Compared to other hotrods, the HedRods have an additional rubber ring. This provides much more flexibility in the adjustment of the handling and has direct influence on the sound.
A Hotrod always feels a little "softer" than a tipper made of solid wood. This property can be changed in asurprisingly large range:
The front ring: this is used to set the "click behaviour" of the rods, the farther forward it sits, the less the rods move during impact, the typical clicking noise decreases. Of course it then follows that the click sound increases the further you move the ring towards the handle, because the rods have more freedom to move. Depending on the design of the rods, a sound similar to that produced by jazz brushes can be achieved.
The two rear rings: You can determine how solid the Hedrod feels by adjusting these. For example, if the front ring is at the very end of the HedRod and the two rear rings close to the handle, a very clear attack close to that of a solid tipper will be the result, however, it will still have the softer feel of a hodrod.
The reason for this is that the rods can move considerably between the foremost O-ring and the top of the handle - this causes energy to be dampened and you will feel a less attacking response. At the same time, less ‘unsprung mass’ hits the drum head and a lower bass volume is the result. In short, you can now adjust the movement by moving the rings.