Technical Questions

I've heard a number of vibraphonists comment that there's no way to eliminate rattles from the instrument. I've owned a number of vibes and the rattles have always been present. My vintage Musser M55 was rebuilt by the master vibraphone maker Gilberto Serna before his passing (Century Mallet - Home Page). 

I came across this vibe without bars and without the foot pedal or the foot pedal assembly. Motor, mercury switch and speed controller all work. Does anybody know what the foot pedal / foot pedal assembly look like? Thanks.  

I have just set up a new Omega vibe and am running into some difficulties getting the dampening/pedal/sustain adjusted evenly across the instrument. I appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance. Bill

Does anyone know the color code for the gold of the resonance tubes on the M55-G ?

If one has some vibe bars that are tuned to A=442 with pickups ( assume no resonators) is it possible to electronically pull the pitch down so one hears A=440 from the amp? 

Newer member to the site...I wanted to share that my long-awaited Omega Vibe has arrived! Two days in and it is a beautiful instrument, wow. Coming from a vintage 60's Jenco, this is a night and day difference, that will take some serious adjusting to, but for the better. Especially the damper pedal, and the fact that the instrument is about 8 inches longer than my Jenco.

Can someone offer any advice on packing a vibraphone for shipping within the U.S.

I am selling a Musser M-75 vibraphone and live in Florida. I have had a couple of inquiries from out-of-state - and out-of-driving distance. I have never attempted to package up a vibraphone for shipping myself. I did buy an Omega vibraphone once and it was shipped to me in a box which was, of course, designed to hold that instrument.

I ordered 442 tuning for my vibes when I bought my OneVibe from MarimbaOne last year. I understood that 442 was the American standard because vibes and marimba are categorized as orchestral instruments. But what about JAZZ tuning with horns and piano? And would the bass player have to decide to go one way or the other if they had both tunings happening in the same ensemble? Yikes!
It seems like people with perfect pitch would grate at the mismatched tunings. Is it a big issue? What tunings do you guys have?

Hey y'all, so I recently bought a 76' M55. The guy who owned it before me bought it from Musser and it never left his basement. It's in almost perfect condition and I'm hoping to keep it that way. I'll be packing up and moving the instrument 4-5 times a week and I'm wondering what frame updates I should do? I've got a set of Beiner Bags on the way, but should I be doing anything else to make setting up/tearing down less of a headache? Thanks!

Hi all,