Hey everyone, I am new to this site. I figured this community would be a good place to ask people for help. In school I am a high school senior in an engineering class. I have been on drumline for two years playing tenors. Me and a couple other guys on our drumline are working on this project in engineering to create an automatic drum stick wrapping machine. I would like to see what you guys think about the idea. I putup a survey online and we would really appreciate all the feedback we can get. It's only 9 questions so if you have time, please check it out. I put the link on the bottom. Thanks everyone!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8GS9K9V

Wrapping sticks doesn't take enough time or effort to have any kind of machine do it. It also isn't scrutinized closely enough to need machine accuracy. I wouldn't buy it or recommend it.

However, and on the other hand, you're totally on the right track! I don't know of a more cult-like instrument group than percussion. You don't see too many clarinet clinics and internet forums going on. But there seems to be a whole lot of percussion/drumming related community stuff going on all the time. If you come up with a product that makes the life of a drummer significantly easier, it will be bought and you will profit.

Bill Bachman's products are a really good example. He has a remote hi-hat, and a whole line of marching pads. The common denominator with his pads and his hi-hat are they fix significant problems drummer's face or offer something drummers could definitely use. So think about some things that you run into as you play that are problematic or something you feel would be really useful to a lot of players. Once you find something, invest in solving the problem. Taping sticks really isn't any kind of problem, so no one will buy something to fix a non-existent problem.

You're on the right track, think of some other ideas. However, wrapping sticks by machine is definitely a no go

I think Sfz is right, cool idea but not really a call for it yet.

Here is a YouTube video on how a graphite Fly fishing rod is made, notice at a 1:20 they use a tape machine to wrap the rod before it is put in a oven. Maybe this will further your idea along.

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=N1TcouAIZ84

Thanks a lot guys. The feedback is Really helpful. I see what y'all mean. Unfortunately we're already a little too far into everything to stop working on the idea. We would most likely be targeting schools or corps so we aren't expecting to get a large demand for individual purchase. I understand what you mean though. We just had an idea and kind of went with so now that's what we're stuck with for the rest of the class. Thank you again guys.

Hell I say go for it. The drummer that has to have everything would snatch it up easily. People that make products you need make good money. People that make products you WANT make a fortune. If anything it would make a fun conversation piece next to the drum set, snare whatever you may have. The Rick Beckhams of the would would snatch them up as fast as you could make them just cause its drum related and cool.

I put in the survey that you may be better off just making one and selling pre-taped sticks or making a few and selling to the stick companies so they can sell pre-taped sticks. Most schools don't have the discretionary funds to buy things like that. I'm not sure of how your device is going to work but one thing to look at is different tape patterns. Some people only tape about half of the stick. Some people tape the whole thing. Some do just a little bit at the butt end and most of the top leave a space for your hand. A lot of college lines do a stripe at the start of the shaft. Just things to think about.

I agree with all above statements ^^^

I feel like this would be a bit of a good novelty/useful instrument. Often times when I'm taping up sticks, it's in a five minute period before a show and it would be nice to set my mind at ease by taping a stick quickly with that, then trying to tape one well enough before a show.

But this is my own procrastinator ways that most other people don't deal with, anyways. Lol

Im in an engineering program too =D but as many have stated, i think it doesn't take long enough to tape one stick for it to be annoying. The more you do it, then the faster you get