Musser built the Maestro Marimba Metron for his solo mallet performances. Its construction date remains unresolved: the collection’s 1949–52 estimate rests on cabinet design, while a later technical account identifies a modified Wurlitzer Sideman inside.
The machine in the record
Clair Omar Musser / playing the Metron.
Clair Omar Musser built the Maestro Marimba Metron for his own performances and lessons, striking its controls with mallets while it supplied preset electronic and electro-acoustic accompaniment. It is a player’s instrument story, not a commercial-discography claim.
Read Musser’s Rhythm Machine ↗A rhythm section within mallet’s reach
The buttons were made to be played. Nancy Preusch remembered Clair Omar Musser striking them with his mallets, leaving abrasions in the painted woodwork. That recollection, preserved by the Rhythm! Discovery Center, brings this unusual cabinet into focus: accompaniment that a percussionist could reach while performing.
Musser designed the Maestro Marimba Metron for his solo mallet work. The collection account describes thirteen electronic rhythmic figures, including dance patterns, alongside metronome functions and percussion voices that could be triggered individually. He could call on an automatic pulse or add an individual sound with a strike.
Electronics, woodwork and real cymbals
The reported voices included bass drum, two tom-toms, two temple blocks, woodblock, claves and maracas. Inside the cabinet were two actual cymbals, struck by an electrical mechanism. Electronic percussion and moving acoustic parts shared the same enclosure.
The instrument accompanied Musser in performance and teaching, including at Northwestern University and in Studio City. Its purpose was personal and practical: give a mallet player an accompaniment he could command from the instrument in front of him.
An object with an open date
The construction date remains unsettled. In 2017, the Rhythm! Discovery Center suggested 1949–52 from the resemblance of its end frames to Musser’s Canterbury marimba. Replica builder Mike Buffington identifies a modified Wurlitzer Sideman inside the original, raising a question that the cabinet’s appearance alone cannot settle.
Buffington built a working replica in 2016–2018 for Wally De Backer, known as Gotye. His documentation separates the replica from photographs of Musser’s original. The later instrument offers another way into this remarkable design; the original’s worn controls preserve the more immediate story of a musician reaching out with his mallets and putting it to work.
Musser’s Rhythm Machine ↗ Musser Maestro Marimba Metron replica ↗
Recording and working accounts
Explore 1 source account
- Clair Omar Musser — Marimba performances and teaching practice
Clair Omar Musser built the Maestro Marimba Metron for his own performances and lessons, striking its controls with mallets while the machine supplied its preset electronic and electro-acoustic accompaniments.
Sources
The visual archive