Custom Marimbas Canada

Custom Marimbas Canada Pro marimbas designed & built to your specifications. Tuning, maintenance and refurbishing also done. Includes Vibraphone & other bar percussion.

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Hi everyone, I'm Jim McCarthy. I design and build professional marimbas mostly, but all bar percussion instruments. Off the shelf designs or custom built to your specifications - no modification or brief is too difficult - I've even built a circular marimba! Re-tuning, maintenance and refurbishing also done.

03/13/2026

I'm super excited to formally announce that my Vibraphone Motor project will at last be launched as a fully featured product. After many years of on/off development I have fully finished results - and more to come! I'll be officially and personally showcasing the system to the public for the first time in late MAY at the TSB event this year - check out Canadian Percussion Network for details. Until then the website will remain in this newly uploaded teaser mode - check it out at www.vibesmotorunlimited.com

As promised - photos of resonator configuration on the latest custom 5.0 build. Not yet fully happy with the paint job o...
01/13/2026

As promised - photos of resonator configuration on the latest custom 5.0 build. Not yet fully happy with the paint job on these - but the tuning and configuration is great! Best yet! C2-G #2 are tunable and plugs are very accessible. Bends are generally very low and 135 degrees rather than 180 degrees. Physically balanced to so they hang straight!

Final putting together of this unique custom marimba today! This project took most of December but worth it! I hope the ...
01/07/2026

Final putting together of this unique custom marimba today! This project took most of December but worth it! I hope the customer will be happy with the results. Features split struts for transport using my own custom non-sag joint system. Features 6" castors with 3" height adjustable base. Shaped struts are double width for the whole bottom octave. Resonators are in paint today but I will post photos soon. Each bank split into 3 sections as usual but the bottom sections are my newest and best design yet. Lowest 9 resonators are tunable.

Contra-Bass Marimba Project update! As Promised, I spent a little of the weekend tweaking the instrument. I fitted that ...
08/03/2025

Contra-Bass Marimba Project update! As Promised, I spent a little of the weekend tweaking the instrument. I fitted that extra wheel and added a carpet strip to the rolling bass for the bottom octave - that seems to have solved the sag issue and all the resonators now sit pretty flat and without extraneous vibration. To this end as well as just safety/structure - I added 3 paracord/spring tie lines. These loop over the resonator box mouths to hold them firmly together - one over the naturals and one each over the two groups of sharps. This make sure they don't wobble at all and keep position - makes sure that even when rolling the cart, you can't have one on the end tip over!

MOST importantly I was experimenting with getting the best sound. One important factor with bars this size is that you simply cannot buy a mallet that really suits them - both in terms of head weight/type and in terms of shaft length. SO it needs custom mallets. I settled on three pairs plus one single to go along with the instrument. The yellow and brown are similar - both with 30" long 1/2" diameter handles and big soft rubber "wheel" cores - difference is just in the amount of winding. Then there's the single softest mallet - same handle but a smaller diameter but longer cork core - this wrapped in a few layers of rubber sleeve = then LOTS of wool winding (2 windings) then 2 separate fluffy fabric coverings. This mallet is not too heavy but is the one you want for minimum contact sound when sustaining a roll on the lowest bars. Then the smaller red mallets have about 22" handles at 3/8" with medium rubber core rounded a little at the top - then with 200 winds of soft wool. These produce a good general "Bass" sound in the top octave and have a bit of a "two-tone" feel.

Despite the amazing generosity of sponsors, I'm still a little in the RED on this project, so any extra donations are still very welcome - https://www.gofundme.com/f/sponsor-a-bass-marimba-bar

Wow! What a project! The Contra-Bass marimba is finally all finished and assembled together - and at last we can see all...
08/01/2025

Wow! What a project! The Contra-Bass marimba is finally all finished and assembled together - and at last we can see all the design elements come together to make - what I personally think anyway - is a remarkably seamless complete instrument that is still modular in nature. I have stayed exactly on schedule over the month so I have the weekend to tweak things a bit and try mallets before driving to Winnipeg next week to present it at the "The Space Between" Event.

