dtgreene: At least it doesn't look like you have to constantly tune each note as you play, as happens on the bassoon and some ranges on the clarinet.
At least you're unlikely to break a woodwind by tuning it which is what happened to me today just after my previous post. I pushed one of the keys too far. There's a shitload of resistance on them so when I finally applied enough pressure to get it moving, it jumped all the way, couldn't push it back anymore. So I gave it a final push so it won't do too much damage to the wood but now I can't reattach it. I presume that for an experienced player swapping these is child's play but there's like no sources on the web on this topic except for one video where a guy used a tiny flat screwdriver that's much smaller than the smallest one I have and I'm not sure that method is safe for the instrument.
Spent two hours looking for a Warsaw-based guy I first discovered a couple of months ago who builds his own kalimbas and repairs them, messaged him on Facebook, hope he's gonna reply soon.
Anyway, I'm SUPER pissed at the manufacturer of this kalimba. They keys weren't remotely correctly tuned. They were more off than they will ever be from playing. There's no excuse for delivering these instruments in such a state. I'm aware that you can tune them any way you want but for fuck's sake, they included a manual for the default tuning.