well, you got two names floating around. VF and IP. i'm a VF fan. they make hard felt. they sound nice. <P>what do you mean that you want them white? if you mean the shaft, hell, electrical tape can fix that. if you mean the head, you're probably gonna have to go with felt. or an indoor mallet. but you don't want that for outdoor playing. hence the indoor in the name. (call me captain obvious)<P>if you don't want felt, you could always go with the blackjacks....<P>------------------<BR>Christopher Tebbens<BR>Oberlin College<BR>Christopher.Tebbens@oberlin.edu<BR>Mindwolf@drumlines.org

Vic Firth malletts are a must! We use the balck BD series for the simple reason that it has great response and of the tapered shaft. The taper prohibits your line from choking up too much on the mallet. Also, because of this, the mallet promotes correct technique so you won't "smice-up" your arms and you'll build up those most important chops with the correct technique.<P>--<BR>DigitalPimp<BR>University of Louisiana at Lafayette Drumline [img]cwm7.gif" border="0[/img] [img]cwm7.gif" border="0[/img]

We used to use Gambal bass drum mallets. They were OK, not great, just OK. We then switched to the VFs with the taper and they were cool. I did break two of the MB-4s myself, mostly through rim clicks. The taper felt good in the hand. I don't know anything about the IP sticks but would definately like to play around with them.<P>I'm using the VFs for the HS/MS line I teach. I can't agree with the statement that they prevent choking up on the sticks, however. If they don't grasp the sticks properly to begin with, they can choke up on everything.<P>Can anyone tell me why beginning bass drummers hold the mallets with the back three fingers instead of with the thumb and pointer?<P>Middle Age Man

Because they don't understand the concept of using a fulcrum to play.

I like corp master but it depends on what style you play and how your technique is <s>[b]snugglebunny[/b]</s> [color:"red"]a lot</font> of drummers don't have good technique so therefore broken mallets.But there are some cheapos and bargain bin stuff out there.

I like Silver Fox. We used em last year and they held up real good . We used the Hichory Shaft ones. [img]cwm13.gif" border="0[/img]

Hey someone else besides me in here used Silver Fox bass mallets! I used them in high school and they held out an entire season plus 3 parades and 4 heavy downpours without the tips fluffing up and falling off. The hickory shafts...IMO...are very similary to the PM AmeriCorps and the VF Corpmaster mallets. Silver Fox has a thicker taper to them though. But other than that very similar.

In High School We used those gambal mallets and they weren't to bad. They were nice and sturdy and packed a nice punch. But now in college, we use VF corpmasters. Nothing better! Great mallets. A recomendation to all.

LBJCB has our mallets custom made, i dont know by who, but they sure are sweet [img]cwm20.gif" border="0[/img]

I have an endorsement W/Pro Mark. Their bass mallets are VERY similar to VF, and my bassline hasn't ever had a problem w/them breaking. The tenor line uses the aluminum shaft mallets w/the clear acrylic head. Those have been great. We've used the DC4's (very similar to Casellsa) that Pro-Mark custom selects for us with VERY heavy weight and high pitch---essentially super dense hickory.<BR>We do drum VERY hard, and about 20+hours a week, so they have held up well all season.