'll give it that. Chapter 1 does a good job of laying out the landscape without the usual fluff. But I was a little disappointed that some of the later chapters feel like they were written for a retailer rather than a working drummer. I don't need three pages on wholesale distribution models when I just want to know whether a textured grip is worth switching to from my usual setup. It's solid reference material, but I skimmed about a quarter of it. Good for what it is, just not entirely for me.
Charles Clark
★★★★★I manage inventory and purchase orders for a percussion store, so I've read a lot of supplier catalogs that all sound the same. This handbook is different - it gives you the actual specs and compares them side by side without favoritism. The chapter on choosing the right accessory is something I'll hand to my newer staff instead of training them myself. The only minor gripe is that the glossary could be a bit longer, but honestly, most of the terms I needed were already covered. Worth the shelf space.