Hi,

Tonight, as I was playing the bars on the high end of my marimba, the string that holds the natural bars broke. It seems that it must have been pretty worn for a while for it to just suddenly break on me. So, my question is: what do I do? Should I try to find the same type of string myself and re-string the bars, or should I bother to contact the people at Musser to have it replaced? The marimba is not even a year old. What do you suggest?

thanks-
Billy Bialecki

Billy,

Don't bother contacting Musser - I've heard some negative stories about their customer service when it comes to parts (I've never dealt with them directly, so take that second-hand information with a huge grain of salt), and besides, this is such an inexpensive fix I wouldn't even spend the time calling them on the phone in the first place.

You can get good cotton cord at your local Ames/Wal-mart/K-mart/Target -type store. Get the cotton rather than the synthetic, as the synthetic can be a little bit noisier (as the bars rattle against the cord). A couple of bucks and you're all set.

It's possible that there's some roughness in one of the holes on one or more of your bars. Take note of where the cord broke, check the bars on either side, and run some cord through the drilled holes. See if the cord catches at all - sometimes those holes are drilled in a sloppy fashion, and there might be a rough edge of some sort which might cause the cord to fray. Perhaps Bill Youhass will chime in as well - I'm not sure if this is the sort of minor repair that falls under the "do it yourself" category.

JW