September's stick of the month is the Rogers Louie Bellson Model, or "Mode" as it says on the stick. Bellson is credited with originating the concept of using two bass drums. A superb drummer and composer, Bellson's contributions are often eclipsed by his contemporaries.

Louie was a Rogers endorser (1959 - 1973) after leaving Gretsch. In its heyday, Rogers was graced with both Louie and Buddy playing what were considered state of the art drums for many players.

The Bellson stick measures 15 7/8" with a diameter of .502" It features a pronounced olive bead tip and a moderate taper starting 2/3 of the way from the butt end. Weight on each stick is 34 grams and 41 grams respectively.* The Rogers catalog has the length description a bit longer, but we’re not always dealing with absolutes.

Personally, I kind of like the small style of the Rogers printing simply because it allows us to pay attention to the stick visual instead of giant lettering and logos. Another era, I suppose.

I should also give a big shout out to David Poradzisz. David’s a Chicago drum restorer whom I met at the 2017 Chicago Drum show. He was kind enough to gift these sticks to me, a greatly appreciated gesture.

Lastly, you’ll notice we slipped the NOS sticks out of the clouded plastic wrapping for the photo. While this might be cringe-worthy for some collectors, my view is to enjoy the sticks out of the bag. I’ll make certain not to use them on my Death Metal gig.

*This is not unusual with vintage sticks.