Malletech Orchestral Series OR48R Extra Hard Rattan Xylo/Bell Mallets

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I'm a beginner in orchestra percussion. When I started playing bells, I was nearly inaudible, a combination of lack of experience and courage, and awful student mallets. My teacher recommended the OR39R as a middle-of-the-road universal mallet for bells and xylophone, and when ordering, I threw the OR48R in on a lark, thinking that the heavy weight might help with something. They worked perfectly: For the first time ever I got berated by the conductor for being too loud, and overpowering the flute section! Both the OR39 and the OR48 seem to give the bell kit a more singing sound (even though they are pretty hard), without too much attack. For some things (like Christmas tunes) the cheerful clink-clink sound of brass mallets is obviously more appropriate, but with these, the bell kit feels more like a melody instrument and less percussive. The OR39 is easier to control at low volume, and the lighter weight makes fast passages more accurate (with my awful skills, wrong notes or bad hits are unfortunately still a fact of life). For a technically skilled percussionist, the weight-versus-speed tradeoff might be different. The heavy OR48 makes f to ff passages and solos easy, without having to whack the bell kit like a maniac. Don't know whether such hard mallets are suitable for a (wood-key) xylophone; I need to check that before I damage our band's instrument.

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These mallets are great for the really loud stuff! Definitely recommend more use on Glockenspiel overall than Xylophone, but still, highly recommended!

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