[MMM] Marimba

Hi.

Is it possible to correct the intonation of a 12-et marimba without damaging it?

lorenzo

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In order to answer that question, you need to explain what you mean!
There is no such thing as a "correct" intonation; on the other hand,
any intonation can be the correct one if it's the one that you want...

My own feeling (from reading the pdf that was circling), is that one
could easily *raise* the pitch of any key (by chiseling out of the
bottom), but not lower it.

-chris

On 3/10/06, Lorenzo Frizzera <lorenzo.frizzera@...> wrote:
> Hi.
>
> Is it possible to correct the intonation of a 12-et marimba without damaging it?
>
> lorenzo
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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> Yahoo! Groups Links
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--
"... free speech is meaningless if the commercial cacophony has risen
to the point that no one can hear you." -Naomi Klein

On 3/10/06, Lorenzo Frizzera <lorenzo.frizzera@cdmrovereto.it> wrote:
> Hi.
>
> Is it possible to correct the intonation of a 12-et marimba without damaging it?

Yes. I asked this on junkmusic, and the consensus was that the best
tool for wood is a belt sander. If you sand down the ends of the bar,
the pitch is raised, and if you sand the center of the back, so it
becomes thinner, the pitch is lowered.

Keenan

Lorenzo,

{you wrote...}
>Is it possible to correct the intonation of a 12-et marimba without damaging it?

For literal re-tuning to 12tet (for example, in a 12tet marimba that had gone flat over the years), it can and is done. In the US there are at least 3 professional tuners that orchestral and other players trust their vintage bars to. One fellow I've used, and been very pleased with, is John Salazar, who used to be the head bar person at Marimba One:

http://www.salazarfinetuning.com/index.php

As to other tunings, the further you would go from 12tet (or the further 12tet bars were out of tune) you start getting into problems. You can move the pitch up and down, but it always entails removal of wood, and at some point the removal starts to degrade the tonal quality of the bar, and eventually destroys the dimensions critical to a good sound. Also, if you were taking a standard 12tet instrument, you couldn't just, ad hoc, try and turn it into a 24tet instrument, because you need bars that are in the vicinity of a given pitch, and pretty soon you would be trying to tune bars that are much higher or lower than the intended pitch.

For info from the horse's mouth on taking stock instruments and putting them into another tuning, ask Kraig Grady. He is on this list (usually) and has tuned a number of instruments to use for his music.

HTH,
Jon

>Yes. I asked this on junkmusic, and the consensus was that the best
>tool for wood is a belt sander. If you sand down the ends of the bar,
>the pitch is raised, and if you sand the center of the back, so it
>becomes thinner, the pitch is lowered.

Oops, yes, I got that backward.

-C.

>My own feeling (from reading the pdf that was circling), is that one
>could easily *raise* the pitch of any key (by chiseling out of the
>bottom), but not lower it.

Denny once told me how to do it -- you shave the middle to raise
the pitch, and the ends to lower it. I think. Kraig also knows,
I'm sure.

-Carl

Shaving the ends (making the bar shorter) raises the pitch.
Shaving the middle (making it thinner) lowers the pitch.

Denny

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@...> wrote:
>
> >My own feeling (from reading the pdf that was circling), is that one
> >could easily *raise* the pitch of any key (by chiseling out of the
> >bottom), but not lower it.
>
> Denny once told me how to do it -- you shave the middle to raise
> the pitch, and the ends to lower it. I think. Kraig also knows,
> I'm sure.
>
> -Carl
>