Best Singing Bowls Precision Mallets

Precision Mallets For Your Singing Bowls

Many people have only seen Tibetan style singing bowls played with ringing sticks, spinning the rim. Mallets allow you to sing multiple singing bowls at one time. A wider dimension becomes available with our precision mallets. Premium quality singing bowls have two, three or even four main tones as well as other subtle sounds. You can bring out these different sounds by using different ringing instruments and techniques. Choice of singing bowl mallets and striker tools are an important part of the sound you hear and I’ve put a lot of attention to them.

Mallets allow you to listen to the subtle sounds. I like to say they are a revelation bringing to the surface hidden tones. Once you get to know a singing bowl you can strike it at regular intervals to bring out one or another major tone. Of course big mallets can bring out powerful sounds from a large singing bowl. Mallets also allow you to ring an array of singing bowls rather than one at a time like ringing sticks. I like to have a few different mallets on hand to ring groups of singing bowls in quick succession. The long handles on the professional mallets allow you to ring singing bowls at a distance.

Our Mallet Story

My singing bowl mallet journey began many years ago when I began buying mallets in Music stores for my own then small collection.  My favorite ones came from the venerable Musser / Ludwig company – the same name displayed so prominently on the Beatle’s first Ed Sullivan show appearance.  When I started Best Singing Bowls in 2008 I became a distributor for Musser. That worked fine until they stopped making mallets in 2015.

In their place I developed my own Best Singing Bowls mallets.  I did not just duplicate the Musser line, instead designed “the ultimate singing bowl mallet set”. This is the first and only line of precision mallets developed specifically to take advantage of the unique characteristics of singing bowls.  Our high quality mallets are made in the USA to exacting standards of consistency. We went through quite a development process to put together our set, dozens of samples from multiple manufacturers. in the end we could not buy the off-the-shelf offerings to get the exact performance we were looking for.   Our mallets are unique and exclusive.

What makes our Mallets special

Best Singing Bowls Precision Collection

The Best Singing Bowls mallet series add a whole other dimension to the experience of listening to singing bowls. Every singing bowl has a rich and varied soundscape waiting to be revealed. Our precision mallets are designed to bring out this full potential in a way a stick or basic tapper simply cannot.

Singing bowls have a fundamental tone, their place in the sound spectrum. Matching a Tibetan singing bowl mallet to this sweet spot is the best way to bring out the full native power of a bowl.

Singing bowls are not just one note, they all have many overtones. By selecting mallets above and below the native tone of a bowl we get to hear something very different from the same bowl. The way the mallets do this is by dampening some frequencies and exciting others.

The Best Singing Bowls mallet series has four mallets for smaller bowls and five for larger. If you listen closely you will be able to hear these four or five different soundscapes from any singing bowl. The mallets for smaller bowls are tuned a little higher than those for larger ones so the series has nine distinct tones.

Mallets designed for larger bowls have larger heads and a slightly oval shape for greater contact area. Smaller singing bowl striker tools are lighter and shaped for more easily making contact in a small area.

The performance of a mallet is a combination of the hardness of the underlying rubber and the nature of the covering material. We use softer natural wools for the lower notes and larger bowls, with cord and acrylic for higher tones and smaller bowls. Some mallets are blends of fibers, some have more layers of yarn than others.

The handles are an important part of how a mallet interacts with a bowl. Our handles are designed for the proper length, long enough for easy play without the excessive length of xylophone and marimba mallets. Proper length means you can play a single bowl easily in your hand or reach a group of bowls for a sequence of sounds. The material of the handles is important, flexible rattan for larger bowls and stiffer birch for smaller sizes.

