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This functional prototype of a bass kalimba with plexi tines was built by Reinhard, a brilliant carpenter at Theater Bremen (retired in 2016). He normally built stage designs upon specifications, but was always eager to build something more interesting. When i asked about kalimbas i learned, that there was a tradition of kalimba building in his family. He proposed plexi tines and plywood, I proposed a piano tine layout and all was done very quickly.
He built this big one for me (and a smaller one, see video below).
Not every kind of plexi works. You need to find a flexible kind, as hard ones will break or sound numb.

The Plexilimba was a huge bassy thing, with tines layed out like a piano keyboard.

plexilimba
(approx. 50 × 33 × 8 cms.)

Later on i found, that a piano-typical tine order isn’t very playable. This setup doesn’t allow to use the traditional thumb / finger logics for playing. But one good idea is the big body and the fact, that tines have not been precut to fit certain keys before, which leads to a rear side of tines featuring a kind of random tuning order, which musically is always good to have.
I gave this prototype to friends in Biesenthal in summer 2016, they’v let it rot in some attic and i guess we’ll move on to the next build.

On another note Reinhard built a much smaller version for me before, which is more easy to carry and can – as the big sister – be amplified well using cheap contact mics attached to a corner with a screw clamp.

Smaller plexilimba