Opposite of micro

http://www.la-ptg.org/rubenstein/

"David Rubinstein, a local artisan and woodworker, has brought forth
his own take on how to build a piano. His version has 21 ribs, a ½ in
thick steel plate a ½ in thick sound board slightly tapered at the
edges and has the longest string at 3,000 mm (that is 1,200 in or 10
feet)."

Clark

It always seem to me that much of the wood in the piano could be replaced with metal.
It reflects sound better too! It seems someone who knew much about airplane wing design could cut down on the weight too.
i have a friend though that has a 2 1/2 octave piano built in Japan that his grandfather used to play in bars.
I fell in love with it many because it was portable, even if it took two people to move, you could fit it in the back seat of a car.
and you could really do some nice things with it
imagine a couple of these that you could fit together modular style. then you could take what you needed .
It only had one string per key, (ala La monte).
I almost cried when he took it back, which is why i hate to 'borrow' instruments in the first place
threesixesinarow wrote:

>http://www.la-ptg.org/rubenstein/
>
>"David Rubinstein, a local artisan and woodworker, has brought forth >his own take on how to build a piano. His version has 21 ribs, a � in >thick steel plate a � in thick sound board slightly tapered at the >edges and has the longest string at 3,000 mm (that is 1,200 in or 10 >feet)."
>
>Clark
>
>
>
>
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
> >
>
>
>
> >

--
Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles

>http://www.la-ptg.org/rubenstein/
>
>"David Rubinstein, a local artisan and woodworker, has brought forth
>his own take on how to build a piano. His version has 21 ribs, a ½ in
>thick steel plate a ½ in thick sound board slightly tapered at the
>edges and has the longest string at 3,000 mm (that is 1,200 in or 10
>feet)."
>
>Clark

Hmm, that's the complete opposite direction I think the modern piano
should go. That is; 80 keys, aluminum frame, carbon fiber sound
board, 2-string unisons, optional Vandervoort keyboard.

-Carl

Carl,

Quick question:

{you wrote...}
>That is; 80 keys ...

Where would you lose the 8 keys, and why?

Cheers,
Jon

>Carl,
>
>Quick question:
>
>{you wrote...}
>>That is; 80 keys ...
>
>Where would you lose the 8 keys, and why?
>
>Cheers,
>Jon

Off the top and bottom. My current instrument, a Zwicki upright,
has 82 keys from C1-A7. Why, is because modern pianos are huge,
heavy, and expensive. 76 keys are plenty for 99% of the
repertoire, and I find 82 gives plenty of room over that for
effects and such. While it's true the extra strings provide some
resonance and probably confer some stability to their inner
neighbors, it can't be worth the size, weight and expense for the
home. Concert hall, sure, the modern grand is too loud, too big,
and too expensive for 99% of the home market. Which is why the
home market for pianos has all but vanished. I didn't read the
article... you may argue that this guy made his instrument for the
concert hall. Sure, fine, but the headline champions it as some
great innovation. Making the same old thing bigger isn't much of
an innovation, and the concert hall isn't where innovation is
badly needed. A Bose Imperial will smoke you out of any hall
worth listening to music in.

-Carl

Kraig Grady wrote:

> It always seem to me that much of the wood in the piano could be
> replaced with metal.

If you could keep it in tune, I'd prefer an all-wooden frame
to a metal one. My current piano, a standard small modern
upright, has, of course, a full iron frame. I think this makes
it less responsive to low notes. Does anyone have any
experience of wooden-frame pianos?

> It reflects sound better too! It seems someone who knew much about
> airplane wing design could cut down on the weight too.

Modern timber laminates might do a nicer job
than steel, lighter too.

> i have a friend though that has a 2 1/2 octave piano built in Japan
> that his grandfather used to play in bars.
> I fell in love with it many because it was portable, even if it took
> two people to move, you could fit it in the back seat of a car.
> and you could really do some nice things with it
> imagine a couple of these that you could fit together modular style.
> then you could take what you needed .
> It only had one string per key, (ala La monte).
> I almost cried when he took it back, which is why i hate to 'borrow'
> instruments in the first place

I sympathise! My brother and I used to borrow the neighbour's
Hawaiian steel guitar, a beautiful instrument that she couldn't
play much but love to hear used. I still miss it after forty years ...

Kraig, do you know when the piano was built, or by whom?
It would be worth while, I think, to find such an instrument,
and there's probably some out there waiting to be auctioned
on eBay or however. Do you have any recordings of your
playing on it?

Regards,
Yahya

--
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Carl Lumma wrote:
> >http://www.la-ptg.org/rubenstein/
> >
> >"David Rubinstein, a local artisan and woodworker, has brought forth
> >his own take on how to build a piano. His version has 21 ribs, a � in
> >thick steel plate a � in thick sound board slightly tapered at the
> >edges and has the longest string at 3,000 mm (that is 1,200 in or 10
> >feet)."
> >
> >Clark
>
> Hmm, that's the complete opposite direction I think the modern piano
> should go. That is; 80 keys, aluminum frame, carbon fiber sound
> board, 2-string unisons, optional Vandervoort keyboard.

