Malletech Factory Tour

The story behind this article and the next, and indeed my whole trip to Neptune, NJ is that on November 22 I got a short email out of the blue from Leigh Howard Stevens. Apparently he's been reading my stuff on thevibe.net where I have been a vocal proponent of progress in vibes design and have put forth some ideas about user-controlled vibrato. He had attached a PDF file of the promotional flyer for the "Love Vibe" and invited me to come to the Malletech factory to see it. The stars must have been aligned, for it so happens that the factory is only an hour and a half away from New York city, and I happened to have family in town that week so I had already rented a car. So, on somewhat short notice I made an appointment with Leigh and drove down with my brother (a former mallet player himself) who acted as photographer, sounding board, and all-around critical thinker.

Malletech Factory Tour
Upon our arrival we were greeted by Leigh Howard Stevens himself and we were shown around the premises, including the music library, the assembly room, the 'dirty' workshop where the CNC machines and other machining tools live, the tuning rooms and the mallet-making room with the computer controlled mallet-wrapping maching, which was the only thing he asked us not to photograph up close. Leigh was a gracious host and made us feel like big-shots.

(click on a photo to see a larger version)

Assembly room with marimbas ready for final inspection.


A close look at the one of the CNC (computer numeric controlled) milling machine


Assembly room with a view of the epoxy coating booths and curing oven in the back


Leigh talking about the other CNC machine


Some good old-fashioned skilled labor


The manual bar cutting station. Future marimba and vibe bars will be cut with the CNC machines


The finisher working on the brass resonators


The mallet shop. She had the machine wrap a mallet before our eyes. It took about 30 seconds!


The tuning rooms...

The piano tuner... ...and the marimba tuner.


The place where bars are selected and grouped into sets


Then at last we were brought to the room set aside for the vibraphone project, where our 'love story' takes place...