Frame of the Bass Marimba

Frame

The Frame

(diagram modified from Make Your Own Marimbas, p. 25)

The frame of the bass marimba is the wooden part that everything rests on. It's the structure that supports the resonators and holds the bars over them. Our frame was built according to Jon Madin's directions in Make Your Own Marimbas. The book includes everything you need to know. I highly recommend that you purchase this book if you want to construct a marimba like ours.

I am not going to describe the construction process in great detail, since Madin's book does a good job of that, and I did not feel that it would be right to make his book obsolete by telling all on this website. Instead I will give you an overview of the process that we went through to build it, and some modifications that we made ourselves. Click on the links on the diagram at the top or bottom of this page to learn about the components of the frame. The diagram shows the overall plan of the frame; in the book there are measurements for each segment. Since Jon Madin is from Australia, all the measurements in the book are in millimeters. At first, this threw us non-metric Americans for a loop; but then we got ourselves a measuring tape with inches on one side and millimeters on the other side. We got it intending to convert the numbers; but by the end of the process we stopped even bothering with inches, because the metric system was so much easier to use. (After all, who really enjoys adding and subtracting fractions? Not me!) Our recommendation if you plan to do this yourself? Use the metric system.

Since the wood for the frame didn't have to be as exact in measurements as did the bars and resonators, we simply chose the wood that had the most similar dimensions. Here is a list of substitutions that we made :

Jon Madin's Marimba	Our Marimba
35mm x 75mm lumber	2" x 4" lumber
35mm x 40mm lumber	2" x 2" lumber
19mm x 42mm lumber	1" x 2" lumber and
	1" x 4" lumber

Our process of building each part of the frame is described on various different pages. Click on the frame diagram below to get to those pages.

A Sense of Accomplishment

When we had finished the frame, we breathed a sigh of relief. The frame had seemed the most intimidating part to us. But it turned out great, and it does the job! Our revisions to Jon Madin's plans are not necessary; they just seemed like a good idea for us. Feel free to use any of our ideas if you decide to build your own marimba! (But get Jon's book first.) Click on the text links on the diagram to learn more about building the frame.

(diagram modified from Make Your Own Marimbas, p. 25)