Making a xylophone?

[Tim Nylander]

This may sound strange as I know most people here build furniture, but there must be some instrument makers out there. Has anyone here made a three octave xylophone in the traditional setup? I need one in a few months and figure I might have a shot at making one if I can get some help with design and dimensions.
I am thinking of using IPE, since I have enough lying around and it might make the perfect keys.
Any help or links to help would be appreciated.
Tim

[Doug Shepard]

Few things from my Bookmark closet
http://www.tidewater.net/~xylojim/xylocons.html
http://www.nexuspercussion.com/xylorimba.html
http://vsl.co.at/en/70/3196/3204/3205/5727.vsl

[Brian Kent]

Tim,

While I admire your courage, that will be a highly specialized extremely advanced work. I am a third generation xylophone and marimba player (my daighter is 4th generation) and my family and I would be scared to death tuning one bar.

If you have a backup plan for what you need three months from now, the idea is just outrageous enough to just go for it and see if you can do it.

As for using Ipe, I have never worked with it. I just checked the hardness scale (over 3600!) and that is much harder than the honduras rosewood that my marimba bars are made from. That should give good resilience and durability with hard xylophone mallets (the ones I wouldn't even think about using on a marimba).

I assume you already know the instrument. How are you going to set the notes? I would really be interested in making a single mid-range bar from a good existing instrument, copying both the measurements and the hole location, and see how close the tuning is. Also, what kind of tone does the Ipe give.

Time wise, I am really glad it's you and not me, but I am really curious to hear (and see) more as you develop the project.

[Bill Houghton]

Woodwork magazine (published just south of me, and I had one article and I think one tip published in it years ago, and I'm a long-time subscriber, but those are my only connections) has an article in Issue #74, still available. Their articles are usually fairly sophisticated as to making, tending to assume you know the basics. If I recall this article correctly (the issue's up in my attic, not easy to reach), it goes into some detail on tuning the bars.

http://www.woodwork-mag.com/back_issues.html

They're a small operation, and fairly responsive as to timeliness. $8/issue.

[Tim Nylander]

Thanks for the encouragement fellas, I will try to knock out on bar tomorrow at work just to see where I stand dimensionally and tuning wise. Speaking of which Brian, could you help me out with some key dimensions on an octave (size of low and high, so I can experiment with sizing and tuning)
I only own the metallophones.

[Brian Kent]

Tim, I have access to the marimba right now, so I'll measure some dimensions in the xylophone range. They will be a little wider than xylophone bars, but the width afects tone and volume rather than pitch.

I gave away the xylophone when we returned from oversees some years back, but I can ask a band director friend. It just won't be as fast.

[Chris Gombola]

Tim, I too play xylo/marimba. I thought about making my own marimba for about 10 minutes one day Took me 6 years to save the cash for a 5 octave.

I think the bars will be approachable, it's the resonators that will be a lot of work. Each bar should be in tune with it's respective resonator. Without resonators, you'll have an instrument that sounds quite dead. The volume will be the same regardless but the bars will not resonate and sustain a tone long enough to be heard well.

Here's a great site with lots of pictures of a guy who fabricated his own 5 octave marimba, your process for xylo will not be much different. I haven't read through this in some time but it is quite thorough and he did a very nice job. He includes a great deal of tuning detail and scaled drawings.

http://www.lafavre.us/marimba.htm

Edit: If you are really a glutton for punishment, you can look at this too: http://www.mostlymarimba.com/tmpl/de...onators1-4.doc

As for wood, xylo's are typically made of rosewood (honduran) or padouk. It would be interesting to hear ipe. Perhaps you can score a frame and resonators on the cheap and just make your own bars, that would save a lot of time.

[Brian Kent]

Tim,

I finally got some time to measure. I do not know how to post an Excel spreadsheet, so the columns are not lining up. You can just read each line across.

The lowest note, on the bottom of the chart is the C above Middle C (or "C5" or "3rd space on a treble clef"). The chart goes up chromatically.

The measurements were taken from a Musser Concert Grand marimba from the 1960's. I chose this octave because the bars are narrower and closer to an actual xylophone. Notice they are all the same width except the lowest C on the chart. The octave below that C all have the same width as the C.

If I were you (I would be much braver than me, because I would not be trying this - but if I were you…) I would first buy a chromatic tuner for about $25 or download one for free for your Mac computer.

Then I would cut one bar from Ipe - just barely oversized for planing and tuning. See how it compares in pitch, and start shaving from there.

Or I would find an old xylophone and put some oil on the bars and build a really pretty wooden frame.

Length width Thickness Middle-Thickness
C 9-9/16" 1.86" .895" <.5"
B 9-13/16" 1.86" .895" <.5"
B-Flat 9-15/16" 1.86" .895" <.5"
A 10-1/16" 1.86" .895" <.5"
A-Flat 10-4/16" 1.86" .895" <.5"
G 10-7/16" 1.86" .895" <.5"
G-Flat 10-9/16" 1.86" .895" <.5"
F 10-12/16" 1.86" .895" <.5"
E 11" 1.86" .895" <.5"
E-Flat 11-2/16" 1.86" .895" <.5"
D 11-4/16" 1.86" .895" <.5"
D-Flat 11-7/16" 1.86" .895" <.5"
C 11-9/16" 1.96" .96" <.4"


Good luck. I used a decimal caliper for all of the small dimensions and a fractional ruler for lengths. I felt like consistently using furlongs might be confusing. (1.96 inches = 0.000247474747 furlongs)

[Tim Nylander]

Thanks a ton Brian, I had no time this week to make a test bar but will this week, now I have a better inkling as to what size to shoot for.
We'll see how this goes, the more I read themore I might send it out to be tuned, I think my tinnitis will definitely get in the way........
shouldn't stop me from making bars though
Tim

[Brian Kent]

Tim, would you like me to e-mail the Excel file as an attachment so the rows will line up?

[Casey Gooding]

I might be a bit hesitant to use Ipe. While you do want something very dense, Ipe is not a traditional tonewood. Rosewood is traditionally used, but I'm sure other woods would work just as well, maybe better depending on the sound you are looking for. You might want to contact a custom builder or a luthier to get there opinions on what woods to use. There may be some domestic woods, like hard maple or hickory maybe even some fruit woods like apple or osage orange, that would work well.
Best of luck. Keep us updated.