We have an old deagan F-F 4 octave at the school I teach at, Im looking to restore it. Does anyine have any ideas on how I could refinish the bars without destroying them? Also, what would be the best way to repair a cracked bar?

Thanks
Scott

I'll be interested to see what Bill Youhass has to say about this, assuming that he jumps in on the thread at some point.

Personally, you couldn't pay me enough money to try and refinish or repair my own marimba bars. Many years ago, I had Doug DeMorrow refinish and retune my Musser M-250 bars, and in our discussions he indicated that even if I didn't want the bars retuned anyway, they'd need a tuning after being refinished (in my case, sanded down to their natural finish), because enough would be removed in the refinishing process that the original tuning would no longer be the same.

IMHO, the best way to refinish/repair marimba bars is to send them to someone who deals in such matters professionally. As always, YMMV.

JW

Send the bars to Gilberto Serna at Century Mallet in Chicago. He's the master and can refinish the bars without taking off any wood. He soaks them in a tank of "something" that removes the old finish. 773-248-7733

Definitely send them to Gilberto! If you need a number or an address, just write me. Gilberto is THE best of the best, he can do ANYTHING with a Deagan.
-Angel