These beaters are the best in my opionion. I think Tama really hit a home run with these detachable beaters. It's efficient as you are not required to be a new metal rod each time you need a new beater. I have the entire range - felt, rubber and wood. My favourite, which is an entirely subjective and application dependant (you wouldn't use the wooden one at a jazz gig) is the wood. The wooden one has lots of attack and not as much sustain. As I use 2 mics this one is perfect for the inside mic and I use the outside mic to balance my sustain. If I was only using one mic I would use either the felt whic has the most balanced tonality or the rubber if I wanted a more slappy quality to the bass drum. The tonality of the rubber beater is in between the felt and wood. The rubber attack has a slightly different quality to the wood and to my ear sounds slightly slappier whereas the wood is very aggressive.