Well, I made the switch to Pro-Mark sticks from the Ahead brand sticks and I could not be happier. The sticks break more but they are so much more responsive, especially the Portnoy signatures. I really like these because they have the taper of a 747 stick but they have a smaller diameter than the normal 747 American Hickory sticks which makes them a lot easier to control and do fast stickings with. Overall I really like these sticks.