 [5248]Re:5 Octave Marimbas Purchase: suggestions + advice. (1322 reads) |
2007-01-13 05:14:29 |
I would like to offer my opinions in response to your message. I attended a school where we were lucky to have a variety of brands: Malletech, Marimba One, Musser, and DeMorrow. I also spent a semester studying abroad and played on Adams and Yamaha at that school. I now work for Malletech. So, please take my opinions with a grain of salt, but realize that I have played on all sorts of instruments before concluding that Malletech is my instrument of choice. The choice of resonator material is a matter of personal opinion. I hear people quantify the timbral differences between the two in completely contradictory ways, and I really think you just have to choose what you like. I would say that brass has a brighter tone than aluminum, but it is so impossible to describe the actual difference in sound. But you should take into consideration that brass weighs more than aluminum. Our low end bars are wider because they have more power and response. Wider bars move more air, which means you will get more volume out of your bass notes. Plus, our wider bars are accompanied by round tunable resonators all the way to the lowest C (just like the rest of the instrument!) so that the resonator sound produces the most fundamental and only in-tune harmonics are reinforced. This creates the most focused and in tune sound. The rounded accidental edges are great because this way when you play on the edges of the bars, you can play as far away from the node as possible, and it also saves wear and tear on your mallets. Anything that makes mallets last longer is a good thing! Plus, the shape does not negatively affect the tone produced by the bar. Once you get a chance to tune your resonators and customize the sound of your instrument for any temperature or humidity level, it is impossible to go back to not having that control. Our resonator plugs are easy to move, and it really doesn't take that much time to learn how to use them. You just push the plug farther up into the tube, and pull down as you play the note with one hand. You will hear one point where the volume is significantly louder. Once you find this "sweet spot," just re-tighten the plug. It does take some time to tune the whole instrument (it will give you respect for harpists!) but honestly if you haven't moved your marimba and the location and general temp./humidity haven't changed, you don't need to tune your resonators EVERY time you play. You just can if you want to! There was a height adjustable Marimba One at my school, and it was such a pain to move the height adjustment system that people just usually left it up high as a courtesy for the taller people in the studio! The ratchet system takes a lot of work, and it is slow, as well as noisy. I think Marimba One's have extremely beautiful frames when they are non-height adjustable, but with the HA system they look rather industrial. In comparison, our height adjustment is completely hidden within the frame, and the (removeable) handles are located at the top of the endboards - no bending down! Each crank only needs five turns per inch, and it rises as high as 8 extra inches. We use a counterbalanced spring design that makes turninig the crank effortless and quick. We include a level for you to make sure that your instrument is even on both sides, or you can count the number of turns on each side. Our warranty covers the bars for one year and the frame for two years. We will swap any bars that you are not happy with for any reason within the first three months. You mention that you probably won't move the instrument that much, but I have spent some time gigging with a friend who owns a Marimba One, and the hardest thing about moving it around was that the resonators fold in half and it literally takes two people to be able to lift them. They are heavy and awkward. Malletech's resonators are built in three sections for each bank of resonators, so it is possible to move and set up the marimba by yourself. Another structural difference is the way that our bar rails attach to the endboards: we use rubber unibrackets that reduce frame rattle and the dovetail design allows the bar rails to slide into place easily. They are also easily replaceable if necessary. On Marimba One, the bar rails fit into slots in the endboards where they rest on pegs. It can be difficult to get the rail on the peg, and once one side of the rail is down the other end can't go down; they have to both be lowered at the same time (again, this pretty much requires two people). It seems to me that the metal pegs could easily bend and be difficult to replace. You also talk about how wider bars are more likely to crack. This is actually more related to the thickness of the bar. We use wider tuning arches than most because this makes the bar more responsive. As long as you're not whacking the bar directly in the center, you really won't have trouble with breaking bars any more than on another rosewood instrument. In his response to your post, Ian mentions that the wider low end bars are more difficult to play. This is pretty much a matter of preference, but just so you know, we also offer a model called the Stiletto that has "normal" bar width in the lowest octave (and still combined with round, tunable aluminum resonators). I hope that I haven't come across as too much of a salesperson, because I would have offered the same advice before I came to work at Malletech. Thanks for taking the time to read my lengthy comments, I just strongly feel that Malletech is the best choice! http://www.mostlymarimba.com Remote Host: pool-141-153-176-95.mad.east.verizon.net |
