If you have any questions regarding your chime, please call us (877-293-6395). We’ve got your order details handy, and as we often proclaim… “We’re small. We’re friendly. And we know these chimes!”

Happy New Year to all!

- Carolyn
BuyChimes, LLC

And this week (Dec 12-16), since BuyChimes is on the East Coast (Virginia), we’re bumping all West Coast deliveries to the front of the line – and at no extra cost. No worries, East Coasters and Mid-Westerners, you folks really have lots of time! Standard FedEx (free on most orders) shipping takes just 1-3 days for most deliveries up and down the Atlantic seaboard, and 2-3 days for the Midwest. The West is 4 days; and California, Oregon and Washington are 5 days. (Note: For orders of Grace Note chimes, since they ship directly from Grace Note in California, the reverse is true. (East Coast is 5 days, West Coast is 1 day…)

So go ahead, select that free shipping option and relax! We really do have this covered.

It’s this chime – the Corinthian Bells 27-inch wind chime. Perfectly tuned to the key of C, this petite chime will blend well into most gardens and back yard spaces. Which means those folks on your gift-giving list will love it!

Available in the four popular colors of Black, Green, Patina Green and Copper Vein, and at a low sale price of $46.98, you’ll be easily able to find the right color for that right person. BuyChimes is also offering Free Gift Wrap for a limited time – so be sure to scoop yours soon!

- Carolyn
BuyChimes, LLC

Remember, all the chimes we sell are U.S.-made and most are ready for year-round, outdoor use. (The only exception is the Slate chimes from Grace Note, since the slate cannot freeze.)

So go ahead and ribbon that favorite chime! And snap a picture while you’re at and send it to us. We’d love to include it on the site.

- Carolyn
BuyChimes, LLC

Not to worry. The measurements on our site are really quite simple – it’s the complete height of the wind chime. So if you were hanging it, start at the very top (either a knot of strings or a hanging ring) and then go to the bottom of the wind sail (or flipper or wind catcher or whatever other whimsical name you’ve heard it called). And there you have it.

Here’s a diagram of a wind chime that we’ve got on the BuyChimes site. Hope this fully answers the question, but if not, please call me! Trust me, we know these wind chimes. We wouldn’t sell them (and love them and believe wholeheartedly in them!) if we didn’t.

- Carolyn
www.buychimes.com

Miss Manners responded so graciously – check out her thoughts here. But we’ve got some thoughts for the chime aficionados out there:

First off, buy good chimes! And by “good chimes,” we mean hand-tuned, musical wind chimes. There are many, many metallic-sounding chimes out there. They’re cheap and they are, quite literally, everywhere! Most of these are produced outside the U.S. – and frankly, it shows – both in craftsmanship and sound. So shop around and look for the best wind chime you can afford. All the chimes we sell are made in the U.S. and hand-tuned, which means they sound melodic when the wind blows.

And secondly, if you love chimes, but your neighbor does not, then you may want to simply move your chime. I know from talking to many of you – you visually want that chime in a specific location (I confess, I’m the same!). But if it’s a top-quality chime, it will look good anywhere. And, of course, it will sound good anywhere too!

If you do have a neighbor issue – call us. We’re pretty confident that we can find a chime that works for you, your budget & your neighbor too!

I sure remember. I stopped by my friend, Ellen’s, house to drop the kids off for a fun evening with Legos. And there, right beside their front door, was a wind chime like I’d never seen before. The music on that breezy autumn day caught my ear long before I realized it was the chime, a Gentle Spirits 50-inch chime in Copper Vein, that created the music. And the craftsmanship – the best.

Since there was no door bell, I gently coaxed a louder melody from the chime – and sure enough, here came Ellen. As the kids zoomed through the door, they too played the chime. How fun!

Little did I realize then that one day Jeff and I would have the privilege of offering this discovery of truly wonderful wind chimes to others. Thank you, Ellen, for hanging the chime by your door!

Think of our website as our front door – and all these wonderful U.S.-made chimes are hanging right here, waiting for you to discover and ring them. Enjoy!

- Carolyn
BuyChimes, LLC

No more! Last spring, we engraved a select number of very special chimes for Mother’s Day to test the idea once again. And again, we discovered the market was there for the idea. An engraved chime makes a true and deeply personal gift, whether it’s for a new home, wedding, birth of a child or memorial.

Since the spring, we have partnered with a local (Fairfax, Virginia) engraver that now does all our engraved chimes. We charge $10 for one-sided engraving and folks simply love it! The engraver is happy for the business; and we’re happy to offer this to customers. It is offered on Corinthian Bells and Shenandoah Melodies chimes only (because they have such a perfect wind sail for engraving).

