•A question for Ed Gaida, or anyone else: What is the purpose of the curved cut-up on the bottom of xylophone bars? Fritz Gellerman

•Fritz Gellerman asks, "What is the purpose of the curved cut-up on the bottom of xylophone bars?" I am not sure of the picture exactly, but it sounds like the cut-up may be for the tuning of the bars. I understand that xylophone bars are sharped by grinding a little material off the top or bottom o...

•To tune the xylophone bars: you remove material from the ends of the bars to raise the pitch, and remove material from the center of the underside of the bars to lower the pitch. Bob Godfried, Bronx, NYC godfried@dti.net

•Rosewood xylophone bars are tuned by cutting away at the back side hence the curve on the back. Sometimes you will find original bars barely sanded on the back, depending on the rosewood. Don Teach, Shreveport Music Co. 1610 E. Bert Kouns, Shreveport, LA 71105 dat-smc@juno.com

•Hi Fritz! Well, I'm sure someone will have a more scientific explanation, but one purpose is that the pitch is lowered by cutting out the middle, thus one can produce a lower tone with a shorter bar (within limits). I think it also affects the 'ring time' and note quality of the bar. Conversely, a ...

•The curved cut up on the backside of xylophone bars, orchestra bells, marimba bars is there because that is the way they are tuned. Art Reblitz has an excellent explanation of the process in his book, "Rebuilding the Player Piano" but just in case you do not have the book a brief explanation follow...

•This is beginning to get interesting. I have made a number of metal bar "xylophones"* over the years, and my bible has been "Music, Physics and Engineering," second edition, by Harry F. Olson. Dover: New York, 1967. He gives the equation for the fundamental frequency of a bar as a function of its l...

•Xylophone or bell beaters in a nickelodeon hit the bar quickly and do not rest or muffle the bar in any way. When the beater pneumatic is closed the beater just misses touching the bar by almost an eighth of an inch in some cases. This clearance is varied to taste and how much the beater weighs. Mo...

•I'd like to introduce Salazar Fine Tuning to the readers of MMD. We offer complete tuning and repair services for xylophones and marimbas. Of specific benefit to MMD readers are our re-tuning, re-finishing, and bar replacement services applicable to mechanical music instruments containing keyboard ...

•-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD -- I'd like to introduce Salazar Fine Tuning to the readers of MMD. We offer complete tuning and repair services for xylophones, marimbas, vibraphones and bells. Of specific benefit to MMD readers is our re-tuning, re-finishing, and bar replacement ...

•-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD -- I just purchased a nickelodeon with a metal xylophone in it. When it goes to play the notes on the xylophone, instead of the ball striking it once and then letting the sound resonate, the ball strikes it many times very rapidly in succession. Tha...

•-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMDigest -- [ cmorgan wrote in 040521 MMDigest: >> I just purchased a nickelodeon with a metal xylophone in it. >> When it goes to play the notes on the xylophone, instead of the >> ball striking it once and then letting the sound resonate, the >> ball ...

•Larry Mayo wrote: > Is there a set of old beaters floating around out there, > that need a rebuild, or should I bite the bullet and start > building them myself? You can visit my web site and click on "completed items" and you will find an original xylophone out of a cathedral type setting that I c...

•Just curious -- what note range would a xylophone share with the piano on an A roll if the instrument even had one? Wade Newton

•My Seeburg A roll nickelodeon has a xylophone hooked up to start with the highest note on the piano keyboard, "A". This is hole number 5 on the tracker bar, counting from the right. The 24-bar xylophone continues 23 notes, going down to B-flat. I suppose this range was chosen because most nickelode...

•There were different note ranges for the xylophone in A-roll pianos. One example would be that Seeburg, without exception, used a 22-note xylophone in their A-roll model pianos, and Seeburg used the same xylophone in the KT and E Special models that played the G roll. The Seeburg H used a different...

•Xylophone tuning is an art and science, so it's good to take it cautiously. Remove material from the center area and the note goes flatter; removing from the ends and the note sharpens. If the bar is properly made the mounting hole is at a very precise nodal location that must not be changed or the...

•I read the post by Mr. Charles Davis regarding the barrel piano in the movie, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and I have a question myself about another movie that I recently viewed, "Horse Feathers", a Marx Brothers film from 1932, I believe. In the speakeasy scene there seems to be the sound of an "A"...

•I just watched the "Horse Feathers" scene on YouTube. It is most definitely the Paramount Studio Orchestra playing, not an orchestrion. The duo of pianists are probably Ralph Rainger and Edgar Fairchild, both of whom had Paramount contracts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7PgnjEiMcA Eric Stott ...

•If you have enjoyed the xylophone on these videos of the Nelson-Wiggen 6X, you should know that it (the xylophone) was restored by Josh Rapier of Riverside, California. A major component was missing and he fabricated the part and rebuilt the instrument. It really adds a lot to the Nelson-Wiggen! He...