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ali941 wrote:Keep in mind, the pitch of the marimba will depend on the environment. So you can cut the keys now if you want, but sand them down to at least 50 cents sharp at room temp. That way, you can make it perfect next year. Same with the resonators.

50 cents??? That seems quite a bit extreme.

MacBookMinus wrote:

ali941 wrote:Keep in mind, the pitch of the marimba will depend on the environment. So you can cut the keys now if you want, but sand them down to at least 50 cents sharp at room temp. That way, you can make it perfect next year. Same with the resonators.

50 cents??? That seems quite a bit extreme.

Yeah, that really doesn't make any sense
Besides, you always want to sand FLAT not sharp, as it's much easier to make a note sharper than flatter...

Infinity Flat wrote:

MacBookMinus wrote:

ali941 wrote:Keep in mind, the pitch of the marimba will depend on the environment. So you can cut the keys now if you want, but sand them down to at least 50 cents sharp at room temp. That way, you can make it perfect next year. Same with the resonators.

50 cents??? That seems quite a bit extreme.

Yeah, that really doesn't make any sense
Besides, you always want to sand FLAT not sharp, as it's much easier to make a note sharper than flatter...

Actually, it's much easier to make a note flatter than sharper for a marimba. 50 cents isn't that bad. Some of mine started at 300 cents sharp.

ali941 wrote: Actually, it's much easier to make a note flatter than sharper for a marimba. 50 cents isn't that bad. Some of mine started at 300 cents sharp.

Sorry, you're right, I was confusing myself for some reason.
But I still don't know why you'd leave it that off. You really should be aiming for <2 cents on the fundamental, and <10 cents on each overtone.

I meant before the final sanding. You should have it about that far off when you drill the holes at the nodes, and then do final sanding to bring it within 2-3 cents of the correct pitch. Sorry about being unclear.

ali941 wrote:I meant before the final sanding. You should have it about that far off when you drill the holes at the nodes, and then do final sanding to bring it within 2-3 cents of the correct pitch. Sorry about being unclear.

Gotcha, and that sounds about right to me. Though I personally did mine at 25 cents I think, since I had 2 overtones and wanted them all to be pretty tight.

Infinity Flat wrote:

ali941 wrote:I meant before the final sanding. You should have it about that far off when you drill the holes at the nodes, and then do final sanding to bring it within 2-3 cents of the correct pitch. Sorry about being unclear.

Gotcha, and that sounds about right to me. Though I personally did mine at 25 cents I think, since I had 2 overtones and wanted them all to be pretty tight.

I procrastinated like crazy, so I didn't get that luxury.

ali941 wrote:

Infinity Flat wrote:

ali941 wrote:I meant before the final sanding. You should have it about that far off when you drill the holes at the nodes, and then do final sanding to bring it within 2-3 cents of the correct pitch. Sorry about being unclear.

Gotcha, and that sounds about right to me. Though I personally did mine at 25 cents I think, since I had 2 overtones and wanted them all to be pretty tight.

I procrastinated like crazy, so I didn't get that luxury.

don't worry, one week before the competition and we haven't even built the instruments yet.

That's problematic. Good luck!

Infinity Flat wrote: Yeah, that really doesn't make any sense
Besides, you always want to sand FLAT not sharp, as it's much easier to make a note sharper than flatter...

Well, I think it would depend on the instrument no?

If you have a marimba bar, it's easier to shave mass from the middle, lowering the pitch and not changing the placement of the nodes. If you shave from the end, then the nodes change location.