how to build your mallet collection

[@ryancarlisle7909]

I am shamelessly obsessed with marimba mallets.... I have my favorite artists' mallet lines and love all of them. The characteristics of each are totally different and i love the possibility of being able to match my mood with my mallets. The possibilities are endless!

[@pork5129]

Ryan Carlisle which artists mallet series?

[@ryancarlisle7909]

pork Right now I have the She-e Wu series (minus the concerto mallets), Chin Cheng Lin’s, Casey Cangelosis, Ludwig Albert, Nanae Mimura, and Thomas Burritt, and I’ve been experimenting with Pius Cheung’s too

[@pork5129]

Ryan Carlisle I was recommended she e wu and i was looking for more opinions on them so thanks :)

[@ryancarlisle7909]

pork they’re my favorite mallets! Completely worth it IMO. They’re really light and the top three have multi-tonal capabilities. I’ve been able to do a lot with them

[@robknopperstudio]

true! i like that.

[@rainaliao8513]

step one have money

[@rainaliao8513]

Padraig Lindel as an asian female i think that my race and gender doesn't affect my online shopping

[@maxencedetraz4351]

softdrumsticks you buy only keiko abe mallets 😂😂 ( very good choice )

[@itdrum6554]

Brilliant, Rob, thank you, I am now the proud owner of two pairs of Malletech OR39R mallets (the brown ones) and sure enough they live up to your recommendation. Perfect for Xylo. Very happy.

[@robknopperstudio]

cool!

[@AnimationDiana]

I bought all my timpani mallets online. (I am obsessed with the Vic Firth American Custom brand.) If I didn't like how they sounded, I would buy the replacement felt online and craft felt at the art store, slice away the original felt on the mallets, cut and glue the craft felt on, stitch the other felt on, and fine-tune with a voicing tool. I replace everything at once so I'd have a fresh new set every few years. I really need only 4 to 6 pairs (soft, medium-soft, medium, medium-hard, hard, and wood).

[@JDD_Music_Press]

Great video. Nice editing. This is the quality we’re used to! I ordered A LOT of mallets in undergrad and now I have a handful of ones that I actually use. Having a lot looks cool but I wish I knew what I do now on selecting mallets.

[@robknopperstudio]

sounds like you and i had the same experience

[@ashlycordova4008]

Great video! What mallet bags do you use to store all those mallets?

[@robknopperstudio]

various ones that i've collected over the years. but my favorite one recently is the humes and berg galaxy bag! it's the p-bag rip off.

[@ashlycordova4008]

rob knopper thank you for answering! I was just gifted the humes and berg galaxy bag and I’m liking it 👍

[@markelperez886]

You should try playwood XB-10 for xylophone, playwood XG-101 for glock and concorde snare drum sticks. I tried them and they sound and feel so good😃

[@saisriv0304]

Hey Rob! I adore your videos and pdf's, but id love to have all the info compiled into a single place. Have you considered writing a book? It's hard to find a good guide to overall percussion and auditions .

[@robknopperstudio]

that’s a great idea! i’ve considered it but i haven’t gotten anywhere with it. what would the hook be? what big question would you want it to solve?

[@leocomerford]

I have one specific question about mallets: what's the classic, mainstream kind of mallet for playing orchestral suspended cymbal? Ideally with a recommendation for one or two specific makes and models, but mainly just the type of mallet (head material, size, hardness ...) which is standard to use. It's relatively easy to find mallet recommendations for the different pitched-percussion instruments but IME harder for suspended cymbal.

[@robknopperstudio]

i use mostly yarn and mostly medium firmness. there are a pair of encore nick petrella mallets and a tom freer pair, of freer percussion, that i use quite a bit. vibe mallets also work well on suspended cymbal!

[@leocomerford]

@@robknopperstudio Thank you, this really helps!

[@pork5129]

HELL YEA ROB

[@robknopperstudio]

back at ya!!

[@kheesheabritton]

Which brands do you use for timpani mallets?

[@robknopperstudio]

i use a lot of different brands of timpani mallets, including luft, freer, duff (whoever is making them these days), jg dave herberts, and a few other random ones like kaufmann. my current timpani mallet collection is a result of many different phases of interest in one brand, then moving to another brand, then another, and ending up with a diverse collection.

[@crimsun7186]

All mallets I have (around 8 pairs) were made by me. Mallets are very expensive where I live and i can't afford them. The bags they go in? Made by me as well. I just don't get why what's essentially a dowel with a tip and sometimes wrapped in felt or yarn costs more than 100 bucks with some reaching almost 300. And that's a single pair.

[@robknopperstudio]

where are you living where xylophone mallets are $300?

[@hmmm-fe8pi]

Yes, why not

[@michaelelliott4224]

Do you like Vic Firth mallets?

[@robknopperstudio]

i do use vic firth sometimes! who doesn't pull out some sd1s from time to time?

[@michaelelliott4224]

@@robknopperstudio Nice, but I was thinking more like keyboard percussion mallets such as xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and vibraphone. I'm sure Vic Virth makes mallets for those instruments. Would you ever like to have a complete collection of only Vic Firth xylophone mallets that have different textures of sounds like soft, medium, and hard?

[@robknopperstudio]

@@michaelelliott4224 i don't have that many thoughts on vic firth xylo/bell mallets - i'm sure there are good ones but i haven't used them much.

[@michaelelliott4224]

@@robknopperstudio Oh yeah. I would like to own a collection of that myself. I'm Vic Firth brand loyal. I start by purchasing a pair of M124 Robert Van Sice marimba mallets and M32 Terry Gibbs vibraphone mallets.

[@robknopperstudio]

@@michaelelliott4224 if i were you, i’d branch out and explore new sounds!