I Know Better NOW, Than To Buy A Used Marimba!
Before you spend money on a used marimba, consider the consequences and costs of making a bad purchase... I didn't...
At the time I could not afford to spend big money on a professional marimba (it's about $8,000-12,000 for the octave range I had in mind.) So I started shopping for a used marimba instead.
For me, the purchase had to be local, because I was not willing to pay a few extra hundred dollars to ship something of questionable quality. After all, a picture is not the real deal!
After I started driving around the city and surrounding areas; as I was responding to classifieds, I became more resolute in my decision NOT to purchase anything that I couldn't feel, see and hear. I must have seen dozens of used marimbas, and learned that there is a lot of crap out there!
Obviously there are no refunds for private sales like these, so I was careful not to get scammed. Often there were broken parts or physical damage that the sellers were trying to hide, and that I was lucky to find just before buying the marimba.
The instruments that were in good condition cost about the same as new ones! Finding a fair price for a decent marimba became to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. My hope of finding a bargain quickly disappeared. Luckily I learned that I can make a marimba on my own!
Turns out it is VERY EASY and CHEAP to build a marimba!
Sure, 'easy' is a relative term, but I learned that I could do it. So let me tell you, if I can do it, then you can make a professional 5-4 octave marimba at one-tenth the price within a week!
EVEN IF YOU HAVE TWO LEFT HANDS AND NEVER HELD POWERTOOLS YOU CAN DO IT!
Here's an example of the kind of marimba you can make:
There are not that many guides online that teach how to make a marimba, and the ones that are available are not written well. Either they were amateur projects; building marimbas out of pieces of wood you find on the beach, or they only offered partial information written by people that never have played a marimba before.
Eventually I discovered this guide: How To Build A Marimba. Unlike the other tutorials available, this one offered a full step-by-step process of the building steps, AND the tuning! All the materials and sizes in the instructions were tried and true, with videos to show it.
My DIY marimba project went without a hitch, and some months after I finished mine, I sold it to a friend for a profit and then made ANOTHER marimba better than the first!
- Here's what you'll learn in the guide:
- The exact measurements of the bars that work every time - including the new enhanced bass bar design.
- How to drill and mount the bars in the correct way to ensure that every note sings clearly.
- How to build the resonating tubes out of easily and readily available materials.
- How to raise or lower the pitch of the bars by working in the correct places.
- Alternative tuning placements for harmonics that work even for those problem bars.
- How to avoid problems with "cross modes" by wedging the bars.
- How to tune all the important harmonics (overtones) on the bars to make them sound pure, tuneful & resonant.
