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My antique work...

2006-08-05 by Lorin Edwin Parker

Well, 

   I thought I would post this here first. I uploaded some pictures of
a Virgil "Practice-Clavier" from about 1890, which I have been working
on restoring. I posted picftures in the photos section.
   I got it from the piano technician at the music school I worked at,
and it was in PIECES. Some of the wood was hopelessly cracked by the
desert heat and the legs were badly abused. Luckily, with a little
cleaning and WD40, the keyboard feels fantastic. It has adjustable
action - hence the "practice-calvier" and can feel like a piano or a
harpsichord or a super heavy workout... 
   Anyway, there are pins on the inside that lift up when the keys are
struck. I hope to find an economical way to turn these into buttons,
process it all into a microcontroller and turn this guy into something
that can talk to my computer and synths. I'll be experimenting some
time soon -- the first priority is to restore the woodwork itself,
though. 
   Any suggestion on switch types? Snap action switches occur to me,
but I think that miniature tactile switches would also work with the
small pins that lift. Or perhaps just some metal to metal contact to
close the circuit... 

Lorin

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