The TG12 or Hard-Leather mallet is a great mallet. I love the depth of sound this mallet can get. I can describe it as a very warm, wood sounding mallet. Most of the time I find that hard mallets on timpani sound very "tinny" so I wanted to avoid this. I use it many times as a wood substitute in Mahler symphonies. It would also work extremely well in Baroque and early Classical settings.