Paul and I are building a Marimba.  Wow.

How did we get here?…  Paul enjoys playing marimba and vibes.  For a while, we rented a small marimba with synthetic bars.  It lived next to the piano at times, or in Paul’s studio when he wanted to record.  But as Paul played more advanced pieces, he began to need more range — a bigger instrument.  Unfortunately, 5 octave marimbas are expensive to rent… a professional 5 octave marimba rents for $200 a day, so even a cheap practice marimba is a bit costly.

An example of a wonderful professional marimba.

So… why not build one?  Several sites on the web have instructions or tips on construction.  Mechanically, a marimba is a Continue reading →