Malletech Leigh Howard Stevens LS10 Soft–Medium Hard Birch Marimba Mallets

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These mallets have the harshest sound if you're not being extremely carful. Because of how hard it is to control the tone on these mallets, it really takes away any musicality a musician might have, because they're too focused on not getting a harsh tone. and the softer tone is really thin because the mallets are so light. Also the yarn is so loose that over time, the mallet heads elongate because the stitch on the yarn towards the bottom of the mallet slides down the shaft slowly. Not worth $40. Wouldn't even recommend them to anyone if they were free.

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My intention for which I bought the mallets did not align with the product I received. This is not at the fault of Malletech, but more likely Steve Weiss for leaving out information that Malletech later provided alongside the product. Malletech described the purpose of the Stevens' line of mallets to be "the smoothest rolling, least 'slappy' mallets." I was unaware of this when I made my decision to buy. Also, I would say that these mallets specifically do not approach a "medium-hard" volume or even "medium". They also do not speak that clearly in all registers. They're rather soft which I expected, but they lack a distinct attack sound. I'm not saying this trait is a negative one, just not what I was looking for or expected to receive.

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The Leigh Howard Stevens series is renowned for its multi-tonal properties and that is certainly what you can expect from the LS10. I would mainly use them for milder pieces that still use a fair amount of energy and rhythm - no slow chorales, as they don't have the softness to be primarily rolling mallets, and certainly no songs that require a great deal of cutting in the upper register, though they still come through quite well up to the highest octave when necessary. One of the mallets I received seems to have a loose component in the core, resulting in a clicking noise at times, though this is again only in one mallet and may be a rare defect. I have been using them for at least an hour daily for the past month and a half and they are only experiencing very minor fraying.

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