Adoro Silent Sticks
january 9, 2021
I wish to begin by saying that this is an independent consumer review. I have not been remunerated by and am not affiliated with Adoro Custom Drums.
After trying many brands, styles, and sizes of drum sticks along with various dampening systems, I saw an ad on Facebook regarding Adoro's Silent Sticks and decided I'd like to give them a try.
Adoro Custom Drums is a drum manufacturer based in Hamburg, Germany, and is known for its beautiful, unusual, drum kit designs with sound profiles to suit any style of play from Gospel to Rock.
As a quick introduction to the product, here is a YouTube video featuring Welsh drummer Calum Rees (now based in Canada) demonstrating Adoro's Silent Sticks:
(Calum plays with Canadian Singer/Songwriter Brian Doerksen, who also endorses Adoro products.)
Here is a video of a metered test published by Adoro on Youtube:
Pricing and Delivery
I ordered the Silent Sticks online on November 28, 2020, and received them on December 20, 2020. I think that is rather an amazing delivery time considering the pandemic and that they came all the way from Germany to Canada.
I paid $37.99 Cdn for the sticks including shipping, taxes, and exchange. A little pricey for a set of sticks but when you consider the low volume benefits, you are really paying for a dampening system as well.
What Came in the Package
Here is what I received:
- A set of Silent Sticks
- A detailed Adoro Custom Drums brochure
- An Adoro Custom Drums flyer
- An Adoro Custom Drums sticker
The packing materials (i.e. the box and taping) were very sturdy considering the contents.
Interestingly, the sticker approximately 2" square (pictured below) peals in half from the front. I am uncertain as to why Adoro designed it that way; I think trying to line up the two halfs on say a bass drum resonant head would be more difficult with this front split design than a full sticker that peals from the back.
All in all, the packaging and promotional materials are very professional and quite enticing.
Initial Impressions
These sticks look really futuristic. They have what appears to be a clear acrylic hollow shaft, a black rubber anti-slip grip, and a black plastic end cap on the butt. (For those of you who may have read my Gorilla Snot review, you know that when I play live, I like having a good grip.) However, the most noticable part of the Silent Sticks' design is what appears to be clear nylon tips that Adoro calls its Dual-Loop Reflex Tips (shown below).
The sticks feel much lighter that traditional wooden drumsticks—I don't have a scale in the house that can even register the weight of a Silent Stick but it is hardly perceptable in the hand. Each stick is about 1.75" in circumference at the grip and approximately 16.5" in length. So, slightly thiner and a little longer than a typical wooden drumstick.
One thing I noticed right off the bat is that the sticks are perfectly balanced. If you hold the stick on the grip area closest to the tip, this is a perfect position for jazz drumming.
The Loudness Test
Adoro claims that the Silent Sticks are 80 percent less loud that regular sticks. So I attempted to design a way to test this claim.
My baseline drumsticks were a set of Zildjian Select Hickory, 7A Dip (nylon tipped).
I used the free version of the Decibel X app on my Apple iPhone 7. (Unfortunately the free version of this app is no longer available at the iTunes Store.)
I placed my phone about a metre behind my acoustic drum set on a rubber electronic drum pad as a cushion. I played a drum groove with fills and cymbal crashes using the Zildjian sticks while recording with Decibel X. Then I played relatively the same drum sequence using the Adoro sticks (while attempting to keep the force of my strokes the same as with the Zildjian sticks). Here are the results:
Adoro Silent Sticks
I had no dampening on my cymbals and used a regular bass drum felt beater. (I think if I had used the Adoro Silent Beater on the stick tests, the results would have been more dramatic. Perhaps I'll test Adoro's beater in another review.) Also, I deliberately attempted to use the same amount of force on each stroke regardless of the stick used. Having said that, the Adoro sticks permit playing at a much lower volume than the wooden sticks because they are so much lighter and have softer tips.
The center reading (shown in orange) on the db meter is the last recorded decibel count which is basically the resonance from the final cymbal crash and, while similar in both tests, depended on the time it took me to stop the recordings.
Even using the same amount of force on my drumstick strokes, the Adoro Silent Sticks were significantly less loud than the Zildjian nylon-tipped hickory sticks.
Conclusion
According to Google Translate, Adoro is Spanish for "I like" and I do like these sticks.
I initially thought the Silent Sticks were a little pricey and on that basis was thinking that a rating of four rhythm spots was more appropriate; but when you think that the sticks are also a dampening system, the price is a bargain.
After a bit of experimentation with the Adoro sticks, I had an epiphany. The unique tip design and light weight of the Silent Sticks permits carefully, quietly, playing on many surfaces without leaving perceptable dents and marks. Also, they permit quieter playing so are less likely to annoy others. (While I don't recommend this, I tested this by gently tapping on my desk and coffee mug; the floors, doors, and walls in my home. Next, I experimented by using the Silent Sticks to produce brighter sounds on by beloved hand and tank drums—I would never play these instruments with traditional drumsticks.)
So, I can envision using the Adoro Silent Sticks on a practice pad late at night or in a hotel room when I am on the road. I also think I may use them creatively in the studio to produce unique sounds on various percussion instruments. I now feel that the Adoro Silent Sticks offer great value for the money because they not only can be used on a drum kit for quieter practices, in small venues, in churches, etc., but can also be used creatively on other percussion instruments to produce interesting effects.
In summary, the Adoro Silent Sticks are a welcomed addition to my drumstick bag along with my collection of traditional wood drumsticks, dowel sticks, mallets, brushes, etc. They augment my stick collection but are not a complete substitute for traditional drumsticks. You'll still need a set of wood sticks for large venues and for playing drum patterns incorporating side sticking and rim shots.
