Mallets... soft felt VS. hard felt?

Mallets... soft felt VS. hard felt? I am looking for a good set of mallets that:

1) Are great for cymbal rolls
2) Are great for dynamic tom playing
3) Have a decent weight to them similar to a regular stick

What would you guys recommend for a good diverse mallet? There are so many options!

Thanks!
Jesse
 
For years I've used the Vic Firth Swizzle stick which is basically a fat drum stick with a small ball tip on one end and a hard felt head on the other (almost like a felt bass drum beater, but smaller). They're balanced very well when I need something like that.
 
Cool. I will check them out. So these swizzle sticks, how soft/hard is the felt end on them? I am guessing softer would be better for cymbal rolls, but harder would be better for some dynamic tom work, right?
 
Cool. I will check them out. So these swizzle sticks, how soft/hard is the felt end on them? I am guessing softer would be better for cymbal rolls, but harder would be better for some dynamic tom work, right?

It's a "harder" felt, but if you warm up the cymbal with the first couple strokes of your roll, you won't hear their articulation on the cymbals.

Also, when the felt heads inevitably fall off (they will...), I suggest Gorilla Glue to reattach them.
 
Hmm. I looked at the swizzle sticks, but I'm still not sure. It's either the swizzle sticks, or a more standard timpani mallet like the Vic Firth T1 or something. http://www.vicfirth.com/products/americancustomtimpani.php

I think the swizzle stick could be cool if you needed to switch back and forth multiple times in a song. However, because of the taper and wood tip at the opposite end, I could see the T1 feeling a bit more balanced. I really need to compare these in store... if I could only find a store that stocks both.
 
For practicing your technique I'd go for Timpani mallets - the softer ones allow for smoother rolls - the harder ones will make you develop smoother technique.

You can also use the beaters for marching bass drums - these are really light and well balanced with a big head - my favourites are the ones with aluminium rods.
 
Well I tried a few in store today. I tried the SD-12 swizzle sticks, as well as the T1 timpani mallets by Vic Firth. They also had 4 or 5 other brands there which I took a brief look at, but the T1's were exactly what I was looking for: a good feeling stick (balance wise) and a little bit softer mallet than the swizzle sticks. They sounded great on the cymbals, but are still hard enough to do some tasteful tom work.

The swizzle sticks would be nice though if you wanted to switch in the middle of the song and use the stick tip. As mallets, the swzzles felt a little weird with the taper at the back of the stick. Of course this is just my opinion, and I am sure after an evening with them you'd get used the balance of the stick. I ended up getting the T1's though. Thanks everyone for your help!
 
Back
Top