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Feel free to post or email me questions should they come up!

@@percussionclinic yeah I didn't realize you were selling the information ... I don't need to purchase plans to build from scratch , just service the one I bought... I'll figure it out.

Hi there. This particular instrument used a generic lumber called Durian - though it is actually not at all a good tonewood. Traditionally the best timber to use has always been Dalbergia Stevensonii (Honduras Rosewood) - though these days it is very expensive and can be difficult to get. Padauk and Purpleheart are the timbers I tend to use most often for good sounding bars without being too difficult to source or expensive. For all the info on the building process visit www.makeamarimba.com

Unfortunately you cannot purchase these at this time - this is a DIY instrument - custom built. To learn about vibraphone building you can visit www.buildavibraphone.com

Well a template - yes I do - but never a fixed template - always I use the rough tuned arch of a bar as the template for the next bar in the series. A fixed template only works if you are using exactly the same timber with exactly the same thickness all the time. I HAVE used a router before - but I find it is not as fast or accurate and more prone to ripping out bits from the side edge of the bar which is undesirable. People have used band saws before - if you do this you need a very good (more expensive) and bigger bandsaw - even then it is prone to wandering and you can end up with an uneven arch cross-section. It's a big wear on the blade and in the end I think actually slower than just trenching and sanding.

I would not worry too much Lincoln - the smallest bars can often be tough to get a result on and in those cases just choose a side that seems best. The first round of salt testing will be tougher as the bars are higher in pitch and the vibrations even faster. You may well find that those same bars can get a decent result once you have rough tuned them to a semitone above target pitch. That is around the point where you will salt test them the second time to actually find the node POSITIONs - the first time you only need a rough idea of the node direction - position is not relevant as it will move during tuning anyway.

It's pretty much just a small version of a regular marimba mallet. There's a small acrylic bead on the end of a wood dowel. The winding is a cotton crochet yarn I believe.

Hi Irik - you are best to contact me through email - visit makeamarimba.com and there will be a contact email there. :)

In my experience bars almost always go sharp from original tuning over time - which is ok because it's quite easy to tweak them back down correctly after some time. It's quite common to do this for any new instrument after its first few years. It is POSSIBLE for it to go the other way - which as long as it's not too much, can still be corrected, but it's not as easy or good. A bar might for example go flatter over time if the timber was initially over-dried and/or made in a hotter and dryer climate, then moved to a very humid climate where it could actually gain moisture over time. Mostly though, bars tend to LOSE moisture over time which makes them sharper. The issue of tuning drift has become more over the last couple of decades as it becomes more and more difficult to get good wood. Early instruments were often made from great old growth wood that had been allowed to naturally dry and stabilize over years - these days it's more common to have greener and younger wood and need it in a hurry which means kiln drying. Nothing wrong with kilns but it is not a perfect process and wood will still either gain or lose SOME moisture often after the process till it finds EMC - "Equilibrium moisture content". So we are seeing more instruments built from wood that has been kiln dried, then often bars made without enough time for the wood to reach EMC BEFORE the tuning - so they drift more.

In my experience bars almost always go sharp from original tuning over time - which is ok because it's quite easy to tweak them back down correctly after some time. It's quite common to do this for any new instrument after its first few years. It is POSSIBLE for it to go the other way - which as long as it's not too much, can still be corrected, but it's not as easy or good. A bar might for example go flatter over time if the timber was initially over-dried and/or made in a hotter and dryer climate, then moved to a very humid climate where it could actually gain moisture over time. Mostly though, bars tend to LOSE moisture over time which makes them sharper. The issue of tuning drift has become more over the last couple of decades as it becomes more and more difficult to get good wood. Early instruments were often made from great old growth wood that had been allowed to naturally dry and stabilize over years - these days it's more common to have greener and younger wood and need it in a hurry which means kiln drying. Nothing wrong with kilns but it is not a perfect process and wood will still either gain or lose SOME moisture often after the process till it finds EMC - "Equilibrium moisture content". So we are seeing more instruments built from wood that has been kiln dried, then often bars made without enough time for the wood to reach EMC BEFORE the tuning - so they drift more.

