I've always wanted to try playing vibes and last night I had a go! Fantastic, now I really want a set, but they are somewhat expensive sadly. Someone suggested that it would be relatively simple to build an entirely electronic set of vibes and I think it would, though I don't know enough about how you would work the "bars" to detect how heavily they were struck. Might be a fun project though. If anyone understands the technologies taht might be involved do fill me in on them.
You would just use the same system that midi keyboards use to detect 'velocity' on how hard the keys are struck. I'm sure this could be adapted.
Chy