True to the Description
- Rating
- Posted by
- Alex
- Date Posted
- 04/25/2011
As mentioned in the Marimba One's description, the IBB4 is indeed quite heavy, especially for a mallet that built for chorales and extending rolling sections. It is labeled as being harder than the IBB3, which I would disagree with-- they are of very similar hardness, only differing in that the IBB4, possessing a larger, more massive head, sounds softer in the top two octaves, and the IBB3, having a smaller head, sounds a little harder in the bottom bars. They are indeed quite bouncy, which helps manipulate them in spite of their weight. I would tend not to use them in the right hand, except for soft pieces (note, however: being tightly wound, they are not ideal for rolling). Overall, they produce an exceptionally powerful, fundamentally-rich tone without being too soft. They can be articulate, especially in the bottom two octaves, without sacrificing sound quality, and are the polar opposite of a brittle mallet.