That sort of thing can work for sure - or strobe photography - but the "big boys" actually don't do it at all! Initial designs are created the old fashioned way most likely using exactly these types of methods - salt that is - but once the dimensions are created they no longer test bars - they just make them to the pre-determined dimensions to fit FRAMES that are also of pre-determined dimensions. By carefully controlling the materials to make them as uniform as possible you end up with consistent enough results. One of the advantages of a custom instrument is that you get the EXACT best frame dimensions for your exact set of bars - and you can make those bars in such a way that natural node angles better match the drilled holes you end up with - you don't get that with most commercial instruments.

Generally it will not create a BADLY false reading but the salt will congregate at the point of zero vibration so if the bar is being "held" by the suspension it tends to MAKE that a node. It's best to have the bar as free as possible if you want a really precise reading, but that's not common. No - you don't wat to go to the bar ends - or actually too far away from the real nodes - because those areas are vibrating up and down they will push against the more stationary rubber and "bounce" the bar which then scatters the salt right off - hope that clears it up!

Yes - this motor is a bit louder than ideal - it's a $10 cheap 12VDC gear motor that I used so it could be battery operated and very simple - it's actually a bit softer than the video suggest because the mic id close to the motor - but it IS a bit louder than ideal. My latest build actually has an AWSOME motor system - it uses a 5V stepper controlled with an Arduino - heaps of cool programs for different types of modulation and absolutely silent. It's still a work in progress, but we have certainly solved the noise issues!

That's a tough question. Essentially there are so many factors. The two biggest are the quality of your building/final result... then of course where you are located. Marimbas are tough to ship so really sales tend to be local - so if you live in a big city with a healthy marimba culture, then you have a customer base.

Hi Julian. That is indeed a concern for some - and everyone is different when it comes to how much difficulty they have in adjusting. In my experience it is more of a concern on marimbas - which have a bigger overall range and in some cases bigger variation in bar dimensions also. For vibraphones I have found it to be an issue for those who transition from a "narrow bar" instrument, to a full wide bar instrument - but not so much for those who transition from this set of dimensions which is somewhat in the middle. The PV does have graduated bars and the lower end bars are 2" wide - so in most cases it is not a huge adaptation when moving to a full "wide bar" instrument that has just slightly wider bars in that bottom octave. But as always - everyone is different!

@@percussionclinic Thank you for your response and for the insight, i'll keep these things in mind

Hi Zaichi - indeed! A 5 octave marimba is a lot of fun to build and even more fun to play. My current personal marimba actually has a couple more notes again in the bass - it's a 5.2 with Bb1 as the lowest note. I built that one a few years ago.

Hi Nathan - well you really can use whatever method is available to you - depends on your tools. These days I rough out the bars using trenching cuts on radial arm saw set to the appropriate depth - but using a blade especially designed for aluminium - then I have a 6x48 belt sander that smooths things out pretty quickly from there. Commercial makers will often use a CNC mill. I HAVE done these bars with nothing more than a hand drill - but obviously it takes longer and doesn't look as nice on the underside.... but it is absolutely possible and will sound just fine. A cheap and fast way to remove material is with an angle grinder.. BUT you have to use special aluminium wheels - using regular metal wheels with aluminium is dangerous.

These are Padauk - pretty much impossible to get Honduras Rosewood in Canada nowadays. I only have a few bits of 1.5" wide left now - nothing big enough for marimba bars. :(

@@percussionclinic Have you ever considered using a wood with a similar profile to rosewood? There are a lot of options out there

@@RockerBug17 Hi there. I have used many timbers over the years - and this question comes up quite a lot. The thing to realize about timber for marimba bars, is that the physical characteristics don't have much to do with the sound. There are factors of internal structure and chemical composition that play a much bigger role. There are a very few timbers that really work well for a marimba across the whole five octave range. What is interesting is that padauk is generally accepted as being one of the closest matches to dalbergia stevensonii... but the physical characteristics are quite different.

@@percussionclinic I owe a complete Set of dalbergia stevensonia roughpieces for Marimba since 1983 That was than 40 years dried now its 80 years dry and never build my marimba😭

Hi there - no - the bars on this one are a timber called Purpleheart.

I should of read description first

Thanks Miguel. Good luck with your building. It's a fun process!

Thank you. Greetings from Tijuana, México.

