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The famed Albright mallets were originally handmade by Fred Albright (of old drum book fame) and have had a CULT following since the 1950’s. Players could rarely get them because they were only made for “special” customers, and only a couple of times per year. Through the years, many companies have tried to buy or license the “Albright” designs and name. After considering the quality control standards that Malletech has consistently demonstrated, the Albright family licensed the designs to Malletech.
These mallets are unique in construction, sound and response — far more time-consuming to make than any other vibe mallet on the market: multiple types and layers of yarn on the same model; internal and external stitching; heads that contain up to five separate responsive layers. All the materials are identical to the originals. The only thing that has changed are the yarn colors, as well as the number and tension of wraps – which are now strictly controlled by a computer winding machine, and the fact that each pair comes in its own autographed, velveteen drawstring bag. Many of the great icons in the history of the vibraphone used Albright mallets exclusively, although Fred Albright never put artists’ names on their favorite models. Stefon Harris was the first, and now Warren Wolf joins Stefon, while retaining his purple WW12 Go2 series.
The first three models were tweaked into their current form by Stefon Harris to make a series of soft, medium hard, and hard, that could also be used in a graduated set. Albright mallets also feature substantially larger heads than other models that Malletech offers.