I will tell you the truth: I love it, it's best rub mallet I have and I have a lot of these. It sings on all surfaces and instruments. I use it for gongs, frame drums, cymbals, double bass. I collected tones of other friction mallets because I use them a lot on recordings and I need to keep the sound fresh all the time. They are better than extremely expensive (around 200Euro incl. customs & shipping from U.S.) B Love Sacred Sound Mallets or any others like so called -"Lava" type, egg type, Meinl's, etc.). This Mike Balter's are best and worth this silly high amount for just 3 rubber balls on a stick - I know, it should be max 10 Euro. But it's not. And they are 3 of them, all them sound different, and yes... they are fragile! Because they are so good - they are fragile, it's an instrument and should be treated that way.
1. They break, not the first day of course but after a year they might.
They are made of some carbon fibre, it's great material, flexible and strong, but if you press too much - might break. I still use broken one- just different way.
2. Rubber ball-heads will fall of the stick, one or all of them.
Ok, I glue them back, use two-component epoxy glue. Don't use "10 sec instant glue" they contain some chemicals that dissolves the rubber. Fixable problem. It's not a big deal because all other products are not much better in this matter. Just glue it and that's all.
3. They tend to crumble and it's a sign you need to get another set. I bought second one after 2 years of intense using, I think it's ok.
4. They are not very comfortable to hold during one long session, I added some wooden handles and the comfort is fantastic.
I wish that producer of this product adds some optional grip.
5. Rubber doesn't wear out that quickly. It's always sticky and responding great, but now - I have to pairs to compare and they sound and react similar way.
Conclusion: it's really great set of mallets and all in all - you have no choice if you want to have strong, clear, detailed sound, these are sharp, especially on drums! I know they have lots of bad points and they are overpriced but I am not sure if one can find anything better...