Hi Gavin. Really tough to say actually as I have not yet really totaled things up - and this is an experimental prototype that I come back to and change a bit here and there still. I want to get it really perfect before I create a building guide for this one. Also because there are a few materials for this one that here in my small city of Saskatoon where I live are really difficult to get. I ended up getting about twice as much 2024 bar stock as I actually needed and four times as much damper bar tube etc etc because of minimum buys. If I was to make a guess though - I would estimate that If I was in the USA and dealing in USD.... probably about $1200 to $1500 USD.. That's a bit of a guess though!

@@percussionclinic So you built this yourself with about 1500 USD of materials?

@@nicholassimmons9706 exactly! As I said in the comments above - I am not sure the exact cost on this one as I did not keep track of everything perfectly - it's also built in Canada and that exchange rate changes - as well as there are some bits that just have different availability. For example the 2024 T351 aluminum for the bars and the 2" wide damper felt are both quite expensive and tough to source here - but in the USA much easier and cheaper! But that $1500 USD is probably a pretty good guess.

Dude, cmon, it adds that classic old RUclips vibe, the vids from 2009

Just don’t wanna buy the plans and not get contacted by anybody.

Still up and running Phil! Many successful builds around the world!

Hi Lester. My advice would be to research piezo transducers. These have been around and used as the "standard" on bar percussion for decades. They have their limitations, but on the good side, they can be used on any existing instrument - no matter the material they are made from.

The anodising process itself has close enough to zero effect on tuning - we are talking literally just a few microns layer. An anodising will generally clean your job first though - and this includes usually an acid bath and maybe even some polishing - depending on the place. Anything abrasive can lower pitch so I recommend doing your physical polish as much as you want it done before your final touch up tune - then take it to the anodisers with instructions to do no physical polishing. Hope that helps!

great, thanks for the advice! when is the new vibraphone project coming up?

:) Honestly I can't say when - only that it is not likely to be super soon. The guides take a LONG time to write up and produce and I'm pretty busy right now. I'm also still tweaking the design a little - I want to make this one really perfect before I release the guide.

all the bars are different sizes - so you do this for each bar to find the nodal point. Then when it comes time to build your instrument you find the "average nodal line" that best fits the nodes on the whole row of bars. This is where you build the struts that hold the bars so that they are all held as closely as possible to their nodes.

Hi there - these ones are made from 2024 T351 alloy - tougher to source and more expensive than others, but generally considered better for vibes. Also presents a few extra challenges for the anodizers - so need to get guys experienced with that.

Replacement motors are generally the tough part of vibes repair. For that exact reason - finding an appropriate one is tough. Your ideas are on the money though - I generally recommend trying to find an old turntable motor - but with this option and the others.... it is the speed control that is tough. Modern turntable motors for example can't just be fed a voltage and run - they have controller circuits that time the changes to the motor coils to control speed. So you either need to get the whole circuit in there also or find an older and simpler system. My new vibes project uses a digital motor with USB powered controller - fairly inexpensive and easy - though I'm still having some issues with motor noise at many speeds - which is the common issue with digital motors.

What about a battery powered motor from a remote control car and maybe Velcro the RC controller to the side of the vibes? Or maybe I could rip apart a small fan.

It is missing one pulley wheel. Do you know where to find a good replacement or what do you use on your projects?

Something with a speed controller like the rc car could work - though you might find it noisy. Noise is the #2 problem with vibes motors. #1 is the speed - any fan you find will be too fast. You can use a battery powered motor - actually the PV prototype used one from an electronics store - but it was a "geared" motor. The gears make it slower and stronger - but also a bit noisier.

I have machined them from scratch recently on my new vibes project from 1/8th thick aluminium flat sheets. But if you want to find a ready alternative there are some about. You can try various "Mechano" or "connex" or "lego" wheels - or the PV originally used rollers from a sliding door which you can find "replacements" for in an average hardware store.

There's pros and cons to both grips

No. I pretty much always use Burton grip. That's the grip I'm using in this video here! ☺️

I've never heard of it but ill look it up :D

Hi there Joshua. The short answer is "YES" - though I can't really tell you when at this point. I'm so busy these days it's tough to find time to write!

Oh man that would be soooo nice

It sounds so familiar

Virginia tate