Vic Firth Lite Stix LED Drumsticks Review

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(More customer reviews)When a young drummer turned up his nose at the pair of these Vic Firth Lite Stix that his mom had given him as a present, I snapped up the chance to own these puppies at a bargain price. I had previously tried the plastic light-up sticks sold by another manufacturer, but their feel was terrible -- they were clearly not suitable for pro use.
The good news is, Lite Stix are indeed neat to watch in action -- as the photo shows, they seem to leave "streamers" of light in the air -- even if the viewer hasn't indulged in any magic mushrooms! By pushing the micro switches in the butt end of the sticks, you can switch between a variety of static colors, or enable one of three dazzling color phasing states, fast, medium, and slow. Holding in the switches for half a second turns the lights off.
Drummers should note that you are instructed NOT to use the butt ends of these sticks to play -- you may damage the circuitry, apparently. The sticks take eight hours to charge fully, and you need to use the special Y USB cable included that lets you charge both sticks simultaneously for proper charging.
But the bad news is that Lite Stix are anything but -- they're pretty massive. A pair of regular Vic Firth 5A sticks weigh in at 3-5/8 oz. compared to these monsters, which weigh in at a porky 5-1/2 oz. That's a lot of extra inertia to overcome, whether you're moving from one drum surface to another or executing an especially fast figure.
I had originally hoped to use these for my solo number, but I use them instead for the set-closing numbers which require less finesse. I doubt anyone but a loud and drunken sod like John Bonham would want to use these for a complete set. Lite Stix are also good to use as practice sticks -- if you can wield these clubs to your satisfaction, you should be able to carry on like Buddy Rich with your regular pair.
I think Lite Stix also need to come down in price. I have found Vic Firth sticks to be VERY durable -- I'm still using the same two pairs of 5A's I've had for several years now. So Lite Stix are likely to hold up well (especially if you only use them for a song or two per set), but when the built-in batteries stop taking a charge, you can't replace the batteries.
I suggest that Vic Firth consider reducing the size (and capacity) of the batteries in these. The sticks are rated to light up continuously for up to 10 hours; most drummers will only need them to light up for a few hours at most. Smaller internal batteries might enable some weight savings. I also don't know where exactly the battery or circuitry now live inside the sticks, but if VF moved the heaviest components to the centers of the sticks, that might lessen their inertia and improve their speed as well.
So I would say Lite Stix currently are 75% of the way to being a fabulous product. Let us hope that VF's clever engineers can bring them up to 100%.

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