Bar Chimes

[Michael Willis]

I'm thinking about fabricating a set of bar chimes. It seems like it would be a simple evening project involving a length of hardwood, a spool of twine, and a steel pipe of about 1/2 diameter cut into progressive lengths. Has anybody else done a project like this? Any advice is appreciated.

[Samulis]

Tried it myself a little. This page is really helpful-
http://www.sarahtulga.com/Glock.htm

It turns out it IS NOT a linear regression. You can also get different effects depending on where the bars are attached. There is technically a specific 'nodal point', .224 of the length from each end, where you are supposed to suspend this kind of thing for the right resonance. I did some experiments also with using flooring tile to get different sounds- lots of fun.

Sarah's site also has some cool other instrument ideas also made with tubing.

Most tube chimes/tube glocks are made best from brass or copper tubing, although these are of course much more expensive. I had fun making a low tube instrument using some metal fencing posts.

If I remember correctly though, narrower tubes are lower pitch than fatter ones. Something weird like that- I think it's all there.

I also have a dream of one day making a set of bell plates... I even bought some sheet metal for the purpose, but never got around to it.
http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/bellplates.html