Interesting yet simple question in my opinion Jim. It doesn't matter what grip you use. If your a good drummer you can make any kit sound good regardless of what grip you use. Put Buddy Rich on a new Pulse or Sound Percussion set made in China out of plywood and he is going to sound incredible. But if you put your 10 year old kid on a vintage high dollar kit he probably will sound like crap. I took lessons for 8 years from an old Jazz player who played traditional grip and he taught to play matched grip because he thaught it was easier to play. So I think there is no right or wrong way to hold your sticks, it's what you do with your sticks when you hold them.

I'm going to have to go ahead and say yes. Vintage drums will sound great with either grip.

Not to toot my own horn here, but one of the best compliments I've ever gotten was in a recording studio. I was playing a set of 60's Slingerland drums and the engineer had a friend hanging out in the control room. After a few minutes of listening the friend asked the engineer what he had done to the drums/mic's to get this great new sound "out of the drums." The engineer replied "Nothing... it's how he's hitting them."

The above engineer is also a drummer who purchased a *restomod Kent snare from me after hearing one of mine. It's now his favorite live and recording snare.

It's not the grip it's the player... and maybe the drums, just a little :)

p.s. I play matched grip, as taught, by a very talented Big Band drummer - Go figure.

* restomod is a Hotrod term meaning restored and modified.

Even in this oh so modern age, 2 years ago, I was taught to hold my sticks "the right way" and that was traditional grip. Never questioned it, just felt awkward until I got use to it.

I occasionally use matched, otherwise I am traditional all the way.

It's a good idea to practice both ways.

I do and I find some things easier with traditional and other things easier with matched.

What was kind of interesting to me.. after some limited and very non-scientific research was that the posture of the player over the kit and the angle of the snare and toms seemed to be very different between traditional grippers and matched grippers...

The drums seemed much "flatter" for traditional grippers... It just struck me as curious (in my limited research) and I wondered if the construction of the mounts and range of motion of the mounts might have been influenced by the popularity of the matched grip... OR maybe the matched grip allowing the left elbow to stay low even when the left drum (mostly tom) is tipped dramatically inward just changed the way people set up their kits..

Did any "golden era" drummers play with a matched grip.

I have been told by a few 'jazz heads' that you will never be able to swing properly with playing match grip. However, I always have 2 words for them...Bill Stewart!

That's all I have.

-Kevin

Yep. Bill swings his azz off. But I think that swing is essentially a non-technical aspect of playing, however. When I say "non-technical", I mean in a sense of being kind of like a special personality trait. Like, for example, the way Billy Higgins placed the swing is completely different from where Bill Stewart places it...and, yet, they both swing. So, technical aspects of grip don't necessarily apply to the concept of swing...in my opinion.

Or to put it another way... That's complete bull!

Grip has NOTHING to do with swing, feel, groove or whatever you call it.

I've also tried trad. grip and other than the fact that it's just not for me, the only thing I noticed was that it was a bit easier to play more quietly. Not to say that I couldn't play softly with a matched grip, but it was more work than with trad. grip.

One the rare occasion where I need to be whisper quiet, I WILL use trad. grip, so long as I don't need much in the way of fancy snare chops. I just can't get much speed with trad. grip (I know, practice it more).

All that said, there is something magical about watching Buddy Rich and those incredible snare chops he had... and all with trad. grip!!

Being new to drumming I did not realize this is an oft discussed topic and one which can inspire some emotion.. I have since found some other discussions that have gotten really fired up about this topic.

There is a whole physics lesson around the traditional grip that seems always to get the fight started.

I reckon maybe I should have left well enough alone....DOH