Craftsmanship with heart
About our products
Our products combine practical experience with genuine craftsmanship – developed in our family workshop and crafted with great dedication.
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Product categories – developed from our own practical experience.
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Crafted with hand, heart, and dedication.
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Family workshop, where it all begins
Your ollihess instrument – a truly unique piece
Whether it's a mallet, friction mallet, or gong – every ollihess product is a handcrafted, unique piece. Each sound instrument is infused with the experience of countless hours spent with gongs, a great deal of patience, keen intuition, and a passion for craftsmanship.
Ultimately, this creates a product that not only sounds unique but is also precisely tailored to your needs.
We create sound instruments with character
What we create in our workshop is not off-the-shelf accessories; these are instruments that truly make sound tangible. Each piece bears Olli's signature: thoughtfully designed, implemented, tested, and adjusted – until it not only feels right but also opens doors to soundscapes you hadn't known before.
Oliver Hess
"Sound doesn't happen by chance. It begins with the care taken in building a tool."
Workshop with Heart and Family
What we create is true teamwork – in the best sense. In our workshop, not just hands but also generations work together.
Olli's son David helps out, handling shipping and organization, while Benni captures a behind-the-scenes look with his camera and editing.
Sound is a family affair for us – and that's exactly what makes our products so special. We don't just produce things here. We think, work, and live with them.
Handcrafted ollihess Product Categories
Professional Gong Mallets
Handcrafted mallets without distracting strike noise – for delicate nuances up to deep, vibrating rumbles. Our mallets cover a wide range of sounds.
Friction Mallets
Our friction mallets open up a new world of sound: spherical, floating, surprising – and completely designed and built in our own workshop.
Gongs
Together with gong maker Broder Oetken, we develop gongs made from nickel silver - each piece is unique with its own sound character and finest overtone structure
We Combine Craftsmanship with Principles
What we build is meant to last – for your sound and for the world we live in. Our materials and manufacturing processes are designed to handle resources carefully, take responsibility, and work with a good conscience:
- Regional Raw Materials like beech, cork, and natural caoutchouc – carefully selected and durable
- Recyclable Packaging, reduced to the essentials
- Vegan Product Lines, wherever possible – especially for mallets and friction mallets
- Fair Production in Germany, handcrafted and in close cooperation with family businesses
- Annual Tree Plantings with Planet Tree – because the future needs more than words
This is how sound with principles is created – conscious, honest, and connected to what truly matters.
Our Materials
Beech wood
The wood we love to touch: regional, robust, and fast-growing. Beech is just right for our handles – the ergonomically shaped wood feels good in the hand and has excellent resonance.
natural caoutchouc
Light, elastic, durable – and completely biodegradable. Natural caoutchouc adds warmth to the sound, balance to your playing, and protects your sound instrument at the same time. For us, it's the perfect material for mallet and friction mallet heads.
Wellness fleece
Gentle on the gong, pleasant to play: Our super-soft wellness fleece dampens unwanted noise and keeps its shape even with frequent playing. It's easy to care for and available in many colors – perfect for clear sounds and your own style.
Cork
Comes from the bark, not from a felled tree – and brings everything that's important to us: lightness, grip, sustainability. A material that thinks along with us.
Nickel silver
Our sound metal. In collaboration with Broder Oetken, we craft gongs from nickel silver that can do more: resonate softly, sound delicate, and last a long time.
Dive Deeper into Our Craft
What all our products share is that they are born from real-world experience, crafted with a deep understanding of materials and design, and based on the belief that true sound comes only from an authentic tool. Here, you can discover how an ollihess friction mallet is made.
In the Workshop: A Friction Mallet Takes Shape
A look behind the scenes – from the first cut to the final finish.
