After much experimenting, Joe perfected the idea. A drumstick with a nylon tip that stayed on, didn't shatter and produced a sound pleasing to the ear. In fact, the sound was so pleasing it helped define the musical styles of the day with its signature clarity on the drumheads and ride cymbals. His contribution to the percussion industry was recognized by the Percussive Arts Society when the organization inducted Joe into the Hall of Fame in 2001.

Joe Calato's invention signaled a revolution in percussion manufacturing and design that continues today. Joe took it as his mission to upgrade the lowly drumstick, beginning with the quality of the wood; the drying of the wood; the famous Regal Tip finish; inspection for straightness of grain; weight, knots, warp; and finally the matching and pairing of sticks. To this day the drum world credits Joe Calato with establishing modern standards in drumstick design and crafting.

The creativeness and innovation of Regal Tip continues today. At the PAS convention in 2003, Regal Tip introduced Joe's revolutionary new nylon tip drumstick, the "E-Series". For years Joe had been determined to invent a nylon tip stick which would offer a darker, warmer sound on a cymbal, a wood tip sound. Just as the original nylon tip drumstick was the significant drumstick development in the 20th century, our new "E-Series" just may prove the same for the 21st century.

Regal was the first of today's major drumstick companies to have always manufactured its own products. All manufacturing takes place on our premises in Niagara Falls. This allows us to control quality, innovate new products in our state-of-the-art machine shop, and design and build machinery to ensure consistency.

This is but the beginning of a long history of innovation. The company has secured numerous patents and, as we speak, there are patents pending and numerous new ideas on the drafting table. The Regal Tip line has grown over the last 50 years to include the world's most popular line of drum brushes, timpani mallets, practice pads and the most impressive line of specialty sticks on the market today.

Most recently Regal Tip was honored with m.i.p.a.'s "Best Drumsticks" award for its X-Series sticks. This international recognition was the decision of 55 magazines from 40 countries around the world.

“It’s remarkable that in our 31st year, the excitement level of coming to work is every bit as much now as when we started,” DW Founder and President Don Lombardi says.

It all began in 1972 when Don, at age 26, opened a small teaching studio in Santa Monica, Calif. He called the studio Drum Workshop, offering both private lessons and monthly workshops.

“My fascination with drums started at 12 with a neighborhood teacher at a local music store,” Don recalls. “Over the years, I had such great experiences with renowned teachers that as my love for playing drums grew, so did my love for learning and teaching about drums. The day I got my driver’s license, I started driving to teach at a local music store where I had taken lessons.”

Seeing an ad for Drum Workshop in the Yellow Pages, John Good, now DW’s Vice President, signed up for lessons at age 17 to improve his drumming and reverse what he refers to as “bad drumming habits.”

“After three months of lessons, Don approached me and said, ‘You know, I’ve had lots of successful students. I don’t think you’re going to be one of them’,” John says laughing. “So I said, ‘Great…now what are we going to do?’”

Realizing that overhead was eating up his profits, Don brought in investors and additional teachers and began selling sticks, books and drums to help subsidize the expenses. Hiring John as a part-time sales manager, the two spent hours discussing different ways to improve the art of drumming through improving drum products.

“That’s how the spark and enthusiasm got started,” John recalls. “We would talk for hours about our ideas for creating better products. Before we knew it, we were working together.”

Out of these brainstorms came the first DW product: Don’s new design for a height-adjustable trap-case seat. Selling about a dozen seats a month, John quit his day job and went to work full-time for Don.

“After teaching all day, we would move the drum sets to the side and bring out the tables to make the seats,” Don remembers. “Then I’d usually leave for my playing job, and John would stay into the night to build the seats and fill the orders. I even bought a sewing machine to sew on the top of the seats, but John put his foot down and said, ‘No sewing: I don’t sew.’”

When DW received a purchase order for 100 seats from Camco Drum Co., Don and John realized that they had an innovative product that would sell. Thirty years later, DW is now offering a new version of the trap-case adjustable seat, made out of a lighter weight material, called the 6100 Adjustable Trap-Case Seat.

“I always dreamed about creating a lighter weight seat, but we didn’t have the money to do it back then,” Don says. “I’m as confident about this new seat as I was when we made our first design.”

However, when DW created the original trap case seat, they had the capacity and personnel to create only a dozen seats a month, not 100. Don was still teaching and playing a nightly gig while John built the products. Shortly thereafter, Camco Drum Co. owner Tom Beckman approached Don in 1977 with an offer to sell him Camco’s machinery, dies and molds, everything it took to make Camco drums and hardware—everything except the Camco name itself. This gave Don the opportunity to expand his capacity for creating the seats and to expand his product line. At that point, Don made the decision to accept the offer and change the direction of Drum Workshop from teaching and selling to manufacturing.

“The idea of failing never really occurred to me,” Don remarks. “Based on our mini-success with the seat, we had learned that if we could offer drummers products that would improve their drumming, we could be successful. Of course, having a desire to go into manufacturing and having the money to do so are two different things.”

Borrowing most of the money from his parents and some from outside investors, Don purchased Camco’s tooling and reintroduced the Camco 5000 nylon strap bass drum pedal under the DW name. The pedal was refined to improve consistency, quietness, smoothness and adjustability of its mechanical operation. As the pedal was rapidly becoming “the drummer’s choice,” Don continued to search for ways to further improve it.

The addition of the Chain & Sprocket drive system in 1980 not only vastly improved the DW pedal, but also helped set it apart from others on the market. Three years later, DW introduced a double bass drum pedal that incorporated a unique linkage with universal joints. DW’s 5002 Double Pedal not only filled a need and solidified DW’s position in the market as innovators, it ushered in a whole new era in drumming since, for the first time, single bass drum players could now use both feet to create new rhythms and increase speed. Throughout the ‘80s, DW created other innovative DW hardware, such as the rotating two-leg 5500T and the remote (cable) 5502LB hi-hat stands, to meet the needs of DW Pedal endorsers like Travis Barker, Abe Laboriel Jr., Vinnie Colaiuta, Gary Novak and Carter Beauford.

The patented design of HORNETS ™ drumsticks offers an ergonomic, contoured handle along with rubber “O-rings? designed to relieve forearm pressure and reduce shock to the wrist. Made from first quality American hickory and hard rock maple, HORNETS™ drumsticks fit comfortably in the hand to function as a natural extension of the drummer’s arm.

We believe that drumsticks, like anything, contain inherent artistic value, and we are eager to share our artistic vision with you. We hope you enjoy playing with HORNETS™ drumsticks as much as we have enjoyed designing them.