alright good point. You marched cadets this year? how did you like those hybrids

Lets just call it gods gift to mankind and be done with it.

I also do agree, original the Thom Hannum thing and one part mallet one part stick made me think you were talking about an old swizzle the cadets used or something. But I understood. I'm still trying to figure out why the aungst hybrid sounds like a stick instead of a mallet though.

I love em. Great rebound, warm tone, great balance. I've played seasons using McNutts, Vegas, MT1As, MT4As, and the Hardimon Tenor mallets and these are by far the best ones I've used as of yet.

IF talking just VF, I second jofus's answer. Though I haven't used as wide a range of sticks/mallets as he has, I'm quite close, and I actually would go as far as to say, out of the big three (Promark, IP, and VF) Aungst Hybris is probably the best tenor implement to use.

...I still favor IP products in general over anything else, however.

God I want to say two years ago we used pro-mark tenor mallets, but my memory drifts. I've used MT1A and vegas, but i think i may have to see what the hybrid are all about

They barely last two weeks, if that. When you first have them, they aren't too bad for scrapes. It's when they first one or two chips get into them that the tips just feel like anvils.

And since I've been stuck with those and little spending money, I can choose either the Encore sticks of Vic Firth MT1As. I'd most likely go with Vic Firth even though I went through the MT1A's like candy.

BHSQuint: If you're frequently killing aluminum shafted mallets you maaayyyy be playing too hard. Height = volume. Extra force is unnecessary.

Anyway, gniknus11, comparing tenor stick prices at Steve Weiss it looks like you can get the ProMark Stevens or Vega sticks for the same price as the Encore (8.95), the ProMark TS5 for less (6.75), and Inovative TS1 for 8.25 or TS2 for 10.50. VF Hybrids are 13.25. Of course, at your local shop the Encore junk may be 5 bucks. Still, for the about the same price (or less) *far* superior tenor sticks are available. If your BD is buying these, you may want to mention this. (Haven't I seen Encore sticks in department stores? That just can't be a good sign for a musical instrument product.) Apparently Encore should stick with keyboard mallets, etc. or rethink their stab at marching equipment. (To be fair, their bass mallets seem to be OK.)

I do wish BDs would stop trying to save money with cheap sticks -- I remember in my sophomore year our BD got the snares cheap-o generic sticks (the school bought you the first pair, you replaced them out of your own pocket the rest of the season) and by the end of the first football game they were down to *one* pair among the four of them, including extras the BD had brought. The next week they were given rather better name-brand sticks. Lesson learned: you can buy seconds and you can buy no-names but if you go bargain-basement you get what you pay for = crud. Also, if it's frequently found on sale 50% off (*cough* Encore *cough*) it's also probably crud.

On a side note, I've found that Encore makes some nice sounding marimba mallets, particularly of the unwound variety.

On topic, I hated the Aungst tenor mallet. Nothing personal Jofus. I just didn't like the feel and the stark similarity to the Vega. Maybe it was just a bad pair.

To the Beaver guys, sounds painful. At Slippery Rock University we got a deal with Innovative, so we're playing on new mallets sticks and swizzles, er... 'multis' - 'Swizzle' is a Vic term - every few weeks regardless of the condition the pair to be replaced are in.

Sometimes a bad pair can ruin a stick for you. Were they marked as "heavies" on the sleeve?

I'm also looking forward to working with the promark tenor sticks this winter. I teach the quads at Bob Jones in WGI, and they just recently got a pretty good endorsement from Pro Mark. Never played with them before, so I'll write some reviews maybe in December when we start indoor.

Yea BHS man, if your going through the mt1a (aluminum OR wood) fast somethings wrong. Aluminum *will* last longer, but the wood *usually* wouldn't break that fast.

I say thing with the * signs because that is the general term, Not always but usually. Well, I havnt really seen a woodstick outlast an alloy mallet. Although I'm sure there are cases.