This morning I engraved any remaining bars with note names and touched up the tuning - oiled them all. Strung those last two big sharps - completed the stringing of the top octave. Pics show the different way this is done to a regular marimba where the string spring would just stretch around poles at the big end. Here - it does that for the sharps but with the spring at the top end. For the C2 - that would introduce a gap - so the string is hooked to a peg on the inside of the frame end - goes up to the top end and back down - then a spring is used to hook back down to another peg on the frame - you an see care is taken to make sure nothing touches the bar. I added small felt pads to one side of each big resonator box to make sure there is no contact vibration noise between them.

The "wheeled base" was quite bent - plywood just was not great - so I improved it with a couple of wood beams underneath - still you can see the annoying angle of the sharps as they dip a bit in the frame middle - something I hope to tweak over the weekend.

Overall it really does feel like one seamless instrument when you stand in front of it - though the scale is quite intimidating! :)

Progress on the Contra-Bass Marimba is exactly on schedule and looking great! My plan was always to be finished by the e...
08/01/2025

Progress on the Contra-Bass Marimba is exactly on schedule and looking great! My plan was always to be finished by the end of tomorrow which leaves the weekend for any tweaking that might need doing - and frankly a bit of recovery! Today I had a new sponsor for the A1 bar - super big thank you! It allowed me to engrave/final tune/oil than bar too so now in this bottom octave only the F # and G # remain. The rest of the suspension sets are all done and bars suspended.

While all of these note can be individually moved, they also form a set which you might want to move all at once - so the height was calculated to be correct when on top of a 3" caster with 3/4 plywood. Today I cut out the basic footprint of the notes on the plywood - made it so it can be taken apart in sections - but fairly sturdy as one piece on heavy duty wheels. I might need to add one more wheel in the middle of the big end - I'll trial it tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, any remaining unsponsored notes will have note names engraved and final tuning done regardless - so tonight is the last chance to sponsor if you want your name on a bar! There's the F #1 and G #1 as well as D2 and D #2 and G2 up to B2 also! Visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/sponsor-a-bass-marimba-bar before morning to lock yours in!

Just a couple of days to go before I need to call this finished! BUT progress on the Contra-Bass Marimba project is on t...
07/31/2025

Just a couple of days to go before I need to call this finished! BUT progress on the Contra-Bass Marimba project is on track! This morning I machined the remaining tuning slides so pic one show the wall of black resonators with slides! Lot one of the oak suspension blocks got metal posts made and attached - rubbers on - felts on - string holding screws in. Lot 2 of the oak blocks got filler sanded back and 2 coats of polyurethane by the end of the day. I even got to string up the lowest three bars - detail shown of string for both wood system and accidental steel system. You can really see how the C # overhangs the C and D by so much more with this system!

I have tonight... MAYBE tomorrow night left before I HAVE to final tune the remaining bars whether they are engraved or not - so if you want your name on this instrument we are up the the last minute now to sponsor a bar. It's quite an expensive project sol any help is really appreciated! https://www.gofundme.com/f/sponsor-a-bass-marimba-bar

A day of good progress on the ContraBass Marimba Project. And I'm aiming to be string bars and being finished pretty soo...
07/30/2025

A day of good progress on the ContraBass Marimba Project. And I'm aiming to be string bars and being finished pretty soon! So last couple of days to sponsor a bar if you want your name engraved on it before final touch tuning done and bars strung up. Visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/sponsor-a-bass-marimba-bar if you are interested! :)

The remaining boxes got painted - the 1st lot of oak suspension posts got sanded back and a coat of polyurethane - the second lot got built and filled. I also knocked up the appropriate height riser for the B1 from scrap - the only box that could not get the required height otherwise.

