Josh

Josh moved to Humboldt County to complete his degree in music and he never left. Instead, he joined marimba one™, first as a sander, then in the resonator department, and eventually focused his skills on tuning and acoustical research.

“I’ve always been really obsessed with tone, the sound of an instrument, the timbre of it,” notes the California native. “Early on I tried to play with ‘beginner’ instruments but I found that I just couldn’t get the sound that I really wanted out of them.” Josh’s pursuit for the perfect sound ranges from the hand-made Spanish classical guitar he owns to the drum set that he took five years to assemble, to his high-end car stereo system.

Tuning and acoustical research at marimba one™ is a dream challenge for him. He tunes not only bars but also resonators. “I’m forever trying to understand why the tuning variations happen. As these variations become more predictable through research, I know better and better where to place the plug in the resonators. For proper marimba tuning, you have to understand exactly how the physics work.”

“I love the creative freedom that Ron gives me,” says Josh who has been with marimba one™ for more than five years. Indeed it was through trial and error in the ongoing quest for pure sound that Basso Bravo resonator voicing evolved.  By manipulating the size and shape of the marimba’s resonators, the fundamental frequencies can be emphasized and less desirable harmonics can be minimized. This was the process used to create marimba one™’s Basso Bravo resonators, celebrated for their powerful and warm bass notes.