A letter from ...

Mark Petrocelli
Domestic Sales
Pro-Mark Corporation

The history of the S.S. Professor model:

I came up with the idea to do the S.S. Professor sticks.  The stick imprint was designed specifically for the drumset/clinic tour that included master drum tech Lorne Wheaton.  When the idea was pitched here in the office and to the retailers, everyone thought I was nuts!  The biggest factor that I had to convey was that we are in this business and we take a lot of this stuff for granted.  We always have to remember what it is like to be a fan!  The average Joe does not get to experience things like this, so what better souvenir to take away, than a limited edition pair of Neil's drumsticks.

The sticks were only made available to those participating tour stop stores.  The locations that had e-commerce sites were permitted to sell the sticks online (Example) Musicians Friend etc.

The first run of sticks that was produced for the US only was around 903 pairs.  Each pair had a list/MAP price of $19.95 and came with a certificate of authenticity which I designed.  Each certificate has the tour locations listed at the bottom.

Once the tour was in route we received calls from all over the world about these sticks, it truly was amazing.  We received lots of calls and e-mails from Canada in particular about the dissatisfaction of the drums not being displayed in Neil's home country.  We had to refer these folks to Sabian who was in charge of routing out the stops.

Not long after the US tour was over 4 Canadian stops were added.  We did another batch of the PW747WLE (S.S. Professor Model) specifically for the Canadian stops.  To honor Canada we re-did the certificates which not only included 3 of the 4 new locations listed but now with a red Canadian maple leaf and the US flag.  The last stop on the tour (Sam the Music Man) did not get added simply because there was not enough time for us to do so; it was a last minute addition.  288 pair was sold to Canada via our Canadian distributor.

All in all thus far we have produced 2,609 pairs. Only 1,191 pairs have actually been released worldwide.  The remaining 1,418 pairs will stay here in case of future S.S. Professor dates.

Mark Petrocelli
November 2005