Magadi Tuning Hammer

Description

This is essentially similar to the tuning hammers every Chinese Kalimba maker produces… except that, just like everything Magadi does, they took this one to the next level.

The wood handle seems like a simple improvement. But the handle makes this tuning hammer so much easier to use. For starters, the handle fits very nicely in my hand. And more important, the hammer is now perfectly balanced for tuning your kalimba.

The rest of this product description is the same as the other tuning hammers. So… the handle is the entirety of the improvement. And it is worth it!

I find that the smallest hit you can do with these hammers will not produce any movement of the tine. As you gain experience tuning with the hammer, you will probably develop a “standard whack strength” of about 5 cents. (There are 100 cents in a half step.) I find that I can tune kalimba tines to about 1-2 cents RMS by using a tuning hammer, giving even smaller whacks as I get near to my tuning target. If you only use your “standard whack” it will take you 20 whacks to move a half step.  If you are just touching up on your tuning, you will only be adjusting the tuning of each tine by a small fraction of a half-step, so a “hammer only” method is fine. However, if you are retuning a tine by more than a half-step, you may want to do a rough retuning by hand, followed by a fine tuning with your hammer.

Note that these hammers are too tiny (get it?) to adjust the tuning of the more massive tines on the mbira dzavadzimu. They will, however, work great on Sansula, Hugh Tracey, and any of the newer Chinese-made kalimbas.

You might ask: “How is this tiny tuning hammer related to the Homeka tuning tool?” The Hokema tuning tool is a metal cylindar a few inches long with a concave indentation on one end that will grasp a tine. While it was designed to grasp a 4mm wide Sansula tine, it can aslo grasp a 5mm Alto kalimba tine. It will grasp the tine, and you have to supply some UMPH to accomplish tine motion and retuning. That UMPH could be from your hand, pushing the Hokema tuning tool to move the tine… or the UMPH could be supplied by a tuning hammer, tapping on the tuning tool, which effectively transmits the force to the tine. That is, while the Hokema tuning tool and the tuning hammer are independent tools that deliver benefit all on their own, they can also be used together.