The Resonator

I haven't posted anything on here in a while, but I have been busy doing my music things. Including building.

I am the proud owner of a beautiful Demorrow M2 Practice Marimba. It has gorgeous rosewood keys, and sounds wonderful... for not having resonators. But once I got it, about 9 months ago, I began thinking, "You know, I spent all this money on this instrument, now I just wish I could perform with it." There's just something special about being able to perform on your own instrument rather than one that belongs to the school. Demorrow doesn't make resonators for this model, and their website even says that the keys used on this model are picked specifically not to be played over tubes. Unsure what exactly that meant, I called Demorrow (Doug himself answered!) to ask, and he said that basically, they're a lower grade key than he would like to represent his company's sound. Which I get.

But I want resonators anyway. So I decided to make them myself. It's been an experiment, and I've learned a lot along the way. I bought... I don't know, at least 50 feet of PVC pipes and 61 end caps from Lowe's, and I bought some lengths of 1/8" steel from a steel mill in town for the rails.

For most of the pipes, I just measured the pipes of a Yamaha instrument, and cut my PVC to that length. But finding exactly what length the bottom octave resonators needed to be was honestly pretty unscientific. I can't accurately measure the length of a curved pipe, so I had to just start with a 2' length (which is the length needed for a C3) and add pipe to it until it sounded right. By determining how much it affected the pitch, I found the two elbow joints add about a foot.

Bending the steel pipes was honestly a little scary. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to bend them precisely enough, or that once I did, the holes I had already drilled for hanging the pipes. But it ended up working out wonderfully. Just holding the resonators under the keys, it looks like they are all accurately placed.

One thing that I have not gotten working just yet is the hinge. The only one i got that was the right size that LOOKED fairly strong bent almost immediately, so I'll have to check out a building supply store for a stronger one.

All in all, it's coming along nicely, and I'm very proud of my work so far. I just can't wait to get them finished and compare the sound to the Adams at school.

#resonators #doityourself #pvc