Then to finish the day I managed to mill about half of the aluminum tuning slides. :) :) :)

ContraBass Marimba Project moving along nicely again to start of the last week! Finished welding up all the accidental...
07/28/2025

ContraBass Marimba Project moving along nicely again to start of the last week! Finished welding up all the accidental extensions for me over the weekend, complete with the new string routing pegs! So job one was to fit them all to the boxes. Note how the pegs all end up at the same height even though the top of the boxes get higher as the note gets higher - that's because wider resonator mouths require greater gap to the bar so box heights were calculated to work out this way! Then I ground out the string slots, cleaned and painted them! Pic 2.

Pic 3 - Next was to start painting some boxes - A few got a full coat on by the end of the day.

Pic 4 - I made about half of the wood suspension blocks required to hold the strings the correct height from the boxes too - these are oak and will be finished nicely - tonight they wait for the filler to dry in the screw holes etc.

Pic 5. Final touch up tune was done today on all the bars that have been sponsored. Engraving your name on the bar changes the tuning very slightly so these needed a small tweak. That means there's not much time left if you want to get your name on a bar - there's three in this pic that are on their side and SAD because they have no sponsor yet - so I have left them without the final tuning to give a tiny bit more time.

Consider helping this along in these last few day of building - https://www.gofundme.com/f/sponsor-a-bass-marimba-bar ANY amount is appreciated!

I'm calling progress this week on the ContraBass Marimba project - a success! :) Targets achieved! All resonators are no...
07/25/2025

I'm calling progress this week on the ContraBass Marimba project - a success! :) Targets achieved! All resonators are now finished off - have tuning slide bases fitted and insides spraypainted - ready for external paint!

Just one more week to get everything finished - so next week these get painted - the bar suspension units get made and fitted - and I'll have to cobble together the base unit too - which will need more than a whole sheet of plywood and some fancy fiddling!

There's still some bars that have not yet been claimed - so if you want to get your name engraved on a bar then feel free to sponsor the project here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/sponsor-a-bass-marimba-bar

Another day and another good bit of progress on the ContraBass Marimba Project! G #1 all sanded back and ready for paint...
07/25/2025

Another day and another good bit of progress on the ContraBass Marimba Project! G #1 all sanded back and ready for paint. Last two resonator boxes made/tuned/roughsanded/filled - the A #1 and B1. The only way to make the B1 high enough in pitch and keep the format and bandwidth was to reduce the height.. so I will have to add something under it in the structure later. 4 more boxes got their tuning slide bases on and the mouths painted too.

Most importantly - because I have two more generous sponsors - two more names also got engraved on bars! If you'd like YOUR name on a bar, please consider a sponsor here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/sponsor-a-bass-marimba-bar

Putting in SO many hours on the ContraBass Marimba these last couple of weeks - but still on track! :) Today the lounger...
07/24/2025

Putting in SO many hours on the ContraBass Marimba these last couple of weeks - but still on track! :) Today the loungeroom collection has the D #1 all sanded back and ready for paint and the G #1 finished/tuned/roughsanded/filled - ready for final sanding tomorrow. The C1 and D1 are missing because I started the next process on them today. Painting takes drying time and because the main paint is a different base to the spraypaint I have to use to spray INSIDE the resonator mouths - there's another whole drying period needed - so I made a start on these notes. Which required me to first make and fit the tuning slide bases - see these before and after spraypaint.

I also did the first half of both of the remaining resonators - the A #1 and B1. They have the polyurethane drying, and I look to finish their build and tune tomorrow.

Thanks to those who have recently sponsored bars! It means I'm just breaking even on the materials - well almost - so there's still a few bars available for YOUR name and if you can, I'd super appreciate it. You can check that out here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/sponsor-a-bass-marimba-bar

Address

134 Needham Crescent
Saskatoon, SK
S7M4X2

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Telephone

+13062800675

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