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Ajax "Concert" Vibraphone

Range: F3-F6

Number of Reviews: 1

Average Scores:

Sound and Tone:	8
Design and Construction:	4
Appearance:	9
Customer Support:	n/a
Overall Rating:	5

Reviewer: Nat Steele e-mail: nat.s@bigfoot.com Date submitted: October 15, 2002 Purchase Price: £300 UKP

Sound & Tone Rating: 8 Comments: The instrument has a rather 'cold' tone, and although I wouldn't say it was as nice as the sound of the Musser, it certainly isn't a bad tone and it sounds fairly unique to me. The bars are graduated, although not quite 1/2" thick. The sound is consistent throughout the range of the instrument, with the exception of the C key bang in the middle of the keyboard, which for some reason is much louder and warmer than the rest - I have a feeling that this has something to do with the tuning of the resonators as it affedts only this key and none of the others. The keys are in tune with themselves, and sound best with Musser M235 (royal blue) mallets. One problem I encounter a lot with this instrument is that the keys eventually ruin any mallets used with them. The keys are polished aluminium as opposed to being anodized, which makes the keys look very strking, but apparently the keys not being anodized causes the aluminium to oxidize, over time leaving behind a dirty black layer on the mallets that leads to slightly older mallets producing a "click" sound every time I use them, and also dirtying the keys of other people's vibes.

Design & Construction Rating: 4 Comments: The frame is definitley not solid. Whenever I press the pedal down, it creaks and groans, and tilts slightly to one side. This can be fixed by spending a couple of hours going around the instrument tightening up all of the screws and bolts, but after 5 minutes or so the problem re-emerges again. The frame has always rattled and always will rattle, but this has recently been greatly improved by the addition of the vanderPlas damper pad. Strangely enough, the casters are actually quite solid and don't make many noises, which is an interesting contrast with the frame (which isn't height adjustable, incidentally). Unfortunatley, in order to keep manufacturing costs down, Ajax utilsed what is actually the motor for an electric gramophone. In fact, the motor was silent when it was removed from the frame and laid down on its back, but on its side (as it is positioned on the right hand portion of the frame) the gear box made a lot of noise. Sadly, the motor conked out about a year ago and when I took it to a motor repair company they said it was unrepairable. The dampener pedal may well have once worked, but it utilises such a silly design and is so aged that it hardly functions at all. (I should mentioned that this instrument is about 50 years old.) When you press it down it feels a little like you're treading on a piece of thick foam, and no matter how far down one pushes it, the two Fs on either extreme of the keyboard remain damped. The other problem is that the two inner bar rails (onto which the entire pedal mechanism is attached) are so flimsy that they flex down whenever I press the pedal, meaning that it has to move a long, long way before the damper moves away from the keys. The one really good thing I have to say about the frame (well, two things really) is that it's very easy to transport. It's light, and dissassembles and reassembles incredibly quickly, as all I have to do is remove two support rails and then fold the legs under. This basically means that I can set the instrument up in about 5 minutes - the thing that takes the most time is reseating the keys on the keybed. The frame, I think, was made on the very very cheap (as opposed to the keys, which were just made on the cheap) and should really have held up better than this. Apparently the instrument was bought in the early 50s, stayed in a guys living room for a few years and then spent over 40 years in his garage, until it was sold to me 3 1/2 of years ago so it hasn't exactly taken lots of abuse.

Appearance Rating: 9 Comments: The keys look beautiful as they are highly polished and are mirror-like. The resonators and frame are functional in appearence, but definitley aren't ugly at all. The resonators are slightly rusted from having spent so long sitting in someone's garage, but not so that they look terrible. I had the metal parts of the frame powder coated black, so it looks quite smart.

Customer Support Rating: n/a Comments:

Overall Rating Rating: 5 Comments: Overall, I'm not too happy with this instrument. It sounds much, much nicer than other student vibraphones I've tried, but the crappyness of the frame and pedal mechanism manages to ruin it all. I have the feeling that Ajax spent a lot more time and money on the keys than the frame or motor - I would have happily accepted a slight compromise in the sound if it meant having a better frame. I definitley would get one of these again if I were going to buy another student instrument, just because its sound is so much better than all the other cheap instruments I've tried and the fact that it has graduated bars. As it is, I'm buying a vanderPlas (going to the OTHER extreme of having the perfect frame!) fairly soon so that's really not a concern for me =) I use it in straight ahead jazz groups and in a salsa big band. I don't THINK there's anything that can beat this instrument at the going second hand price (I've seen a couple of others for sale second-hand for between £2-300), so if you want a really cheap vibraphone with a nice sound, get this one!