So, what’s the catch?
There is no catch! By having low overhead, buying material in bulk, and doing all the work in house, we are able to offer a high quality keyboard at a more affordable price. Our instruments are 100% made in America with American parts (except the Padauk). Feel free to check out our social media pages to watch almost every part of the building process.
How much does the frame break down?
The black square tubes break down at the connection points into two 4ft pieces and 2 end pieces. The rails are hinged and fold in half.
What wood is the frame made out of?
The wood parts of the frame are made out of poplar.
What do you tune to?
We triple tune our bars to A=440HZ. This means we tune the fundamental, the first overtone, and the second overtone. Click here to learn more about triple tuning.
Are your marimbas meant to be performance or practice instruments
Our marimbas are primarily for practicing purposes. Many manufacturers will sift through bars, trying to find ones with a slightly longer resonance, and throw out the rest. We are not so wasteful with this valuable resource and will only throw out bars if they are audibly cracked after cutting or tuning. Therefore, the quality of bars will slightly vary throughout the instrument, but this is a major factor in keeping the cost down.
Do the bar widths match those of Marimba One, Yamaha, etc.
Yes. The lowest bar is 2-3/4″, graduated up to 1-5/8″. We do not create the “extra wide bars” at the bottom of our 5 octave keyboards.
What are the dimensions?
The length is 101″. The width of the big end is 40 5/8″. The height is 32″- 44″.
Doesn’t padauk sound worse than rosewood?
Only if the padauk is tuned poorly, or if the padauk is not of a high quality (poorly dried or poorly stored, which can be a common occurrence with exotic woods). Customers regularly tell us that our padauk keyboards sound much closer to rosewood than any other padauk marimbas they have heard. They are getting 99.9% of the sound for half the price.
The consensus on rosewood alternatives is changing, and at the end of the day the quality and care put into the tuning will determine the quality more than the timbre, or quality, of the wood itself. As multiple luthiers have told me, “Any new growth tropical wood will sound like any other new growth tropical wood”.
The hard truth is that there is no magical quality to rosewood, and there are plenty of great alternatives such as purple heart, and padauk. These woods are less endangered, more ethically sourced, and have 99.9% of the acoustic quality of rosewood.
For more information and to test your ears, check out Adam Tan’s great video on the subject here. If you can’t tell the difference, then the answer to the question would be no!
Will you add resonators in the future or can I put aftermarket resonators onto the instrument?
We are in the process of developing resonators for the Sonaris 5 Octave Practice Marimba in order to make it a concert instrument. No aftermarket resonators will fit the instrument, but you could make your own homemade version out of PVC. Contact us to talk about it.
How do you ship it?
The Sonaris 5 Octave Practice Marimba will come in three boxes. Two are 24″ by 16″ by 16″ and will contain the keys and frame. The other is 52″ by 12″ by 12″ and contains the rails. We use UPS ground shipping.
How much does one cost?
$2,999.99 plus tax and shipping.
What is the wait time? How do I order one or get on the waiting list? How do I pay?
There is no waiting list! All you have to do this is go to sonarispercussion.com/shop and add the product to your cart. All major credit/debit cards and PayPal are accepted. If we are out of stock, feel free to contact us to get an estimate for when we will re-stock inventory.
Do you allow partial payments?
We are happy to offer payment plans through PayPal! Check out their monthly payment plans on the “shop” page or at checkout.
Do you accept Paypal, Venmo, etc.?
We accept PayPal and all major debit/credit cards.
