Recommended Mallets For Rav Vast Drum

Using mallets to play the Rav Vast Drum provides a completely different experience from using your hands and fingers. Louder or softer sounds can be achieved, depending on the head of the mallet, and once really skilled, you’ll find you’ll be able to still play the triads you played with your hands. But which are the best mallets for Rav vast?

The best mallets for the Rav drum are the Rav vast mallets supplied by the company themselves. Mallet heads of wood, polyurethane, and felt produce strong percussive sounds and softer more mellow strikes depending on which mallet you use. Offering diversity from hand playing you’ll get more from your Rav vast Tongue pan.

In this guide, I will go through what to look for in Rav vast mallets, and what to avoid. There are a wide variety but some mallets can be harmful to your Rav vast so I’ll provide some pointers on what to look out for.

Buy the official Rav vast Mallets here

Overall Best Mallets

You can’t go wrong in choosing to purchase the mallets for your instrument than from the lab that creates your Rav drum. In terms of confidence in knowing you have mallets that will not damage or be detrimental to your Rav vast you can take the professional advice of those who create the instrument itself.

The mallets come in a set of three pairs and each will provide you with a different sound. You can see and hear the difference in the video below which provides a comparison of the mallets and playing by hand.

• Yellow Polyurethane
• Red Felt
• Grey Felt

Each is designed to provide a better experience with different performance and sound when struck. You can use them or incorporate them into your compositions to reflect the mood or feel of each piece.

1. Yellow Polyurethane Heads

These are the hardest mallets in the set and you can clearly hear the strike when they are used. They produce a definite strike sound and the sustain is lengthy.

2. Red Felt Head Mallets

A softer sound is produced with the lighter contact produced by these mallets. A perfect result if you are using the Rav drum for sound healing, yoga, and such activities.

3. Grey Felt Head Mallets

The fey felt heads are larger but softer still, so they produce an even more mellow sound. As a beginner and as you learn your mallet technique and get a feel of how firm you strike the tongue, these are a great starting point. You can play quite firmly and not go beyond the soft ad mellow tones you desire

Rav Vast Mallet Comparison

In the video below, you can see and hear the difference in sounds between playing the Rav vast with your hands and the three different heads available with the Rav vast mallets

What to look for 

When choosing mallets to play your Rav Vast with, you should be looking for soft fabric heads, in felt preferably.

These heads will produce warmth and softness in the notes without producing the ‘ding’ of the strike. 

If you would like the striking sound as part of the overall feel and mood of your composition, in which case, you would be well served with a polyurethane head, which is slightly harder.

What to avoid

Just avoid cheap mallets full stop. I have a budget option above which will serve you well, but if you go looking or the cheapest possible option, I am afraid you are going to get less than you deserve from your Rav vast

Worse still, if you get hard plastic heads or wooden heads, after a time, you are going to damage what truly is a very sturdy instrument. Mallets do collect little pieces of dust and dirt, and if the mallet head is hard as you would get with plastic or women heads in cheap mallets, the continuous striking of the tongues will find that dirt in between mallet and tongue. 

While the effect may negligible with one or two strikes, with constant use over time, it will be detrimental. You will have damage and possibly throw out of tune an instrument that really shouldn’t need tuning in its natural life.

What about Triads? can I still play them?

You can but it may take a little time to get the technique right. Playing triads with your hands can be tricky, playing with mallets is a skill!

What are triads on Rav vast?

A triad is when you strike three notes at the same time to produce a chord. Playing a triad on the rav vast can be quite simple when playing with your hands, but playing with mallets takes practice to master.

If you have ever watched a Marimba player playing, you may have noticed they can hold up to three mallets in each hand playing with six in total.

Master the triads with mallets on Rav vast and you are taking Rav vast mallet playing to the next level

Where to buy Rav Vast Mallets

If you have decided to buy the recommended mallets as above. Those made by Rav vast themselves, please grab yourself the Rav vast promo code cp2020 and get 5% discount when visiting directly from coolpercussion.com

There are alternative products available from Amazon, but you have to figure out which are of a quality suitable for your Rav vast. After all, you have spent a small fortune on your instrument, saving 5 bucks on cheap mallets is not going to be ideal

The table below offers some Amazon options if you are looking for easy order and quick delivery process.

Shipping Costs

The one downside to the Rav vast official mallets is that there is a considerable delivery fee. However, watch this space, I may have an option coming up which will save a considerable amount on delivery

Delivery Times

With Amazon products, you can expect very quick delivery and if you are a Prime member then next day delivery is often available.

Ordering the Rav vast mallets as recommended from the Rav Vast store, you will have to wait a little longer.