A simply stunning result from Ray who is clearly a superior craftsman - He has extended the range of the P3 design an octave upwards to make an instrument with the same range as a standard 4-Octave marimba. He has also made a few of his own design adjustments.

"Hi Jim
I have finally finished the marimba that I started about 9 months ago. If you remember I purchased the plans from you. My modification is that I built a 4 octave model. C3 to C7. I hope you enjoy looking at the pics that I have sent. Your instructions were very helpful. The tuning of the bars was the most difficult, only by doing can one understand how complicated it is! Thanks for your help.
Peace Ray"

Like most people who extend the P3 design, Ray has taken the sensible option of using timber diagonals rather than the ones incorperated into the resonator banks. The resonator diagonal works fine for the lightweight P3 or P2 but once you get into bigger ranges, this more robust type of solution is reccomended.

Ray has also beefed up the materials all round. You can see the extra width horizontal struts - very much a reccomended modification for the extended range as the timber is simply spanning a greater distance. Also he has used wider verticals at each end and castors for easier transport. Check out those beautiful center verticals!

Ray has also designed his own system for attaching the horizontal struts to the end pieces - as well as using proper jointing for the verticals on the end sections. This type of joint take more skill and time than the average builder has, but Ray is clearly an experienced woodworker and has gone for the more professional finish. In fact he has achieved a really professional level of finish on everything - super job!