Question for Jon Szanto re: Harmonic Canon

I'm going to try to build a harmonic canon and I'm happy with the
measurements from 'Genesis'. From your knowledge, have any of the three
designs proved to be superior to the others ( I like the look and design
of no.III )? And secondly I seem to remember something about the
mandolin tuning pegs being a bit unreliable over time. What's the latest
thinking on this? High quality geared guitar pegs would seem to me to be
the best option.

Anyway, any advice would be most helpful.

Kind Regards

Alison,

I'm going to forward you some contact information off list about
this; I would suggest getting in touch with Phillip Arnautoff, who
has a Harmonic Canon similar to Partch but with a few more strings.
Of the instruments build after Partch's his is the one I am most
familiar with and have heard it in performance just two weeks ago.
Take a look on the Partch site

http://www.corporeal.com/cm_main.html

for information about a CD recording of this instrument. Phillip does
not have email, so I will email you his postal address. It has been
quite a few years since I've worked with the canons, so the following
is with a grain of salt...

--- In tuning@y..., Alison Monteith <alison.monteith3@w...> wrote:
> From your knowledge, have any of the three designs proved to be
> superior to the others ( I like the look and design of no.III )?

Not really (HC I is a very different instrument, but you must know
that already). The photos of HC II don't exactly show that where the
tuning pegs are, and where you can see open space, is because HP had
metal pieces made to hold the tuners, which gave stiffness to the
tension area. But the canons made for HC III weren't showing too much
bowing after a number of years. As I recall, they were all similar in
regards to their acoustical power. I will drop a line to Dean
Drummond to get his thoughts about this as well...

> And secondly I seem to remember something about the mandolin tuning
> pegs being a bit unreliable over time. What's the latest
> thinking on this? High quality geared guitar pegs would seem to me
> to be the best option.

Latest thinking? :) Well, I'm willing to bet that anything outside of
the most cheaply made tuners (pegs) these days would be superior! In
truth, the tuning machine mechanisms on the stringed instruments were
not of very high quality, and good tuners will work out just fine.
The difficulty of the design is in the limited physical space to get
at the knobs when tuning (and *especially* when changing a string).
There may well be some 'alternate' style tuners available where the
tight space could be designed around.

I'll dig up Phillip's address (probably tomorrow) and forward that to
you.

Cheers,
Jon