I’ve dreamed of installing the big xylophone (8’x3′) in front of the house ever since we moved in five years ago.

My son and I finally picked up the all instruments from storage in LA and brought them home in January. I have another project in the works using keys from the other big keyboard – details to come as it comes together.

Over the past few weeks I polished up all the keys with a wire brush and then started work on the sound:

It used to be amplified by a pressure-zone mike installed on a plywood flat just under the keys, but that’s not a long-term plan for rainy Seattle. So I built, tuned, and installed tubular resonators under each of the keys, made of PVC pipe framed in custom brackets of 1/8″x1″ aluminum bar.

This involved calculating the right length for the tube (one-quarter the length of the wavelength for each note) and then cutting each tube precisely and plugging its bottom with a round of stiff corrugated plastic – drilled with a hole for drainage.

I also rebuilt the top end of the frame, reducing the angle at top left and pivoting the top rail downward to match the angle of the bottom rail. This fixed the ugly gap that used ride above the sharp/flat keys to allow the instrument to mount cleanly on the van’s flanks. It’s a lot purtier now.

This week, I dug holes for the four legs with a posthole digger and then lowered the frame into place with the help of friends and neighbors.

I plumbed and leveled things with the frame parallel to the little slope in front of the house ( at a nice, playable 40-degree angle), set the legs in place with small stones to steady them, and poured in and then doused a bag of quickset concrete for each.

To help folks stand closer to play, but keep the structure off the sidewalk, my wife and I excavated the sloped front yard and embedded a salvaged marble mantelpiece (found at Ballard Reuse for just a few bucks), bookended by cement blocks to keep the slope stable.

To make it look a bit less gravestone-y, I’m thinking about painting a welcoming message on it in trompe-l’oeil carved letters if I can figure out the best weatherproof paint to use on marble. (recommendations, anyone?)

Anyway, kids are coming by to play daily, I’ve met a Burner friend who stopped to play, and even the USPS letter carrier seems to like it.