Meinl SLB25 Sleigh Bells

So I bought these Sleigh Bells with the hope of a Christmas session in the living room with the family during 2020. Any song becomes a Christmas song with Sleigh Bells, right?

I listened to all the sound clips and chose the ones that I thought sounded the "most authentic". The one thing I forgot was that my living room is not a concert hall. And you know what is coming next :-).

Playing these bells normally means that they are quite loud. They have a low WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) in a home environment, and I was hoping my wife was going to be the principle player.

They seem well made, and sound great. They are a bit on the heavy side, but to me they are comfortable to hold and are easier to control than feather weights. You can play a full crescendo, but playing soft for a long time is difficult, I think. I don't play percussion, so I don't really have a lot to compare with, and maybe it is just bad technique from my side.

Great for an orchestra or band, but for some casual acoustic playing in a normal sized room, piano, guitars, violins etc, they can over power the other instruments.