Mallets & Strikers

Nepali Felt Mallets

Most people who sell singing bowls sell mallets from Asia. These mallets are best for whacking a medium and larger bowls and getting out the big sounds. They are relatively soft and so they go well with deep bowls. Big mallets lend themselves to getting a rhythm going. The mallets made in Nepal do a very good job on Jambati singing bowls and the larger Thadobati provided what you are aiming for is the fundamental (deepest) tone. The wide striking surface of these singing bowl mallets helps transfer more of the energy from the mallet into the bowl.

Nepali mallets are significantly less expensive than the American ones despite being much larger. They can vary some in hardness, size, shape, even handle length. We carry five sizes of Nepali mallets which cover the range of singing bowl sizes. The smallest one we have made specially for Best Singing Bowls. Buy Nepali Mallets

Imported All Purpose Mallet

Small and light bowls require a mallet light enough to bring out sound yet small enough not to push the bowl around. Our exclusive all purpose mallets are a fine inexpensive option. The singing bowl striker is on the medium to hard side so it plays bowls brightly, both primary tone and overtones. We have two sizes of these mallets, one for very small bowls and one for slightly larger ones.  The proper size is listed under recommended accessories for each bowl. When you order we make sure the right size is selected, and will adjust if needed Buy all purpose mallet: small  medium

Wood and Leather/Suede Ringing Sticks and Mallets for Singing Bowls

One of the things that sets the quality you’ll see on this website apart is the range of tones in each singing bowl. Choice of mallets and sticks are an important part of the sound you hear and I’ve put a lot of attention to them.

If you want to hear your singing bowls wail then ringing sticks are the way to go. When you use a ringing stick try to keep your wrist in one position and move your arm around the singing bowl. This gives you the ability to maintain the same angle of contact all the way around the rim. Even pressure is important so you maintain contact with the edge of the singing bowl. Angle and consistency of contact is key with ringing sticks – especially with high-end large singing bowls. With multi tonal Jambati singing bowls changing the angle of the ringing stick allows you to bring out different tones. A vertical angle (perpendicular to the side of the singing bowl) will bring out the low tones while tipping the stick towards horizontal will ring the singing bowl high.

The material in a ringing stick makes a big difference. Wood sticks are best for bringing out the high tones, leather is best for low tones. A lot of people sell felt sticks but I find them hard to use on most singing bowls and have declined to sell them [sorry, vegans]. The type of wood is also important. The Nepalese sticks are made of a hard wood which can be unforgiving in an inexperienced hand. In other words they can bounce off the singing bowl easily and you end up hearing a squeal. I try to buy the softest of the hard Nepalese wood (I reject sticks made of heartwood). These sticks are good but they are not optimal. I’ve been experimenting with different woods (Mitch Nur swears by Aspen) and at some point I hope to offer an alternative wood stick.

The size of a ringing stick should be in proportion to the size of the singing bowl. Tiny singing bowls really need a tiny stick for the best play. Interestingly, when I got to Nepal I found that the largest sticks were (in my opinion) too small for the biggest singing bowls and so I had a larger size made especially for me.

One thing I really like about the thick Mani singing bowls is that you don’t have to go all the way around the rim to get out the full sound. A quick back and forth motion with wood quickly brings up the tones in these bowls. Occasionally a very thick Thalobati or Jambati singing bowl will play this way. When I can, I use this method in sound clips.

You’ll notice that I don’t sell sticks with carvings and Buddha heads (not sure he likes to sit above a piece of leather, anyway), instead, mine are neatly cut off at the top. This is on purpose, contact near the end of the stick is best for ringing and the ornamentation gets in the way of good playing. There is a bit of decorative flair in the middle of the sticks where it won’t get in the way.

Buy Ringing Sticks

Tapping a singing bowl with a ringing stick can be used as an alternative to a sound bowl mallet. You have a lot less control with a stick and really no choice of hardnesses. I’m not a fan.

