Doing this project as well. Currently in the middle of tuning my first bar, the F3. I don't have any fancy tools; just a regular handheld drill and a little sanding rig I made (which is also just a drill, clamped onto a workbench). After about 8 hours of drilling and sanding... I'm almost done with the first bar.
Question: I bought an old Jenco vibraphone( cheap) and every bar is FLAT. The tops of the bars are corroded. How can I raise the pitch of each bar ? Where do I start ?
I don't know how corrosion influences pitch, but sanding down the top of a bar will make the pitch even lower. You can make the bar sharper if you remove material from the very ends (make it shorter, basically), like I did in 7:07. But the overtone(s) will probably not match the fundamental exactly any more, so you might need to tune it separately
I'm guessing roughly two weeks of solid work just on cutting, sanding, drilling and tuning the bars. Maybe more, because at first I didn't really know what I was doing. Then at least 3-4 weeks making the frame, testing different ways to attach the bars, the damping bar, resonators... All in all several months of on-and-off work.
Doing this project as well. Currently in the middle of tuning my first bar, the F3. I don't have any fancy tools; just a regular handheld drill and a little sanding rig I made (which is also just a drill, clamped onto a workbench). After about 8 hours of drilling and sanding... I'm almost done with the first bar.
Cap doffed sir. I am inspired!
Very cool. Keep posting updates!
can you share with us the thickness of the aluminium bar? 4mm or 5mm, I guess?
5 mm. It's in the description
Tks
Question: I bought an old Jenco vibraphone( cheap) and every bar is FLAT. The tops of the bars are corroded. How can I raise the pitch of each bar ? Where do I start ?
I don't know how corrosion influences pitch, but sanding down the top of a bar will make the pitch even lower. You can make the bar sharper if you remove material from the very ends (make it shorter, basically), like I did in 7:07. But the overtone(s) will probably not match the fundamental exactly any more, so you might need to tune it separately
@ondrejsindelar I make my own backing tracks on a midi keyboard. I'll just change the Pitch of the tracks to match the vibes.
incredible! Awesome job.
How long did this take
I'm guessing roughly two weeks of solid work just on cutting, sanding, drilling and tuning the bars. Maybe more, because at first I didn't really know what I was doing. Then at least 3-4 weeks making the frame, testing different ways to attach the bars, the damping bar, resonators... All in all several months of on-and-off work.
This is awesome.
this is so cool
Is this for sale?
Thanks for your interest, but no, I've put so much time and effort into this that I couldn't sell it. I also want to use it for my own music.