“A high-MOI mallet, also available in armlock, with strong alignment and a near face-balanced feel. Best for a straight-back-straight-through stroke wanting maximum forgiveness at a Studio Stock price.”

The SS38 was built to bring a genuinely forgiving mallet into the Studio Stock family rather than another blade variation: Bettinardi engineered a rounded, compact cavity-back with high MOI and easy alignment, milled from 303 stainless in the same Diamond Blast finish and Roll Control face pattern as the rest of the 2019 Studio Stock relaunch. It's face-balanced, aimed squarely at straight-back-straight-through putters, and reviewers (Plugged In Golf) treat it as a credible milled alternative to face-inserted, cast game-improvement mallets from bigger brands -- Bettinardi's pitch is that you can get mallet-level stability without giving up one-piece-milled feel.

The SS38 gets consistently positive independent reviews as a well-executed compact mallet and has stayed in Bettinardi's catalog across multiple product years, but there's no tour-win story or forum mythology attached to it specifically -- it's a solidly regarded, repeat-selling shape within a respected boutique brand, which is the honest ceiling for this entry.

Straight-back-straight-through putters and anyone who has struggled with consistency in a Bettinardi blade but wants to stay with the brand's milled feel -- a natural 'first mallet' for a longtime toe-hang-blade player. Less ideal for a strong arc stroke, which fights the face-balanced weighting.

• Compact cavity-back mallet body -- Bettinardi's own copy describes the design goal as 'a more rounded, compact, cavity-back mallet' added to the Studio Stock line specifically to raise MOI and forgiveness versus the family's blades.
• Milled from 303 stainless steel in Diamond Blast satin finish with Bettinardi's Roll Control asymmetrical face groove pattern.
• Face-balanced (0-degree toe hang), unlike the roughly 1/4-toe-hang SS28 and the fuller toe-hang SS7/SS8 shapes in the same relaunch.
• Available with a jumbo Lamkin grip option in addition to the standard pistol grip -- reviewers specifically note the jumbo grip suits the SS38's stability-focused profile.
• 3-degree loft / 70-degree lie, consistent with the rest of Bettinardi's modern putter spec.
• Part of a five-model 2019 Studio Stock refresh (alongside SS2, SS7, SS8, SS28) that Bettinardi positioned as informed by direct PGA Tour staff feedback.

Launched in the same January 2019 Studio Stock/Queen B refresh as the SS28 and SS7/SS8 relaunch, at a time when milled boutique brands (Bettinardi, Scotty Cameron) were under competitive pressure from cast, face-inserted, high-MOI mallets like TaylorMade's Spider and Odyssey's O-Works/Ten -- the SS38 is Bettinardi's one-piece-milled counter-argument to that trend rather than a category first.

Clean SS38 heads with headcover typically sell for $220-300 in 2026 against a roughly $400-450 launch MSRP; demand is steady among buyers specifically seeking a milled (rather than cast) compact mallet, which keeps depreciation a bit gentler than on Bettinardi's more common blade shapes.