Keyboard mallets - Birch or Rattan?

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tSz42

Keyboard mallets - Birch or Rattan?

Post by tSz42 » Tue Mar 01, 2005 10:48 pm

Our HS has finally gotten around to raising some money and now our pit has a chance to get a full new set of keyboard mallets. The only question is, should I go birch or rattan handled mallets?
I will definetly go rattan for the vibes, but for the marimba I'm not sure if I should go with birch or rattan. I like rattan handle mallets because they seem to have a bigger (radius-wise) grip than birch, which is better for my students' small hands (on the girls at least).

Anyways, anyone else have any preferences on mallets or maybe some advice / technical specs on which to choose over the other?

thanks.

PS - So far I'm looking at the Ney Rosauro and James Ancona series from Innovative Percussion. Also the new Corpsmaster Multi-application series keyboard mallets from Vic Firth.

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Post by RCMusic » Tue Mar 01, 2005 11:29 pm

Indoor or outdoor?
Will the Marimba's be playing 2 or 4?
What type of music are you playing?

In my personal collection of mallets, I only have ratan, can't stand birch.
I do feel, however, less experienced players get a better response from birch as they are building chops and technique especially with the marimba.

It also depends how load you want them to play. Ratan bends out of shape alot faster than birch breaks outdoors....so I use birch for outdoor and ratan for concert and softer playing in indoor for my group.

I think more importantly is the choice of mallet for the instrument and the sound you want out of the instument. Hard/soft/med. Stand back and make sure they are getting good sounds and not plunking....but you probalby already know that.

Good luck.

tSz42

Post by tSz42 » Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:22 am

Well they will be used both for indoor and outdoor. For now, indoor. Marimbas will be playing both 2 and 4 mallets. As for music... The begining of the show starts off with a happy feeling, nothing hard or plunky yet, and also nothing soft. The second song starts off soft. So I really like the rattan handle mallets for that. But then changes into a very harsh, plunky, angry feel. And for the ending... I think something in the middle, nothing too harsh and nothing soft.

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Post by =l==l==l= » Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:36 pm

vic firth is best.....



ensemble series?

jimmy? how bout it?

tSz42

Post by tSz42 » Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:20 pm

uhh, sorry - I will never buy ensemble series! I doubt I would use them even if you gave them to me.

I'm leaning toward these three. Which ever I can get a good deal on / get the fastest.
Vic Firth - Corpsmaster Multi-Application series
Innovative Percussion - Ney Rosauro series
Pro-Mark - Catherine Float series

PS - don't ever use my real name on these boards. Call me... sensei

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Post by Tcbdrummer » Thu Mar 03, 2005 8:21 am

The Promark Jeff Moore series are what I have my line using and the are awesome. Great projection without being "plunky". And they are extremely durable. The heads have yet to start fraying and the kids have been using them 5 days a week for the past 4 months. The Marimba mallets are birch but the shaft is thicker. The Vibe mallets are the thick rattan. Pro Mark also just had the Cathrine Float Series come out. I have yet to try these but I have heard people who are close to cathrine say some great things. I know that all the handles are rattan and the heads are cord wrapped. Anyhoo, thats my two cents.

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South Torrance HS

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Post by Survivor » Thu Mar 03, 2005 12:52 pm

Corpsmaster for my school.....but hey its a good idea just to buy a lot of differnt and see what the kids like...and what they dont like can be practice mallets or take home mallets so they dont mess up the good ones you know.....
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Post by Teever » Thu Mar 03, 2005 10:15 pm

A lot of kids, especially those with small hands, have trouble holding 4 mallets with a Stevens grip if you're using the thicker rattan. With a Burton/Musser grip on vibes the rattan seems to be great though. Also, most of the birch shafts seem to be longer than the rattan, allowing for extended intervals. The rattan have a nice spring to them for softer passages, especially if you're using 2 mallets. No rattan for xylophone though!

