I would like to buy a marimba to use at home for fun, i want it to last a long time and i'd like it to be a quality instrument, but it is not going to be for performing. What is a middle range $$$ marimba that is a good value?
Here is what i'd like:
4 octave or above
$$$ 1,000 - 2,500

Probably best if i buy a used one, does anyone know where online there are good-not too old-used marimbas?

Well, purchasing a marimba is like purchasing a car. It's a long time investment and it's important to test drive the marimba, rather than simply going on other's opinions.

It's good that you have a budget , but it sounds like you're going to have to save a bit more if you want quality used instrument.

Also, here are a few other questions to answer...

- Sound. Opinions are like elbows: Everyone has one, lol. What sounds good to me , may not be what you like. Try out different instruments before you buy. Pasic is coming up, but if can't go and don't live close to one of the marimba manufactures...try going to different colleges and high schools to try out what they have.

- Remember those life expenses like food, car payments, rent, ect.

- What type of literature you plan on playing? Although there's countless amounts of music for the 4.3; you may want to consider at least a 4.5 (since most of the 5 octave lit. have edit ossia parts)

- How graduated do you want the bars? Mallettech bars on the low end are rather large to me...same with the Mussers (I guess Steven's had some influence on that). I perfer Marimba One and Yamaha

- Shipping and handling: Can run you about at $200 or more.
Also, if purchasing a new rosewood one, you may have to wait for 3 months or so.

- Upgrading: Although you are looking for a 4 or 4.3; you may want to consider possible upgrades. I know Adams have a conversation kit and Demorrow (www.demorrowinstruments.com)have a "practice" model (his lowest grade bars and an option of no resonators) and a "student" model...but that brings up the question ..."Where is the money going to come from when you plan on upgrading"? The smaller companies like Demorrow (who make wonderful sounding instruments) and Coe may be able to work with your budget.

- Better resale value. I believe a 5 octave or a 4.5 would probably sale faster than a 4.3 and especially 4 octave

- Type of bars: Rosewood is ideal, but Padauk bars or synthetic are also an option. The problem with Paduak is that they are more prone to damage since they are softer.

Those are just some things to concider before you buy.

-try going to www.malletshop.com for some used instruments. They also have new Vancore instruments that are very inexpensive and sound good.

- Check out http://www.malletjazz.com/database/index.html for some reviews. Also consider the PAS forum www.pas.org is you're a member of Percussive Arts Society but if you're not try searching the forum on www.marimba.org. If you have any problems, feel free to email me here. Good luck and hope this helps.

in the near future, a cheap marimba that malletech is goin to release is coming to the US. the brand name is Jiaxun, and they are very cheap, very nice sounding marimbas. you may want to wait a bit to buy this one. LHS brought it to the precollege seminar at my school and it's definitely a very good sounding marimba for the price. i believe he said it would cost about 2500 or so. if you're interested in this you may want to contact malletech and ask them about it.

I found this so I thought I'd post it... http://web.mac.com/gabecobas/iWeb/Site/For%20Sale.html

Go right for the Yamaha 5 octave.... a little bit more money but amazing sound quality

Yea, I would stay away from a 5-octave. It would be fun to have but they're expensive and there's just not enough literature to validate spending that much money.

I bought a Yamaha low F several years ago and I've had a blast with it. I'm not a professional marimba player by any stretch of the means so it stays in my basement with all my other stuff. It serves it's purpose. If you're not going to be taking it out of the house then I don't think there's any need to get real elaborate.

DarkQuad had a good point. PASIC is a great place to try out several instruments and you can buy them right off the floor for amazing prices. Yamaha, Pearl, Dynasty, Ludwig, and all the other manufacturers pay a phenomenal amount of money to have their stuff shipped to PASIC and they will do almost anything to avoid shipping it back. I've walked out of there with some great deals before.

I would actually go for the opposite advice: if you can, DO go for a 5-octave marimba. A lot of the literature now being written is for 5-octave marimba because almost all universities and professionals now have them, and a lot of the best literature from the past 10-15 years (Northern Lights, Velocities, Merlin, Marimbology, See Ya Thursday, a lot of the Keiko Abe works and the remainder of the Japanese repertoire, a lot of the Zivkovic works, etc.) is for a 4.6-5.0 octave marimba. Additionally, if you ever resell, more people now are buying 5 octave instruments, so you'll have an easier time reselling. If you don't have the money for a 5 octave, you might get one of those Adams 4.3's that you can later buy an extension kit for so that you can turn it into a 5 octave.

Okay, so I suppose there is something else that should go into your decision.... If you're going to be playing seriously, go for a 5 octave (or, at the least, a 4.6). If you're just going to be practicing for marching band and not going to be exploring any of the advanced repertoire, you can probably go for something that's a smaller size.

I know what you're saying Derek. Believe me I would love to have a 5-octave but there are two reasons I would divert this kid to a smaller instrument. One, He has $1,000-$2,500 to play with. He would be lucky to purchase the wheels of a 5-octave with that money. Second, the literature you gave as an example is all phenomenal stuff but I think it would take a fairly accomplished high schooler to tackle the magnitude of some of those pieces.

By the way...how was the Burritt clinic? He's my next door neighbor and I've never even seen him do a clinic. It's funny because we rarely talk about percussion.

Okay, so maybe I was a BIT too pro 5-octave with my post. I guess my overall point is just that a bigger instrument is probably going to be a better long-term investment (in terms of resale value and repertoire choice), no matter what your level is. So in this case, perhaps go with the biggest instrument you can afford (maybe a 4.3 or even if a 4.5 if you really shop around).

The Burritt seminar was AWESOME. I'm way jealous that you get to be his neighbor. I learned an incredible amount in that week (from both Burritt as well as the other teachers), and gained so many tools to help me to better my playing long after the seminar. He gave a really awesome recital too... played his piece Shadow Chasers with the NW percussion ensemble, Khan Variations, John Cage's "In a Landscape", Becker's "Mudra" (he played the "solo" drum part), and then played set in a jazz combo with Anders Astrand and a bass player. So yeah... he's an incredible musician, teacher, and person.