fantasy grands

In a message dated 1/23/1 9:11:25 PM, tuning@egroups.com writes:

<<>I think a more plausible approach would be to mimic the pedal steel
>guitar (the king of all musical instruments!).

Wow!! Coming from someone who is intimately familiar with, and clearly
loves, grand pianos, this is a powerful statement! Where can I learn
more about these?>>

you can learn just about all you need to know about pedal steel guitars with
a case of beer with a dirty redhead in a clean Corvette. Just find the
nearest country dive that has had the same band for three years and spend
half a lifetime in there. By the time you know the words to most of Tammy
and George, you'll have the pedal steel all figured out.

>>Well, since for relative tuning changes, each string set (1, 2, or 3
strings at each particular pitch) would have to have its own mechanism,
and since the whole process would probably have to be computer
controlled, the combination of relative tuning and absolute tuning would
all flow through the computer and individual servo mechanisms for each
pitch, so your basic idea is just fine. I even imagine on-the-fly
sensing of the pitch achieved, and corrections for deviations from the
expected.<<

The pedal steel works by strings having their tension changed via a
rotating anchor. This would be hard to do with a piano, where the strings
carry approx 170 lbs each,( that means over 400 lbs per note!) I think you
could have cams forming the terminus of the individual notes, but the
strength involved would be considerable. These cams could rotate against the
wire as dictated by a computer that knows when to go sharp or flat. Need
some type of lubrication,maybe that beer and redhead.......
Hell, we could go back to the bebung of the clavichord and the player
would just have to intonate to JI at will. With electronic amplification,
the clavichord just might be the ultimate JI instrument.
Regards,
ED Foote

a440a@aol.com wrote:

> Hell, we could go back to the bebung of the clavichord and the player
> would just have to intonate to JI at will. With electronic amplification,
> the clavichord just might be the ultimate JI instrument.

Honer Clavinette? Anybody here ever re-tune one of those?

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* 49/32 R a d i o "all microtonal, all the time"
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm
* http://mp3.com/davidbeardsley

[Ed Foote writes:]
>you can learn just about all you need to know about pedal steel guitars
>with a case of beer with a dirty redhead in a clean Corvette. Just
>find the nearest country dive that has had the same band for three
>years and spend half a lifetime in there. By the time you know the
>words to most of Tammy and George, you'll have the pedal steel all
>figured out.

Ed, you rogue! Your suggestion is interesting but probably impractical
for me (I seem to remember a clause in my marriage contract regarding
dirty redheads in clean Corvettes, and if I'm not mistaken, they're off
limits).

>The pedal steel works by strings having their tension changed via a
>rotating anchor. This would be hard to do with a piano, where the
>strings carry approx 170 lbs each,( that means over 400 lbs per note!)
>I think you could have cams forming the terminus of the individual
>notes, but the strength involved would be considerable. These cams
>could rotate against the wire as dictated by a computer that knows when
>to go sharp or flat. Need some type of lubrication,maybe that beer and
>redhead.......

OK, when we fund the project, we'll include all three in the budget.
But no doubt it'd be difficult. The guitar has many fewer strings and
much less tension per string.

>Hell, we could go back to the bebung of the clavichord and the player
>would just have to intonate to JI at will. With electronic
>amplification, the clavichord just might be the ultimate JI instrument.

The clavichord can only be bent upward in pitch, and controlling the
intonation by key pressure seems less than ideal. Also, the tone of
the clavichord is inferior to the piano, IMHO. And if we're going to
introduce amplification, why not go totally electronic? Other than
that, I like the idea. ;->

JdL