Chromatic kalimbas exist, but they are awfully expensive. Let’s just build one!
For those that want to skip forward to a demo: 20:08
This is actually the Kalimbatone Mark II, I had a working prototype that I made a year or two ago, mostly as an exercise in tuning the kalimba tines. And that’s really the standout feature of this instrument: Compared to a traditional kalimba which has pretty enharmonic overtones, this has overtones that are tuned to be 2 octaves above the fundamental. In the lower register, this makes all the difference, it gives the instrument such a buttery smooth tone!
A huge reference for this project was Bart Hopkin’s “Musical Instrument Design: Practical Information for Instrument Making“. He goes into great detail on how to tune the overtones of the kalimba tine (SPOILER: you actually tune the fundamental DOWN to meet what the overtone’s note is). He has a YouTube channel featuring some of his musical instrument inventions, you have to check them out:
Another excellent resource for overtone modification is this video by TongInstruments. He makes beautiful instruments himself and I highly recommend checking out his work:
I could definitely use some advice from a luthier, I really didn’t know the best materials for the soundboard/bridge, the dimensions of the body, the type of bracing I needed to shape the sound, etc. I got lucky, it sounds BEAUTIFUL in person, but I’m sure with some acoustics expertise, it could sound even better.
I used hard maple for the sides and “back“, wenge for the sound board, katalox for the bridges, and chechen for the kalimba bodies. (Also katalox and hard maple for the tine support blocks).
As far as playing it, there’s a little bit of a learning curve. It’s set up to be played like a keyboard instrument, but since the tines are considerably thinner than a piano key, you have to be much, much more precise. It just takes some muscle memory, after an hour or so of messing around, it became second nature.
I’ll set up some nice condenser mics once I get set up in my new house in Texas and get a proper recording of how the instrument sounds, hopefully the samples at the end of the video aren’t discouraging (only using my camera’s mic makes the thing sound boomy).
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