Designed in collaboration with renowned educator Steve Fidyk, the Swing model has a “double taper”, meaning that it is slightly thicker towards the middle of the stick than in the grip and then finishes with a very quick and thin taper. This produces a stick that possesses great sensitivity and exceptionally fast rebound. American Hickory dowels have to meet very strict quality characteristics to be made into a Vater drumstick. Vater's Hickory is stress released which is done by slowly raising the temperature at the end of the drying cycle for 8 hours. This relieves the stress in the wood and produces straight sticks that stay straight.