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I've been asked to build a music box, which is new territory for me. Do any woods work better than others for sound. I see movements for a couple of bucks up to hundreds . So if anyone has built one , any advice will me appreciated
Thanks in advance
Mark
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I suspect that tonal differences are negligible. It's not a woodwind instrument, after all. The boxes I've made are usually from walnut and sound good enough to me. I expect anything with moderate density would work well.
Cellulose runs through my veins!
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Steve what movements do you use?
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Regarding music movements- what's your budget ? I mostly stick to the 18 note made in Japan Sankyo movements with the exposed mechanicals.
They look nice, sound nice and are reliable although having 18 notes means the melody is pretty short before repeating and the run time between windings is maybe 1-2 mins.
There are much better/more expensive movements available.
Give some thought to how you will trigger the movement. Many mechanical movements use a spring loaded arm that will start/stop playing when the arm is actuated.
-Mark
If I had a signature, this wouldn't be it.
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I've made a few of these:
The movement is sold by John Wilson (shakerovalbox.com) for $10 but it's only available with the Shaker song SIMPLE GIFTS. Plans for the oval music box are also available on his web site for free.
Mike
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I would look for a swiss reuge music box movement, Ebay has some new ones, and used ones. They sound better than the sankyo.
