What's in the Box?

Frequently, I receive looks of interest towards the amount of goods that I carry around with me as part of my normal arsenal of mallets, sticks, and other miscellany. Percussionists need be capable of performing all instruments in our family, including drums, keyboard instruments (xylophone, marimba, etc), timpani, and all the "toys" (triangle, tambourine, finger cymbals, ratchet, etc.). In order to play many of these instruments, it's a good idea to follow the Boy Scouts of America slogan of "Be Prepared". Although I was never a scout, myself, I try and prepare myself for any situation. Let's peek inside my Vic Firth stick box to see what's inside. (Hint: click on each image to see a larger version of the picture!)

In the photograph above, we see an empty mallet case with some miscellaneous papers, programs, and two clips for outdoor performances in windy weather. Hidden out of sight is a copy of the timpani part for Handel's Messiah. The only reason I keep it with me is to make notations during each holiday season for any specific orchestra that I am performing with, at the time. Call it superstition.


Next is a layer of sticks. There's nothing too interesting here; Vic Firth SD-1's and a combo sticks, Tom Gauger sticks, and a pair of Christopher Lamb sticks from Malletech; not pictured are a pair of Vic Firth brushes. Let's move onto the mallets...


Here we have a pair of Zildjian cymbal mallets (remember, cord mallets should always be used on metals; save the yarn mallets for wood!), Malletech Bob Becker #32 and #34, Malletech Enhanced Fundamental series #35R and two pairs of #41R. I always use rattan handles on xylophone and glockenspiel. Not shown here are a pair of Innovative Percussion brass bell mallets.


Shown above is a plastic bag filled with timpani mutes; two Vic Firth mutes, four light felt mutes that were made at home, four Rhapsody Percussion "Stay Put" mutes, and two mutes home-made from chamois. Also pictured above is a small pouch with drum and timpani keys, a tuning fork, pencils and a pencil sharpener, a triangle clip, a yarn needle, an old AT&T calling card (used for muting snare drums), ear plugs, a screw driver, and cymbal felts. There's also a small American Flag in there, as well, for those patriotic concerts.


I use the Tom Gauger Stand Pad when converting music stands into tables. Many of my colleagues use towels, as I had for many years; however, I've found that the Stand Pad takes up less room in my stick case (it's crafted from nylon and not cotton), and also has edges to prevent sticks from rolling off. Next, onto the timpani mallets...


Normally I carry anywhere from eight to twelve pairs of timpani mallets in my case. I use mallets from Carlisle Percussion. Ron Carlisle is a great person to work with, and I highly recommend his mallets. Pictured above (from top to bottom) are #2 medium cart wheels, #3, medium ball-type general mallets, and two pairs of #4 medium ball-type hard mallets (1/2-inch and 5/8-inch shafts). The second layer....


...includes #7 extra-hard sticks with a 5/8-inch shaft, #8 chamois-covered staccato sticks, #6 hard sticks, #5 hard sticks, and #7 extra-hard with 1/2-inch shafts. Depending on the hall, drums, or piece of work we are performing, I will take other mallets out of my set. The mallets shown above get me through most work.


And that's what's in my box. You can browse my flickr page that has more photographs of other marimba mallets and pictures of my entire set of Carlisle timpani mallets.

I hope this article was enlightening as to what percussionists carry around with them as part of their normal collection of utilities and implements. Thanks for reading!