Description
Promark Mike Portnoy Signature Drumsticks
As a founding member of Prog-Metal legends Dream Theater, the man behind Promark Mike Portnoy signature sticks has forged a career beyond his contentious departure from the band which started out at Berklee College of Music. Seemingly never out of demand, Mike continues to tread in the pathways of his drumming heroes, helping take the ‘Progressive’ music movement into the future.
Here’s Mike talking about his Promark sticks…
Each Promark signature drumstick comes from the exact specifications as required by the artist and the Promark Mike Portnoy 420 stick is a hickory shaft with a diameter of .531″ and length of 16⅛”. The neck of the stick forms its shape in a long, narrow taper, finished off with a nylon tip for pulling lots of bright definition from cymbals. But it doesn’t stop there…
Roll-on the 420X ‘Active Grip’
As Mike explains in the video, he needed a different stick to his regular 420 model more suitable for heavier playing, so the Promark Mike Portnoy 420X was created. This is a thicker hickory stick, coming in at a .565″ diameter and with a length of 16¼”, is a little bit longer than his regular woods. Mike opted for an oval wood-tip instead of nylon on this model and the whole stick is finished in Promark’s patented ‘ActiveGrip’ coating which becomes slightly tacky as the stick warms in the player’s hand, preventing slippage.
So there you have it folks, two different sticks for different musical strokes!
All Promark drumsticks are designed, engineered, and manufactured in the USA at their Texas facility, to the most stringent quality controls in the industry, delivering a consistency and quality throughout every model, from the bottom of the shaft, to the end of the tip (stop it please Finbarr).