One of the most important features of our precision mallets is the minimization of what musicians call “attack” which is the harsh sound made by contact when the bowl is struck. You can really hear attack if you strike a bowl with a ringing stick.  Our mallets have been designed to generate a minimum of attack while still allowing the transfer of energy from your hand to the bowl.  The combination of the shape of the head, materials used, flexibility in the handle and the core technology underneath it all is what provides this premium performance

In designing our new line we wanted to make picking up the right mallet intuitive so we matched the spectrum of sound to the spectrum of the rainbow. High tone mallets are colored high frequency red while low tone mallets are colored a cool blue. The mallets are also labeled with the tones they are designed for and numbered 1 to 9, low to high. Buy the ultimate singing bowl mallet set

Mallets 2 through 9, each one sequentially will sing a slightly higher tone.

Our small precision mallets have small lightweight heads and stiff natural birch wood handles. The range in tone from low to very high (hardness from soft to hard). The deepest tone mallet is the S3 with deep blue pure  wool yarn. The materials change on the S5  shown to the right, bright blue for a somewhat higher tone. The S7 mallet is tuned to the middle and upper parts of the upper parts of the 4th octave. It is colored bright yellow, to indicate its higher tone.  The highest tone small mallet is for 5th octave play and overtones, it is colored hot red and uses tightly wound cord. Keep in mind your singing bowl has a varied soundscape. Even if it is a lower tone bowl using a higher tone mallet will provide a different sonic experience.  Any bowl will benefit from more than one precision mallet.

Nothing beats these small mallets for delivering the kind of firm gentle tap you need for ringing petite bowls. For really tiny Manipuri singing bowls a light tap with the hardest cord mallet is often the way to get the most sound out. Smaller Thadobati singing bowls with rounded bottoms are also perfect, again because you can get the sound out without pushing the bowl around. These mallets are versatile and can be used on bowls up to about 6 inches. The long birch handle on these mallets give you the ability to be in a comfortable position and reach out to the bowl.

Buy Small Mallets

Best precision large mallets have larger heavier heads and more flexible natural rattan handles. They range in tone from very low to high (hardness from soft to hard). The extra mass allows you to strike the singing bowl harder with good effect and less of what musicians call “attack”, the compressed soundwave caused by the initial contact with the bowl. The long rattan handle on these mallets gives you the ability to be in a comfortable position and reach out to the bowl. These sound bowl mallets can be used on all bowls over about 5 inches.

The highest tone mallet in the series is L8 which has a mixture of yarns and is colored a hot red.  It is spectacular at playing the upper registers of large thick bowls, especially effective for the sharp highs on thick Mani and Thadobati.  The L6 shown to the left is the most popular in the large series, higher tones but not the top of the range. It is colored green following ROYGBIV down the color scale. The blue L4 is toned a bit deeper, good in the third octave. The lowest tone mallet in the series the grey L2 has a larger head and pure wool construction for the deepest Thadobati and Manipuri bowls along with some Jambati style..

In order to play the deepest tones from a bowl special construction is required. When playing the bottom of the soundscape, especially in a large bowl you have a dynamic tension between bringing out the deep tone and bringing out the most sound.  For the deepest tone The XL 1 pictured to the right is uniquely engineered for dampening all but the fundamental tone of a low tone bowl. It is incredibly soft, even spongy and covered with a loosely would very soft pure wool. It is colored black, as deep ass you can go. When playing with this mallet volume is limited. It is an inevitable trade-off for being able to focus so directly on a deep fundamental. The mallet is large enough for even the biggest singing bowls.  It only works best on bowls, say over 10 inches in general and as “small” as 8 inches if the bowl is in the second octave. The handle is a bit longer to accommodate the larger sizes of the bowls it is designed for.   Buy the XL 1

Our other specialty sound bowl mallet for deepest tone play is the L1 pictured to the right. It is a large fluffy white mallet made of layers of felt. It has a thick contoured wooden handle. Despite the name it is larger and heavier and therefore can deliver more power to a big deep bowl. This is the mallet to use for maximum deep tone volume.  Buy the L 1

Both of these mallets are different from the Nepali felt mallets which come in various sizes including the huge N88. All of those mallets are constructed in such a way that you get the bass but also some part of the higher level notes.

Basic Mallets

Singing Bowl Types