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Post by PercussionAndAllThatJazz » Fri Mar 04, 2005 7:30 am

I agree with Teever. I personally use birch for everything but vibes, just because I don't like having too much give, but there are others who like it for just the same reason. My schools line uses rattan on vibes, birch on everything else, though I believe we have a pair of xylo mallets that are rattan, and they have a pretty beefy sound.
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Post by cobybos » Fri Mar 04, 2005 9:17 am

Innovative Percussion has the best stuff on the market right now, IMHO. All of the wrapped mallets have a nice fundamental core that illicits a full sound from the keyboard. The James Campbell Series of Xylo. mallets feel great and are pretty durable. Both the Cassella and Ancona Series feel great on marimba and vibes. I'm not a big fan of the newer corpsmaster series from VF except for the Jeff Lee's and the harder Brian Masons which feel closer to IP than other VF mallets.

Rattan is also less consistent than birch, especially from Vic Firth. Quite often you will get mismatched pair of mallets with one mallet shaft being noticably thicker than the other.

Rattan is good for vibes since it does have more give and you can manipulate the mallet a little more for special techniques, pitch bending etc...
With a Burton/Musser grip on vibes the rattan seems to be great though.
Since I don't think everyone knows, Steven's grip is a modified Musser grip or an independant grip in which the mallets lay in seperate parts of the hand. The Burton grip is an altered traditional or cross-grip in which the shafts create in "X" in your hand
A lot of kids, especially those with small hands, have trouble holding 4 mallets with a Stevens grip if you're using the thicker rattan.
Yes they do, excellent point Teever. I have actually changed my method of teaching in regards to Stevens grip. For the young high school player, it is the hardest grip to learn, the least practical and is horrible on the hands. Because the grip is so advanced, there are not a lot of instructors who have taken the time to go through Steven's book to learn the correct technique. Many students are getting the "Dummies Guide to Steven's" lesson.

I teach Steven's in my private lesson studio but teach cross-grip/traditional to new four-mallet players. Results are quicker and it is a technique that is easily figured out by the student after benig taught the fundamentals of the grip. Traditional is also much easier on smaller hands.

Sorry to go off topic.



Gabe

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Post by krshootingstar » Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:08 pm

At my school, we actually have a pretty wide variety of birch and rattan mallets. The reasoning behind this is that it really just comes down to the prefrences of each individual person. There are some great professional percussionists out there that play only with rattan and some out there that play only with birch. Therefore, at school, we have the learning experience to find out what kind of mallet handle we like the best.

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Post by drummer_chica156 » Mon Mar 07, 2005 3:07 pm

I talked to some people at school about this question. The overall feeling is that ratans bend but no one has seen one broken. Personally, I use both. Ratans for softer playing and birches for loud stuff.

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Post by MalleTragic » Mon Mar 07, 2005 9:24 pm

Personally, I like using rattan for most everything, except for maybe fast solo marimba works.

If you can, try and find a friend who owns mallets that you can borrow. Test them out with your line, see what the kids like, see what you like, and make a decision from there. Mallets are expensive, and you shouldn't risk losing your money to something someone else prefers that you may find inadequate.
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Encore

Post by RCMusic » Sat Mar 12, 2005 4:13 pm

Lots of great suggestions....I did forget to mention in my earlier post, if you have the opprotunity to get ahold of some Encore Mallets, do so. I used these all through college as did most of the percussion performance majors...as did the masters student's who were coming from other colleges...At least for marimba and vibes.

They are hard to find but I still feel they are the best I have played with. We tried some new marching sets last year and I was very pleased with them.

www.encoremallets.com

Again, good luck.

Reggie Cordero
Monrovia High School

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Post by PercussionAndAllThatJazz » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:15 pm

AMEN Reggie!
I'm such an Encore junkie. I always order mine through Steve Weiss. Awesome awesome stuff. Plus encore has put out a new line of "front ensemble" mallets. Score for the field team!
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