Needed a set of my own mallets for college, so I figured i should go all in and get the nicer ones, and it was a good choice. marimba one mallets are masterfully crafted, and worth the somewhat intimidating price tag.
These mallets produce an excellent quality of sound. The Mycka Mallet Series are good for playing concertos, but I would recommend a medium hard mallet for the bass mallet and harder mallets for the other 3 for faster, louder movements.
Katarzyna mallets are among the best mallets I have used. The heavy metal core with rubber coating gives enough momentum to the mallet to project and enough rebound that they are not tiring to play. The KMB3's are quite articulate but not brittle and make an excellent choice for tutti sections where the marimba must be heard but still maintain the characteristic warmth of the instrument.
Great mallet for when you need to be bold. Very heavy (almost as heavy as the Balter supervibes mallets), which wears your hands out, but the return in sound is huge. These mallets are the first mallets I've played that can actually pull some low frequencies out of a yamaha marimba. This particular mallet speaks well from the bottom of the marimba to about half way through the highest octave. Sounds soft up high but has a nice, pleasant bite in the bottom half of the instrument. I am currently looking at stepping up to the KMB2s for the solo 2 part of Gillingham's Concertino for 4 Percussion and Wind Ensemble. I've knocked them down to a 4 because they are $60 a pair!
