Saito Mallets Takashi Ohi Signature Soft Vibraphone Mallets

Comments:

At the moment, these are my favorite mallets. Although the heads are not small, they are not as much like the original Albrights as I'd imagined they would be, but there are advantages, as well. They are significantly lighter than Albrights (and lighter, of course, than the fine Stefon Harris Malletech Albrights, as well, and better balanced, at least for me), with smaller heads. Basically, they are sort of like a hybrid of Albright-ishness and a more traditional mallet (I guess like some of the better older Mussers), with short handles. The sound is pretty soft (the main drawback is they lack some of the meatiness of the tone of original Albrights), but the lightness makes them wonderfully agile, and they hold up to heavy playing extremely well (no weird overtones when really bashing them, too). The tone is more Lionel than Milt -- I don't think these mallets could be any more perfect for playing swing-era vibes (and they sound great in bop, too). The harder model is a little too harsh, so I stick to this softer model (plus the Stefon Albrights... I'm usually too afraid to wear out my old original Albrights). If these are in stock again, you should definitely give them a try!

Date Posted:

Posted By:

Rating: