solstice

Indeed...solstice, although I really prefer to say "balance
day"...Hstick


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: John Starrett
Subject: Re: What do you play?
PostedDate: 02-01-98 17:51:28
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Oops! Maybe I should go first.
I had requested information from list members as to the microtonal
instruments they play. I was hoping to find out how people go about
finding microtonal instruments in this 12tet world.

I own the following guitars, which I refretted:
19tet acoustic guitar
19tet electric guitar
19tet acoustic bass guitar
19tet electric bass guitar

Haverstick owns these, but I play them when we get together:
34tet electric bass guitar
34tet acoustic bass guitar

I am currently practicing on a StarrBoard with justly tuned strings and
12tet frets. Some interesting sounds come out of this one!

And of course the trusty old
Yamaha TX81z rack mount synth
with $100 MIDI Composer keyboard.

I am currently making a 19tet electric guitar with a tulipwood
fingerboard and one piece rock maple remainder. Also in the works is a
19tet fretless bass and a 31tet fretted bass.

John Starrett


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: Steven Rezsutek
Subject: Question for Bill Alves ; book binge
PostedDate: 02-01-98 18:36:46
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John Starrett wrote
>One of the impedimemts to the growth of microtonal music is the
>lack of microtonal instruments. In the spirit of a new year, it would be
>nice to hear from all of you what microtonal instruments you own and
>play, and how you obtained/modified these instruments.

I bought my first lap steel in a pawn shop and tuned it JI to A C# E G# B E.
Steel is naturally a microtonal instrument, so I've spent the last 25 years
learning to play it "in tune" with 12TET bands. I still tune my non-pedal
instruments JI, but I've gone to meantone on my pedal steels.

I think that the steel guitar is the best microtonal instrument "out of the
box". Nearly every other instrument has to be custom made or modified.
Steel, like the violin, is microtonal by nature, but goes beyond the bowed
string family with its chord capabilities.

I was working up "Remington Ride" with the band the other night and noticed
that there's a quarter tone (actually, it's probably an 11/9) in the melody.
I tried to use it to discourage the fiddler and the guitarist from playing
bad harmony lines with me (EVERYONE wants to twin the steel on that tune).
No such luck - the fiddler found some harmony note right away, and the
guitarist did a horrible string bend that he thought worked pretty good.
This band needs a dictator!

-b0b-

// http://wco.com/~quasar/allstars


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: "kris peck"
Subject: instruments
PostedDate: 03-01-98 18:10:13
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Ooo, great topic, John!


My microtonal instruments:

10TET:
Guitar and Bass. Steel-string acoustic, both kinda cheezy built from kits as
part of a science fair project in my second year of high school. Gosh,
that must have been about 22 years ago. This was my introduction to the
field of unusual tunings. At the time I didn't know that anybody else
was doing much of anything beyond quartertones. The bassist who played
on my music examples then encountered Ivor Darreg's landmark Guitar
Player magazine article, which contained his address, and thus began the
big, 18-year string of letters! Ivor introduced me to John Chalmers, who
at the time was living in the same city (Houston). The science angle of
course was the physics of vibrating strings, as applied to this unusual
application. I also have a 10TET fingerboard for my interchangeable-
fingerboard guitar.
Flutes. Undertaken also as a science-fair project, the following year. The
science angle was - analogously - a study of flute acoustics based upon
Boehm's book on the topic along with some research of my own. That
project went all the way to the international level, which was held in
the Anaheim stadium at which time I met Ivor Darreg, Erv Wilson, and Glen
Prior for the first time.

14TET:
Fingerboard for my interchangeable-fingerboard guitar (Takamine C132S).

19TET:
Refretted guitar (I did the refretting), and a 19TET fingerboard for my
interchangeable-fingerboard guitar. These are both classicals.

22TET:
RREEEAAALLL cheezy classical.

7-Limit Diatonic JI:
Fingerboard for interchangeable-fingerboard guitar.

Quarter-comma Meantone:
Fingerboard for interchangeable-fingerboard guitar.

88CET:
Acoustic 12-string (I did the refretting about 1.5 years ago).

Programmable tunings:
Ensoniq ASR-10, mostly played from Yamaha WX-11. This is what I use the
most now.
A variable-width pulse-wave, digital synthesizer based on a couple hundred
or so TTL ICs (my design) and run by a single-board 6502-based micro-
computer (Synertek SYM-1) running software of my design. This would play
most any tuning of up to 32 tones per octave, and was played from a con-
troller that could probably best be characterized as kind of like an
electronic version of a Chapman "stick" (although at the time I didn't
know of the stick). As you might have guessed, this was undertaken as
another science-fair project. Unfortunately it didn't make it beyond the
regional level!


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison)
Subject: Re: Bosanquet and CD proposal
PostedDate: 04-01-98 20:56:31
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Well...

I'm using "play" rather loosely here, as I'm still working on
some basic techniques, but my current micro instruments are... ;-)

My two basses (my "babies" :) consist of a 5 string electric fretless
(soon to sport a high C) and a 4 string acoustic upright, though I
won't play that in front of anyone yet.

My current collection of guitars are: Temporary Guitar (a cheapo
classical with glued on wire frets) and a cheap strat clone in 22tet,
soon to be redone to clean up my mistakes (and practice my lutherie
semi-skills).

I also have a 22 tone keyboard, construction of which was described
on the list, connected to an Emu Classic Keys, though I don't play it,
but just use it as a learning aid. That may change, though --
necessity is a powerful motivator.

I've got two projects lined up at the moment, which are to convert
my 12tet fretted bass (4 string), and another guitar which I just
picked up (Epi "Dot" -- happy birthday to me :) to 22 as well.

I should have some form of sampling/digital manipulation ability
shortly, and I also have a hammered dulcimer, but I don't even pretend
to play that... ;-)

That's what I've got for now.

Steve


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: Aline Surman
Subject: axes, CD
PostedDate: 05-01-98 16:35:48
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Hope this messages arrives after AOL managed to make my first one on this
really interesting subject disappear.

I own 2 ( in fact rather macrotonal ) instruments:

1.) An electronic organ, tuned to what is now known as Bohlen-Pierce (BP),
built by me in the early seventies (1973?). Dreadful home-made sound
generators, nevertheless much loved and played, now in need of repair.

2.) An acoustic steel guitar, recently refretted and tuned by me to BP. I
still need to learn how to play it, though.


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: Manuel.Op.de.Coul@ezh.nl
Subject: Instruments
PostedDate: 06-01-98 11:39:02
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About my non-12TET instruments:

I own two Javanese gender barung (metallophones), one in JI slendro and one
in JI pelog with interchangeable keys, built on my commission by Suhirdjan
of Yogyakarta. The tunings and other details are in the last issue of 1/1.
I also have a Balinese tingklik (bamboo xylophone) tuned to slendro and
several Indonesian suling (bamboo flutes). (I also have a gong and kempul,
but they don't count since they are tuned to A 27.5 and A 55 respectively.)
Electronically, I mostly work on a Kurzweil K2000 and Csound, though I have
a couple TX81Zs which are useful. I've have also tried to keep my old
upright piano in Kirnberger II, with mixed success under my amateur piano
tuning hands.

Bill

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^ Bill Alves email: alves@hmc.edu ^
^ Harvey Mudd College URL: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ ^
^ 301 E. Twelfth St. (909)607-4170 (office) ^
^ Claremont CA 91711 USA (909)607-7600 (fax) ^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: "Paul H. Erlich"
Subject: my comments on Barbershop
PostedDate: 06-01-98 20:57:37
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