Phil Rudd Rehearses for Full Metal Orchestra in Christchurch – The Calm Before the Thunder (Sonor Signatures this time)

[Jules]

[tcbetka]

How that dude can get out of bed every morning is beyond me, playing all those years...

[Jules]

He has a butt end stick in the left hand, this week.

[tcbetka]

Imagine the sheer number of wrist impacts he's had over the years. His wrists must be bionic! Tommy Aldridge is another guy like that--and is even older. Max Weinberg...there's another bionic dude. Imagine the number of hours these guys bodies have been exposed to that level of impact. Unbelievable!

[Jules]

Phil is actually an interesting study. I was watching a concert and there was one point that you could watch his hihat and foot. A little more going on there than meets the eye. Also, even with that golf swing snare technique, he actually finesses the hi hat and cymbals and when you can get a good shot of his left hand, especially on later tours, he looks like he nearly lets go of the stick before impact. I have a busy day, but when I get time I will try to find footage. And using a Foot Joy glove on his snare hand aids with not having to have a death grip.

[tcbetka]

That's why he wears gloves--because it "cushions" his grip a little, and he doesn't have to lock down on the stick so tightly. Gloves work well for that.

[Jules]

Ironically, I was using the Ahead drumsticks before Phil came back on the scene. I wish I still had some of the Easton branded ones. The grip tapes good, but my hand sweat would break it down. Adding gloves helped but then I fell too detached from the sticks. The sticks would get slick without the tape, so after 25ish years, I went back to wood.