I don't swipe when hitting the hi hats. I do have them set low enough to where I'm not bashing the edge. This makes my sticks last A LOT longer.

Depending on what volume I'm playing at, ill just hit with the tip of the stick, or use the tip and a small portion of the shaft. This will give you different volume levels.

speaking of hats im using a trans stamp bottom and its too tight on my ol luddy hat, causing a cupping sound only at high volume so im going to put a smaller cymbal plastic on a later rod as i want my bottom hat loose as a goose

Justin,

I just started another thread inspired by this post. I am going to try to get people to measure the height of their hats in the closed position from the floor. Might be interesting to see whats out there. Thanks.

Yea I don't play them as high as Dave Grohl does!! I'll have to measure and see... Good thread brother!

Thanks!

BTW, I love the Bob Ross quote in your signature. I grew up on him in the late 80s. In fact, I used a "Bob Ross" voice just the other day to help my four year old nephew fall asleep. Started talking about "happy clouds" and making up a non-sense story, he was out cold in about five minutes. Somehow, I think Bob would dig that. :)

Awesome! Glad you like it. I grew up watching bob too. You sound about my age, 31 this month.

32. I see you are in Galveston. I was born in Houston; lived their til about 1990. Cheers.

Most guys would play a straight ahead stroke on the hi-hat without angling. In very generic terms you would play with the tip of the stick on the top of the cymbal when playing lighter and more articulate passeges. Then begin graduating to the shoulder of the stick on the edge as you need a louder solution. Applied foot pressure will also drastically effect the sound. In an effort to protect your sticks and your hats you do want to avoid playing with sticks to low when on the edge. That is really not necessary and the difference between the stick angle between tip on top to shoulder on the side should be very subtle. In fact you should be able to move between both techniques in the same passage to create accents. Therefore, getting your hi-hats too high to comfortably play the tip on the bow of the cymbal is an issue. Often, when you see guys playing hats like that, they are generally just thrashing and also have endorsements so when they break their hats, they get free or fairly cheap replacements not to mention their stick endorsements.

Sorry I think I kind of get what your saying. Is it that you have a vintage bottom HH with a small hole, mounted on a modern Ludwig HH stand with a wide gauge plastic sleeve so the cymbal doesn't quite fit? It's a bit tight restricting movement and airflow particularly at loud volume? If so can you get thinner gauge fittings? That would be great, I have old Zyn's that give me the same problem.