Carl,

What is a "Vandervoort keyboard", please?

Regards,
Yahya

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Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.9.2/55 - Release Date: 21/7/05

no make, just country listed, believe me i have searched and if you buy one under my nose i break yours!!!! :)
my friend Curtis who rebuilds historical pianos suggest i buy one from good will and 'cut it down' which might be an option , if i am ever relieved from this past five months of having my back out!
instrument building is now reduced to getting others to do instrument moving? but then i have enough.................................for now.
it seems to me a good 5 octave instrument would take care of allot of music, especially if you were going to retune it, there would be plenty right under your nose, don't you think

Yahya Abdal-Aziz wrote:

>
>Kraig, do you know when the piano was built, or by whom?
>It would be worth while, I think, to find such an instrument,
>and there's probably some out there waiting to be auctioned >on eBay or however. Do you have any recordings of your
>playing on it?
>
>Regards,
>Yahya
> > >

--
Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles

>> >http://www.la-ptg.org/rubenstein/
>> >
>> >"David Rubinstein, a local artisan and woodworker, has brought forth
>> >his own take on how to build a piano. His version has 21 ribs, a ½ in
>> >thick steel plate a ½ in thick sound board slightly tapered at the
>> >edges and has the longest string at 3,000 mm (that is 1,200 in or 10
>> >feet)."
>> >
>> >Clark
>>
>> Hmm, that's the complete opposite direction I think the modern piano
>> should go. That is; 80 keys, aluminum frame, carbon fiber sound
>> board, 2-string unisons, optional Vandervoort keyboard.
>
>Carl,
>
>What is a "Vandervoort keyboard", please?

Hi Yahya,

I suppose it's any keyboard designed by Paul Vandervoort. In this
case, I'm referring to a Janko-layout mechanical action that uses a
(patetend) mechanical parallelogram linkage to equalize the key
travel from the front to back of the keyboard. Norman Henry and I
have one of these actions here in the Bay Area, but it's designed to
fit a Knabe (IIRC) grand, which we don't have.

-Carl

*sigh* Now I've gone and done it. I'm tired of there being no place to
talk exclusively about musical instrument design, so I went and made this:

/new_instruments/

So you're all invited to come on over and have wonderful imaginings.
And realizations, if time permits. Shall we improve the piano? Oi, I'm
drowning in self-consciousness...

Jacob

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Yahya Abdal-Aziz" <yahya@m...>
wrote:
>
> Kraig Grady wrote:
>
> > It always seem to me that much of the wood in the piano could be
> > replaced with metal.
>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Jacob" <jbarton@r...> wrote:
> *sigh* Now I've gone and done it. I'm tired of there being no place to
> talk exclusively about musical instrument design, so I went and made

Have you tried the oddmusic group?

Good luck with your new one.

hi Carl,

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@l...> wrote:

> ... Making the same old thing bigger isn't much of
> an innovation, and the concert hall isn't where innovation is
> badly needed. A Bose Imperial will smoke you out of any hall
> worth listening to music in.

Now you're talking! Wow, what an instrument.

http://www.boesendorfer.com/_english_version/products/black_models/
models/model290.html

(delete the line-break)

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software

forgot about this one, too, it's in Crombie's book next to Trimpin's
(Chickering?):
http://www.klavins-pianos.com/index_en.htm

Clark

>forgot about this one, too, it's in Crombie's book next to Trimpin's
>(Chickering?):
>http://www.klavins-pianos.com/index_en.htm
>
>Clark

Whoa!

-Carl

Dear monz and all,

An option when posting a URL that unavoidably will be rendered
unusable by nit-brained Web software is to use one of the redirect
services like tinyurl.com to make the URL ... um, tiny.

Regards,
George

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "monz" <monz@t...> wrote:
> hi Carl,
>
>
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@l...>
wrote:
>
> > ... Making the same old thing bigger isn't much of
> > an innovation, and the concert hall isn't where innovation is
> > badly needed. A Bose Imperial will smoke you out of any hall
> > worth listening to music in.
>
>
>
> Now you're talking! Wow, what an instrument.
>
> http://www.boesendorfer.com/_english_version/products/black_models/
> models/model290.html
>
> (delete the line-break)
>
>
> -monz
> http://tonalsoft.com
> Tonescape microtonal music software

George Henry wrote:

>Dear monz and all,
>
>An option when posting a URL that unavoidably will be rendered >unusable by nit-brained Web software is to use one of the redirect >services like tinyurl.com to make the URL ... um, tiny.
>
<http://www.boesendorfer.com/_english_version/products/black_models/models/model290.html>

Or you can post it as a link.

--
* David Beardsley
* microtonal guitar
* http://biink.com/db