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Comments:
| Ross seems to have designed a very solid and well constructed frame for their vibraphones, and it appears that the same basic frame design is used on all their vibe models. From comments I've read from other players complaining about wobbly, under-engineered frames on lower-end instruments from other manufacturers, this is one of Ross' best features. The frame is rock-solid and extremely stable.
Overall, the instrument measures 48-1/2 inches long, 27-1/4 inches wide at the lower end, and 15 inches wide at the upper end. The frame is height-adjustable from 31-5/8 to 38 inches, and due to the way the frame and legs are engineered, the instrument height can be adjusted easily by one person. The legs are pivoted where they attach to the side rails, so you can raise or lower one end of the instrument at a time, then go to the other end and adjust it to match. The legs, crossbar, and braces are all constructed of tubular steel painted satin black. The upper, adjustable portions of the legs are chromed steel.
Setup is quite easy. The keyboard frame and legs are permanently attached, and the legs fold together against the keyboard frame for transport. The crossbar, pedal and pushrod, and angled braces are assembled together as one unit which all folds flat. All the connection points are made with extremely heavy-duty, oversized, chrome wingnuts, which are also used on the frame height adjusters.
The setup instructions included with the instrument indicated that the resonators should be inserted from the top of the instrument, but because there are a couple of small spacing braces between the keybed rails, this is not possible. You have to lift the resonators into position from underneath the instrument, which is not a big problem in itself, but a discrepency in the assembly instructions that caused me a few moments of confusion the first time I set up the instrument.
The casters are oversized 4-inch diameter, and are permanently attached to the leg assemblies so they won't fall off if the instrument is lifted. The two casters on the player's side have nice, oversized caster locks which are easy to operate with your foot. These are very high-quality casters with ball bearings used throughout, and they roll and swivel very smoothly.
The bar cord appears to be generic mil-spec 550 cord with a braided nylon sheath - in fact it's even olive-drab in color! I've noticed buzzing from the cord on several bars, and am thinking about replacing it with cotton cord if I can find something suitable to see if that will help.
I've encountered a certain amount of extraneous rattles and sympathetic vibrations from various places which I am trying to track down and fix. One problem appears to be engineering related and could be easily fixed by Ross. The resonators are supported on the lower end by hard rubber slotted fittings which seem to work well. On the upper end of the instrument, however, where the fan pulleys are located, the resonator arms simply rest within the wooden structure of the side rail. There are no rubber fittings on the motor end, and due to a small amount of play between the resonator rails and the wood of the frame, I found I was getting the odd sympathetic vibration of the resonator assembly against the frame when playing certain notes or chords. I've shimmed it temporarily with little bits of fiberboard to eliminate the vibration, but plan to retrofit the places where the resonator assemblies rest at the motor end with either rubber or leather to make them tight and vibration-free.
The damper mechanism is of the center-pull variety, and the damper material itself appears to be generic felt, 3/4 inch thick and 1-1/2 inches wide. Damper pressure and pedal height are both adjustable, though, oddly, the setup instructions offered no clue as to how to adjust the damper pressure - I figured it out, though. It seems like they would let you know how to do that in the instructions, as it's a rather critical adjustment. The pedal, while a nice 13 inches wide, does not swivel on the R705 model, though it does on Ross' more expensive vibe models. I don't see where it would have added much to the cost of the instrument to include the swiveling capability on the R705 model, but the lack of it hasn't been much of a problem.
The point of contact between the pedal's pullrod hook and the eyebolt of the damper bar appears to be another source of occasional sympathetic vibration, but I think that should be simple enough to fix with a little rubber tubing placed over the pullrod hook. Why don't they think of these things at the factory? It seems to me anywhere on the instrument where you have metal-to-metal contact, or metal-to-wood contact, those points should be isolated as best as possible with dampening material like rubber or leather to avoid sympathetic vibrations. Maybe it's just a matter of me being new to the vibraphone and perhaps they all have these little quirks that the owners have to figure out and remedy as they appear. Then again, for the price paid for this new instrument, and the fact that it's an entry-level model, I don't mind making a few minor modifications.
The bars on the R705 are semi-graduated, that is, the lowest seven bars below middle C are 1-3/4 inches wide, and the rest are 1-1/2 inches wide. All the bars are 3/8 inches thick. I have to wonder how much it would add to the price of the instrument to have provided it with 1/2 inch thick bars, which would, of course, give it greater volume, projection, and sustain, and perhaps even alleviated the slight deadness in the lowest 1/2 octave and slight thinness in the upper 1/2 octave.
I guess while I'm wondering, I wonder what it would cost, or whether it would even be feasible, to replace the 3/8 inch bars with a 1/2 inch thick set.
The instrument comes equipped with a variable speed motor, controlled by a rotary-knob rheostat and push-on, push-off power switch located just below the top-most three bars of the lower manual. The motor is extremely quiet and the resonator fans run quite smoothly and silently. It would be nice if the on-off switch for the motor was silent - it makes a rather audible clicking sound - and it would also be nice if the power switch was lighted to indicate its status. I can see where this might be a problem in a dimly-lit gig situation where you might not easily be able to see the status of the resonator fans, and a simple red-green LED indicator would really help.
The power cord for the motor unit is generously lengthy and of the 3-pronged grounded variety. However, it is hard-wired to the motor unit. It would have been better, in my mind, for them to have used a standard, detachable generic power cord that you would plug into a receptacle of the motor unit. With the hard-wired cord it seems as though you'll have to be very careful not to pinch the power cord between the keyboard frame and legs when you fold the unit up for transport. On the other hand, you won't lose it or leave it behind this way!
Overall, the instrument is extremely well designed and constructed, especially given its low cost. The problems I mention are relatively minor in comparison to the tremendous value this instrument represents for an entry-level vibraphone. And don't lose sight of the fact that we're talking about an acoustic musical instrument here. All acoustic musical instruments have their little quirks and problems, some more than others.
The most important thing is whether you can use it to make music, and by that criteria this is a most impressive and very musical instrument at an extremely affordable price.
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