Jeffrey La Favre - jlafavre@gmail.com
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While the dimensions
above may be helpful to you in constructing your own marimba, I would
recommend that you fabricate your bars and your resonator assemblies before
building a keyboard frame. After you have assembled your resonators, you
will know the required spacing of the bars to ensure centering of each
bar over its resonator. Then find the nodes for each bar (sprinkle salt
on bar and lightly tap bar, salt will accumulate at the nodes) and mark
them. After marking the nodes, layout the bars with the proper spacing
to match the resonators. Lay a long straight edge gently on top of the
bars and draw straight lines across the bars. The lines should come as
close as possible to all of the nodes you have marked (you will find that
it is not possible to run the line exactly through each marked node, but
get as close as possible). In the case of the design for my marimba, you
can't draw just one straight line across all bars. For example, for the
natural bars you need to draw two lines, one for the bass bars and one
for the treble end of the keyboard. The lines you draw on the bars marks
the places where you should drill the holes for the cord. The lines also
mark the position where the center of the rail should be (i.e., take your
measurements for the keyboard frame from the layout of the bars).
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