Since it is a unique service that we want to get 100% correct, you will not see it as part of the check-out process. Instead, we ask customers to please email or call us. We’d like to discuss all details with you prior to placing the order. We don’t mean to complicate things – we simply want to get it right. (And ssshhhh – we’ll even surprise you with an emailed picture of the engraved sail if it’s going as a gift to someone else. Because we know that you’d love to know exactly how it turned out!)

Over and over again, we hear from customers that one of the main reasons they order from BuyChimes is our personal service. We are simply not a big company with a big warehouse and a big staff – we’re small, we’re personal and we will absolutely stay that way.

We promise – your order (engraved or not) will not get lost in the shuffle. We work tirelessly to get your order “just right.” And of course, we hope you agree!

- Carolyn
BuyChimes, LLC

But I know, I know – it can be quite overwhelming to encounter a wind chime website for the first time. There are SO many chimes in SO many sizes and SO many colors. And then there’s the sound of each to consider… it’s no wonder customers finally just pick up the phone and call us!

To help you choose, here’s a primer on the chimes you’ll find at BuyChimes:

Background basics:
1. We only sell U.S. made wind chimes. So rest assured, everything you buy here is made in the U.S.
2. We sell contemporary, traditional and semi-contemporary chimes (see below).
3. We ship many, many chimes as gifts. If you’re not sure if that special person will like a chime or not, take it from us, they will!

Chime basics:

Contemporary chimes have aluminum in the majority of their components. These are the contemporary lines of chimes we sell: Corinthian Bells, Bells of Vienna and Gentle Spirits. They have powder-coated (this means unique colors) aluminum tubes, top/crown and wind sail. The striker is a high-density composite material. All sizes have six tubes (only exception is the Gentle Spirits 27-inch chime at 8 tubes). The same sizes are always tuned to the same keys (in other words, the 50-inch chime in all three lines will always be tuned to the key of A). The only difference between the lines is aesthetic – the top/crown and wind sail look different. So pick the look you like the best & the sound will still be the same high quality no matter what. FYI – the Corinthian Bells chimes is our best-selling line.

Traditional chimes have wooden components to them (a top/crown, striker and/or wind sail). These lines of chimes are traditional: Arias, Arias Elite, Festival, Majesty Bells and Weatherland. They ALL have a wooden top, striker and wind sail. Couple of notes on these chimes: The Arias line was the original chimes manufactured by QMT Windchimes and folks that have those original chimes keep coming back for more. The Arias Elite line was upgraded several years ago and has a fine, clear sound – check it out!

Semi-contemporary chimes combine both a traditional look with some wooden components (the striker), yet achieve a clean, contemporary look with an aluminum top/crown and wind sail. These lines of chimes are semi-contemporary: Shenandoah Melodies and Majestic Spirits. All have five tubes. They are less expensive than the full contemporary chimes simply because they have five versus six tubes. The wooden striker also impacts the sound, but not significantly.

Sound basics:
All chimes that we sell are tuned to a specific scale or musical key. Which is great news for those of us looking for more than just a pretty chime! You’ll see the keys on every page for individual chimes. But regardless of the key, the bigger the chime, the deeper the sound. So if you’re looking for a “soprano” chime, pick a small chime. If you’re looking for a deep, “bass” chime, look at the longest chime within each line. They will also have the largest tube diameter, which creates that unique, gong-like sound that customers love! Most importantly, there are sound mp3 files for every chime – so be sure to listen. Just look for the pointy hand (manicule) in the middle of each page.

And please, call us if you find yourself on our website for HOURS listening to every chime five times! We’re here and we know these chimes.

- Carolyn
BuyChimes, LLC

For wind chimes to ring consistently, the wind needs to blow. That sounds so simple, but truly, if you want to hear a chime on a fairly often basis, be sure of two things:
1. You pick a lighter weight chime (anything under 10 lbs.)
2. You pick a spot in your yard that gets wind or breezes.

Now if you have a wonderfully windy nook in your garden, then any chime will work! Lucky you. You simply have to pick the one that sounds or looks the best for your space – and of course there’s the household budget to think about too!

Here at BuyChimes, we don’t get much wind. So unless there’s a storm brewing, we rarely hear the gorgeous, big chimes that are hanging about. (That said, I LOVE how Hurricane Irene is dancing with my big Corinthian Bells 53-inch chime this weekend!) And that infrequency is actually quite perfect for us. The chime is hanging so close to our patio, that to hear it often might be disturbing – simply “too much of a good thing.”

I’d love to hear how the wind engages the chimes of customers – be sure to write and let us know! I’ll post comments on the site…

- Carolyn
www.buychimes.com