About Pendim

Pendim is a family workshop in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. We have made percussion mallets and concert xylophones by hand since 1990.

A percussionist's workshop

Pencho Penchev studied percussion at the Academy of Music in Sofia under Prof. Dobri Paliev and taught percussion at the Dobrin Petkov National School of Music and Dance in Plovdiv. Bulgaria had no maker of percussion instruments, and in those years getting mallets and instruments from abroad was slow and expensive, which held his students back.

He had made his first mallets as a student. He kept perfecting them, and in 1990, with the help of his father, Dimitar Penchev, Pendim was officially founded.

A family company

The early years were hard, and Pendim grew with the help of Pencho's wife, Valentina Pencheva, and the rest of the family. It still does: Pencho is the founder and president, Valentina the vice president, Tsvetelina Pencheva Andonova keeps the accounts, and Dimitar Penchev, their son, runs the website and the shipping.

Mallets made for you

We make mallets for marimba, vibraphone, xylophone and timpani. Each one is made by hand in our workshop: birch handles, heads in a range of shapes and hardnesses, and wool or cotton yarn. The ready models cover most needs. With custom-made mallets you choose the handle, the head, the hardness and the yarn colour yourself.

The P. Sadlo series

Our P. Sadlo High Performance mallets were developed over two years with the late Peter Sadlo, principal timpanist of the Munich Philharmonic and professor in Munich and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He asked for a full sound without a heavy feel, an easy tremolo and an even tone across the whole marimba. The series has birch handles and, on some models, rattan.

Instruments

Pendim xylophones are made of acacia or Honduran rosewood. The bars are air-dried and aged, and every bar is tuned together with its resonator. Instruments are sold by enquiry: ask us for a price.

The Pendim competition

In 1999 another long-planned idea came true: the first International Percussion Competition "Pendim" in Plovdiv. Pendim organised it every two years until 2009.

Ordering

Every order is made for you and shipped within 30 days, to Bulgaria, the rest of Europe and worldwide. Questions about a model, custom-made mallets or an instrument? Contact us.