Resonators Part 1

It has been a struggle to find time to work on the vibe. In October I moved out of my parents house 30 minutes away. So I still have to go to their house to work on it. I decided to make the resonators into 2 posts just because it might be a while before they're completely done.

The resonators are being made out of PVC pipe as it's cheap and very easy to work with. It actually doesn't matter too much what your resonators are made out of to properly resonate the bars.

I tune them by sanding off bit by bit from the open end until I have the correct pitch. I check the pitch by hitting the capped end with a mallet. It isn't too big of a deal if the resonators aren't tuned as precisely as the bars were. In fact, the resonators were quite difficult to tune. Temperature affected them very much and I would get pitch readings all over the place on many of the pipes. I just tuned them as close as I could.

The pipes ended up appearing much shorter than typical manufactured vibes. But they are the correct pitches and they actually do a great job of resonating a note, especially on the low end. On the highest 4 or 5 notes, you can't really tell a difference between the sound of the note with or without a resonator.

I cut out these notches on the tops of each pipe. Eventually I will add a fan and motor system and this is where the fan rod will rest. But that's more of a stretch goal to tackle after the rest of the vibe is completed.