 [1825]Re:Re:Re:Re:King George Marimba (1618 reads) |
2002-04-27 00:42:58 |
The wood WAS different..it came mostly from British Honduras, then Belize and came from older, larger trees. It was more dense. It was air dried longer..most rosewood now used for mallet instruments comes from Guatamala. The best, I think, comes from SE Guatamala(is that right, maybe I'm lost) nearer to Belize, but a lot of it is from nearer to Mexico. It just isn't the same. It is air-dried for 1-2 years than kiln dried to about 6-7% moisture content. The older wood was air-dried longer. I believe the best makers now are making marimbas every bit as good as the old Deagans (just my opinion), But it is maybe a more difficult process to get good wood to sound good. I have a lot rosewood from Belize that I got in 1973, and I also get wood each year from southern Guatamala. The wood from Guatamala can be as good as the old stuff (my old stuff, that is) but there is much more waste. The 1973 wood is harder. But the best makers work very hard to get good bars.. KORI (KOROGI in Japan)has an exceptional drying process that is extremely labor intensive and produces very resonant bars. The ADAMS bars seem to be lighter in weight and drier than most others. MARIMBA ONE takes great care in selecting their bars, with tremendous waste...These companies have different ways of selecting and drying rosewood but they all work very well I believe there have been advances and improvments in tuning since the Deagans of the 1930's- 1950"s. (Now I'll hear about it)There is usually more care taken with the interfering harmonics--transverse, torsional, etc and there are more harmonics beginning to be tuned where possible. Anyway, it's a really interesting discussion. I had a Canterbury for some 30 years and finally sold it...a difficult decision. For me, it was an incredibly beautiful warm, living instrument. You only had to imagine the sounds and it would play for you.. Bill www.marimbas Remote Host: |
