Hi there,
Apparently, the light-blue yarn Vic Firth / Adams Van Sice mallets have been discontinued. These are the M1 to the M6. It recently came to my attention that they are STILL made by Adams, just not distributed to the U.S., because apparently there is no market in the U.S. for 2-tone (or 2-tone "like") mallets. This is what I have heard atleast.
So my problem is: #1- I am looking for these mallets. #2- I'm in the U.S. Any suggestions of where I can buy them? Is there like a marimba black market out there or something? 🙂
~Behzad

Hey Behzad,

My name's Mike and I'm a student of Mr. van Sice's at Peabody (I think we met at your audition). Anyways, it's true that Vic Firth has stopped producing the light gray colored series of Bob's mallets. Although I don't think it's necessarily because there is no market for two-tone mallets.

Anyways, I think you can call Percussion Source and they can order them from Adams for you. Or you can just order them from Adams yourself. Also, Bob occasionally takes a trip to the factory to check things out, and he can bring back mallets with him. Last year he did that so a bunch of us just asked him to bring back whatever we needed. This way I think is the best because you don't need to pay any shipping. I think it was 30 dollars a pair this way, plus a "Thanks, Bob". Not bad.

But I should warn you: these mallets seem to come apart pretty easily. I think it's because the yarn is put on looser to help with the two-tone effect. I think they seemed to be much better when they were being produced by Vic Firth. I've got the 102's, 104's, and 105's. You can check them out when you get to Baltimore if you want.

Hope that helps,

Mike