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Step 8Resonators
This is actually the easiest and maybe quickest part of the build. Resonators will make your instrument a lot louder and give the bars a much more "full" and "warm" sound. All that is required is a little understanding of physics.
The material for the resonators can be almost anything. Just look for something that will hold water without leaking. That is essentially what you're doing. For me, PVC pipe works great. You will need the tubing and plastic test caps.
Now for some physics! Don't worry this is really simple.
L = 340/ (4f)
Length (in meters) is equal to the speed of sound divided by the quantity of four times the frequency of the note.
Frequency is measured in Hertz. You should use your mad Google-ing skills and look up the frequencies of your notes if you don't already know them.
I suggest you cut your resonators a little longer than you need. Trim off a little at a time, and hold it under the correct bar as you play it. When it sounds good and full, you're done with that resonator. Relax. This doesn't take that long and you won't make an extremely costly mistake.
Exactly how you mount your resonators under your bars us up to you. You just need to get them there. Don't be afraid to drill screws into your resonators to hold them (if you choose to do things that way). The resonators will still resonate. If you are making resonators for bass notes, you can curve and bend your resonators to fit under the instrument. Of course the beauty of PVC is you can buy PVC joints that are already bent.
The material for the resonators can be almost anything. Just look for something that will hold water without leaking. That is essentially what you're doing. For me, PVC pipe works great. You will need the tubing and plastic test caps.
Now for some physics! Don't worry this is really simple.
L = 340/ (4f)
Length (in meters) is equal to the speed of sound divided by the quantity of four times the frequency of the note.
Frequency is measured in Hertz. You should use your mad Google-ing skills and look up the frequencies of your notes if you don't already know them.
I suggest you cut your resonators a little longer than you need. Trim off a little at a time, and hold it under the correct bar as you play it. When it sounds good and full, you're done with that resonator. Relax. This doesn't take that long and you won't make an extremely costly mistake.
Exactly how you mount your resonators under your bars us up to you. You just need to get them there. Don't be afraid to drill screws into your resonators to hold them (if you choose to do things that way). The resonators will still resonate. If you are making resonators for bass notes, you can curve and bend your resonators to fit under the instrument. Of course the beauty of PVC is you can buy PVC joints that are already bent.
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The equation works for tubes of a .5 in or 3 in diameter. (point being diameter does not affect the resonant frequency.) However, diameter does affect the volume.
So in general you should try to get diameters which equal the with of the bar the resonator is being made for. Sometimes this isn't possible especially if you're using PVC like me. So just get as close as possible.
Finally, don't forget to cut the resonators about an inch longer than the equation predicts. I say this because if you can't fix "too short".
Good Luck!
R