[CJDG]

With the ahead sticks, since the back half and the shaft that sleeve is placed over are aluminum, you can't really use the back half for striking the head or cymbals. There are drummers out there who do stick tricks or flip their drum sticks to get a fatter sound from the drums. Are you missing out? No not really... just another option to explore sometime. There are also rim knocks which is where you flip the drum stick backwards and then tap the rim with the butt of the stick while leaving the bead on the drum. I didn't want to do what with the aluminum end. I remember trying it with the stick reversed, butt on the snare and front end tapping the rim.... I just didn't give much of a sound I liked.

As far as cracking the shaft... I was playing 2112 with some friends and felt the stick give. When I pulled the bead and sleeve off I found that I sheared the aluminum shaft about half way up. That was the first time I used the sticks in a live setting with some volume and quickly realized that they were just not going to hold up for my play style. I have always been a heavy hitter though. I have cracked one cymbal in my 20+ years of playing... it was an 8 or 10" Zildjian splash (been a long while)... I picked it up used. One day it just cracked I wasn't even playing it hard. I just figured it might have been abused prior to me buying it. The cymbals I play now are pretty much a B20 style... the Wuhan S series... I'd call them a medium thickness cymbal. I bash the hell out of them and they withstand everything I give them.