Tuning B2 Marimba bar - why we salt test twice!

[@marthadiedericks7540]

Very detailed steps. Easy to follow.

[@jambodjembe]

This was really useful. Many thanks for sharing.

[@MeowfaceMusic]

Wooden bars over time slipping out of tune: Both factors combined--wood drying out and abuse--which direction in pitch do bars tend to go? What percentage of bars go flat? What percentage of bars go sharp? Consistent and predictable? Thanks : )

[@percussionclinic]

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.

[@robertomondragon144]

Nice video my friend

[@thegreenmanalishiyamadori371]

Im wondering why you dont use a bandsaw or a tablerouter with a template to make the bow???

[@percussionclinic]

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.

[@GuruPercussion]

Gracias amigo, buen video!

[@RockerBug17]

Are these rosewood or padouk bars?

[@percussionclinic]

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. :(

[@RockerBug17]

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

[@percussionclinic]

@@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.

[@thegreenmanalishiyamadori371]

@@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😭