where can I find good used marimba's for sale? they are uncommon at local stores. my daughter is a young player having taken lessons for over two years now, she ready to make the investment.
Steve,
A couple of possible directions to take:
1) Do you have any colleges or universities near where you live - specifically, ones with percussion departments? If so, you may be able to find a student who is investing in a better instrument, who may be looking to part with his "student" instrument in order to raise capital. If there are any such percussion departments nearby, call, send an e-mail, or send a letter to the head of the percussion department, informing him of your interest. In terms of finding an instrument for sale near where you live, this is (IMHO) the best bet.
2) Ebay is always an option - although you have to be careful whenever you buy any instrument over the Internet. There also have been a significant number of "marimbas" being listed on eBay which either are not marimbas at all, or are in dire need of rebuilding (specifically, the frame and resonators.) Since your daughter has been studying for two years, she may have a good idea of what she's looking for in an instrument - but if you go the eBay route, just make sure that you know exactly what you're purchasing - just because the seller claims that his is a "great-sounding professional marimba," there are no guarantees - he himself may not know anything about marimbas.
3) Here are a couple of stores who list used mallet instruments for sale:
http://www.xylophonestore.com/
http://www.malletshop.com/
...I've not dealt with either store directly myself, but to the best of my knowledge, both have solid reputations.
Good luck,
Jim
I also got my marimba from music123.com. I actually got mine a lot quicker than 6-8 weeks. I got one of the cheapest models they sell (Musser M52) and I probably could have gotten a better quality used one off of ebay for around the same price, but I just wanted an instrument to learn and practice on, and I'd rather have the piece of mind of buying a brand new instrument from a relyable company that risking getting an instrument in need of a lot of repair from some random person.
However, on ebay, sometimes store owners will have an instrument with some cosmetic flaw or something that they need to unload to make room for new stock or whatever, and something like that might be worth it.
