We built our own marimba. It was a big project, but we learned a lot about marimbas and how they produce sound. It was also a good thing for our whole family to work on together.
There are a few things for building a marimba Attend a school or self-study with online lessons Make sure you are completely committed to it before you start (I read these and the reasons they work on Delfords Magic Plan site )👍
I'm thankful that God gave you parents that love you enough to make you an instrument that's so hard to come by for most people. You're REALLY blessed. :-)
I loved this video! At some point, if you build another one, or decide to modify this one, see if you can get your hands on some Hormigo. It is a central American hardwood that is used for making Marimba keys. The Marimba is Guatemala's National Musical Instrument with ancient origins. The impressive tonal qualities of Hormigo lead to the nickname "the wood that sings." Hormigo is a strong, straight-grained wood that occasionally exhibits pronounced veining. But it is used for marimba keys because of its tonal qualities. Even if you never make another marimba or modify the one you made, you did an AWESOME job on this one. Thank you so much for sharing your process. Well done!
Thank you for posting this! I hesitated to make one with Oak. Yours sounds passable for a practice marimba. Its too bad that there aren't readily available hardwoods that have good tone. I suspect Black Locust would work pretty well, but you would have to get it custom. Do you have a bandsaw? Cut it out of firewood. After all that work, it would make sense to purchase some Padouk. Its $7 to $10 per bd foot on the Internet, so I would be worthwhile to fit in the budget at some point.
Is there a good free electronic tuner to use online? What the best way to tune the bars? What formula did you use to calculate the bar length and resonator length? I know the resonators are susceptible to end correction, but are the bars? (Also, mine is 19-tone equal temperament, instead of 12.)
Tis a great build... but I would suggest raising the bars so they are not so close to the frame or each other. YOu can hear the rattling when the bars are struck. '
here's a few things for making marimbas Attend a school or self-study with online lessons Make sure you are completely committed to it before you begin (I read these and why they work on Delfords magic plan website )
Not certain about the points made but ,if anyone else wants to uncover try Jaffacter Instrument Builder Coach ( search on google ) ? Ive heard some interesting things about it and my buddy got great success with it.
