These are exactly what I need to repair my thumb piano.

Very hard to tune

My whole family loves this. We enjoy music and I got this for me and my kids to play with, and it has gotten used quite a bit even after 3 months. It is surprisingly sturdy and sounds beautiful, though I've adjusted the tines to tune it a particular way.

I liked this but I never actually used it. I ended up selling it at a garage sale.

I've always loved kalimba music, and I decided to try my hand at playing. This kalimba is really good quality. The wood is smooth, and it feels nice in my hands. The tines are a little tight, making it tough to tune it, but it isn't a huge issue. It's a beautiful instrument, and easy to learn to play!

I bought this as a gift for my hipster girlfriend she seemed to like it. Honestly it was hard for me to give it away once I had it! pretty neat little instrument great sound.

I received this instrument as a gift, and I love it dearly. It sounds great and the wood is heavy and feels good in the hands. However, it does come untuned, and the tuning process is pretty difficult as there is no way to actually loosen the bar. I'd recommend that beginning musicians who have never tuned an instrument before, or people who might have difficulty tuning instruments, get a pre-tuned kalimba. It's a bit more expensive, but you'll save yourself a lot of grief.<br /><br />I'm a cellist, so I'm familiar with needing a little bit of elbow grease to get an instrument in tune. The instructions say &#34;firm pressure,&#34; but what you really need is a pair of pliers and a free hour or so to really yank on the tines until you get them just right. It's quite difficult to get the higher register in tune, as a nearly imperceptible adjustment of the top few tines will throw off the pitch more than a whole step. Once it is in tune, however, it will never go out unless you yank or bend the tines again, so there's that. The only downside is that the pliers did scratch up the wood behind the tops of the tines a bit, but it's not really visible from the front.<br /><br />I've never played any other kalimbas before, so I can't really judge this one against other instruments like it. However, once it is tuned (I tuned mine to the standard D major scale, on which you can also play in b natural minor, and some fun modes like e dorian) it sounds like a sweet, mellow music box. The tines are arranged so that each adjacent pair is a third apart, so by gliding your thumb or thumbnail over three or four adjacent tines you can easily play chords. It's a little tricky to get used to the staggered arrangement of notes, especially if you are used to playing an instrument where the notes are arranged in order, such as a piano, but with some practice it becomes second nature. It's really fun to just mess around on.<br /><br />There are two holes on the back which produce a really nice &#34;wah-wah&#34; vibrato-like effect if you move your fingers over them--this effect works best on notes or chords played at full volume. The hole on the front can produce a similar effect, though it is more difficult, I find, to get to work.<br /><br />When I read that this instrument was played with the thumbnails, I was afraid it would be difficult or painful to play, but it's actually really comfortable and easy for me. But it is easier to play if you don't have very short thumbnails. Playing the tines with the pad of your thumb instead of the nail results in a softer, mellower, muted sound.<br /><br />Tl;dr: Very nice-sounding instrument once in tune, but requires some time and yanking with pliers to tune. Recommended for people who have tuned instruments before.

Nicely made, gift to very happy recipient!!

Purchased this and was really excited when it came! The body is flawless and really well made. But the tines are coated in a metal that was chipping when it arrived. I imagine playing this would cause even more metal specs to fall off the tines.

I got this as q gift for a friend. This is a sturdy and aesthetic kalimba. The tines on it are pretty thick, so they stay in tune pretty well and give fuller tones. I wish that it had come with some pliers to adjust the tines with, but my friend had a pair he used to tune this. Definitely a great value.

Not happy with the keys, I'd like to replace them, I keep meaning to do that, took me about 3 hours to tune it and a two year old detuned it in 3 seconds. I love plunking these just want new keys, do you have a key source?<br /><br /> these keys might be a tad thick.

Comes way out of tuned and I tried to tune it but it was near impossible.

Awesome and unique instrument. It looks move beautiful than the picture. Such a reasonable price for a great instrument. I LOVE MINE!!!

Great..i tuned it and love it !

Well made but terribly tuned. I wish it has come with tuning instructions, I can barely use this.

Nice design, beautiful woodwork but not tonally accurate. A few keys were pretty off. But for a 9 year old grandson, it is good enough to get him interested in this handy instrument. It's a fun instrument for any age. Leave it on your office desk and see how many people will pick it up and start to play.

Arrived a week earlier than expected, which was a wonderful surprise.<br /><br />Arrived untuned (but I expected no less), and it still sounded mesmerizing regardless. Tuning is difficult, but I gather it's difficult to tune any kalimba. It's not easy to slide the tines into place, but that also means tuning should hold. It comes with a recommended tuning (D), but you obviously don't have to use it (I tuned mine to an E harmonic minor scale starting on a B and it's wonderfully, hauntingly exotic). Also, I noticed another reviewer was angry that it was out of tune. . .whoever you are, it comes with a piece of paper TELLING YOU you have to tune it. You had the paper, you said it yourself. Don't blame the product because you didn't bother with reading a few sentences.<br /><br />Since all the tines are in a single row, it can be difficult to strike an isolated key if you have larger thumbs or if you don't have long-ish nails.<br /><br />Highly recommended for anyone wanting to take a stab at a new instrument. I don't know how it compares to &#34;higher quality&#34; ones, but this seems damn good for its price.

A little smaller than expected.

I read the other reviews and thought:<br />1. heck I know how to retune it.<br />2. Stiff tines--so what?<br /><br />Well it turns out the tines are so stiff that getting any volume on glisses hurts.<br />Also, my copy has uneven height on the tines and this is harder to fix than tuning.<br />Conclusion: If you know how to play a kalimba , get a better one. This one's flaws will limit your ability to do what you already know how to do.<br /><br />Edited 6/20<br />The tone of the tines was so nice that I kept trying to make it play comfortably. It took some work to figure out how to bend the tine tips and round them a bit, but I can finally do sweeps on it. Turns out this is a 'some assembly required' kit with a really nice final sound.<br />Upgraded from 2 to 4 stars.<br />I bought two more to have test beds for experimental tunings.<br /><br />If you are a beginner<br />1. It arrives unturned and takes a while to tune even with a chromatic tuner.<br />2. The tines are stiff enough to be problematic for a beginner.

Read lots of other reviews before purchasing. I'm very happy I went ahead. Yes, it was a lot of work to tune it (and thankfully had a friend w/an app for that to help). Once that was out of the way (whew!), it has a very lovely,soothing, sound (and won't be coming out of tune any time soon). Read that some people had more &#34;blemishes&#34; than others, I couldn't find one, and that was a relief since it arrived on my son's birthday.