News

Drum Company Pioneer Vic Firth Passes Away Aged 85

• 27th Jul 2015

Glasswerk is saddened today by the news that Everett “Vic” Firth has passed away aged 85. He was born June 2, 1930, in Winchester, Massachusetts.

A statement on his official website reads:

“Vic was an inspiration to all of us. He was a visionary, a mentor, a leader and a friend. He always said he surrounded himself with the best people, but the truth is he brought out the best in all of us. His boundless passion for music and musicians drove every decision he made.

Vic’s spirit and legacy will continue to live at the core of the Vic Firth Company. He will be missed beyond words.”

Firth was an American musician and the founder of Vic Firth Company (formerly Vic Firth, Inc.), manufacturers of percussion sticks and mallets. Founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the company bills itself as the world’s largest manufacturer of drum sticks and mallets, which are made in Newport, Maine.

Firth hand-whittled the first sticks himself from bulkier sticks and sent these prototypes to a wood turner in Montreal. The two prototypes that he sent would become the SD1 and SD2, the first two models of sticks manufactured by Vic Firth, Inc.

Speaking on the creation of the range, Firth commented “It came out of necessity, not of imagination or my ability to start a company.”

Watch a 2014 interview with Firth here: