Mike Balter Pro Vibe Series Rattan Mallets  

The Mike Balter blue mallets a great all-purpose vibes mallet.  Great for most situations, and also sound great under a couple of mics.  If you do a lot of mallet dampening, the yarns will wear out.  That will happen with any vibes mallet. If you're playing enough to wear these out, you probably want to learn how to wind you own mallets.  I've restrung my mallets dozens of times and the shafts are still in great shape.  It saves A LOT of money and it takes me about an hour to do a set of four.   The greens work well for outdoor situations, but for 90% of the time, I stick to the blue model. 

These are the closest style of mallets to the legendary hand wound "good vibes" mallets of the early 70's. Unfortunately, they are the best mallets that I have found so far and I am sorry to have to say that. The handles are very good and mostly straight. I have never broken one and they do not warp very easily, even when left for long periods in a hot vehicle. But the yarn is awful and seems to be chosen to wear out fast because I go through two or three sets a year, when I have played on the older mallets for years without the yarn wearing out. In short - if you want to wind your own yarn - get these because the handles and heads are great. If you don't - look elsewhere. If anyone knows where there are some really great mallets with yarn that does not wear out quickly, let me know.