Frank Perry hand turned heritage wood wands

Frank Perry has one of the oldest and largest antique singing bowl collections in the United Kingdom. Frank is a master at bringing out individual tones from bowls. One of his secrets are the many different wands he makes using a wide variety of woods. Frank is a craftsman, he starts with wood blanks and hand turns pieces on a lathe at his home in the south of England. These are beautiful exquisitely finished pieces each with his signature top pictured to the left.

Over the years Frank Perry has experimented with all kinds of wood, from odd pieces scavenged from fallen branches to fine woods imported from around the world. Best singing bowls has a selected a variety of woods in two sizes that can bring out the full range of sounds from the rather diverse universe of singing bowls. One thing to keep in mind about the wands or any around the rim ringing implement is that the interaction with the bowl is a complex one. A bowl will ring great with one wood and not well at all with another. Still wands and bowls have general characteristics which are listed below.

All the woods we sell are certified sustainably harvested in the UK and are not endangered or threatened species. This is important, as even a relative splinter like these wands are can contribute to ecological degradation and human suffering if they come from over harvested or poached trees.

The wands come in two sizes, tiny and “massive”. The tiny wands are only six inches long and no more than half an inch in diameter – but they are very powerful. Unlike the Nepali ringing sticks one of Frank’s tiny wands can bring incredible sounds out of the largest singing bowl. The massive wands, 15 to 30 times the weight of the tiny ones, are easy to use. Their weight naturally presses against the rim, and they are best for larger bowls, 6 inches and above.

Buy Frank Perry Wands

The Woods:

Sacred Yew – All over England you will see Yew planted by the old churches surrounded by headstones – and even around pre-Christian sites. The wands have a creamy color with a light grain. Yew is a soft, relatively light and flexible wood. These characteristics give it the ability to play the deeper tones in singing bowls. The softness and flexibility of yew allows this wand to play rougher edges quietly. We offer Yew in both mini and massive sizes.

Purple Amaranth – comes from Central and South America. The wood is dense but flexible and also on the dry side so the finish is “rough” which gives the wand a better grip, especially for bowls with a very smooth edge. Amaranth is the most versatile of the mini wands. On bowls with a rough edge Amaranth can be a bit noisy.

Tulipwood – is a beautifully colored rosewood from a small tree native to northeastern Brazil.. The wood is dense with moderate hardness. Tulipwood can sometimes ring bowls that do not respond to very hard or very soft wands.

Kingwood – is a dense, strong and hard wood that grows in Mexico and Brazil. It is the second hardest wood we sell, not quite as hard as ebony and sometimes will ring a lower overtone than ebony does on the same bowl. Kingwood wands are smooth with a rich brown wood and dark contrasting grain.

Ebony – is a hard, dense and very stiff wood that can be polished to a very smooth finish. These characteristics give ebony the ability to tease out the highest sounds from a wide range of singing bowls. The wood is black with occasional hints of dark brown and is heavy in your hand. True Ebony comes from equatorial West Africa and is an over exploited and endangered species. The ebony we use is technically “African blackwood” from central and southern Africa. This wood is not listed as endangered by either of the worldwide wood sustainability indices CITES or IUCN. For singing bowls African blackwood is actually better than true ebony, it is denser and harder which makes it better for teasing out the very highest of tones.

Vermilion – has a warm reddish color, hence the same name as the deep red pigment made from cinnabar, an alloy of mercury. Also known as “Paduk” it comes from West Africa. The wood is a hard and dense wood with moderate flexibility. These characteristics give it the ability to tease out sound, especially higher tones, from a wide range of singing bowls. Vermillion is the most versatile of the massive size wands.

Zebra wood – or “Zebrano” is a deeply striped wood from West Africa. It is a hard, dense and inflexible. These characteristics make it best for teasing out the higher tones from singing bowls. The smooth finish of Zebrano wands also helps with those high notes. Zebra wood comes from West Africa. It is not an endangered or threatened species.

Best for low tones – Sacred Yew
Best for high tones – Kingwood, Ebony and Zebra.
Best for tough to play bowls – Purple Amaranth
Versatile wands for many bowls – Tulipwood and Vermillion

Precision Mallets

Singing Bowl Types