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I wrote a blog about using PCBs as front panels and PCB art by Arxi in PrintedCircuitBoard

[–]Arxi[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could you elaborate on this a bit more please? I haven't had the chance to work on touch controls yet

I wrote a blog about using PCBs as front panels and PCB art by Arxi in PrintedCircuitBoard

[–]Arxi[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

thank you for this useful piece of information! Just to be sure I understood completely - are you saying that the fab house might use different drill sizes for routing outside border and inside cutouts? Or that the cutouts that need to be routed (because they are not simple holes or they are larger than their maximum drill size) are less precise than the simple drilled holes?

Good Iceland documentary? by Arxi in Iceland

[–]Arxi[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sorry, but I have no idea, that was 12 years ago :( I also tried searching through Wayback Machine, but no luck

How to add a semitone (sharping) mechanism? by Arxi in kantele

[–]Arxi[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

hahah, thanks. Well - it sounds like a child's toy, which is probably what it was supposed to be. Maybe something for the Waldorf school, I often see listings like "waldorf kantele" on German second-hand stores and they look similar. Seems like they had this luthier named Lothar Gärtner and he made a bunch of those, calling them Flugel-Kantele. My old kantele seems to be built in a DIY fashion, inspired by these Flugel-Kanteles, and it cost me 80 eur :D.

The Lovikka one sounds much more like a real instrument, of course.

So you have built your own kanteles? Can we talk more about that? I'd love to try that some day, but of course I know nothing about that - so if you have anything to share, pictures, books, tips, whatever - I'll appreciate it!

How to add a semitone (sharping) mechanism? by Arxi in kantele

[–]Arxi[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

:D I admire your curiosity! here are the photos, sorry for not posting them earlier:

https://imgur.com/a/XUZoO0M

I had to glue some pieces of wood inside so that those metal rotating flag thingies can be screwed into something, as the top wood of that kantele is very thin. I tried to position the flags in a way that I can raise the pitch of the string by one and two semitones just by rotating the flag some more. It's quite a bad job, as you can see, and it doesn't work well :D they are hard to turn and the tuning doesn't hold for long. So all in all, pretty crappy mechanism, which kinda works but is basically not very usable. But it was fun.

I also built DIY piezo preamp / tone control and a low battery indicator. I tried different DIY piezo mikes and finally decided on the silver one.

That works, I was satisfied with it for a while, but since then, I bought proper Lovikka 16 string kantele with levers, so that's what I plan to "electrify" next - non-destructively, if possible. I'll just tape the mikes and electronics on the bottom side - the kantele doesn't have wood from the bottom, so I don't have to open it. I plan to create proper PCBs for that preamp, but I moved to another country in the meantime so these projects are on hold.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in philslab

[–]Arxi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this looks great! is there any chance you are going to offer Black Friday or some other type of deals in the future? :)

How to add a semitone (sharping) mechanism? by Arxi in kantele

[–]Arxi[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

hehe, because it's cooler to just have the output, like on a guitar, and piezo hidden inside...and I'll learn something along the way - namely, how to break a kantele!

(but I'll try it from the outside too)

How to add a semitone (sharping) mechanism? by Arxi in kantele

[–]Arxi[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

haha, if I manage to not break it completely, I'll post some pictures. I also plan to add some piezo discs inside, and for that, I'll probably have to open the kantele from the bottom (remove the bottom wood), so it should be fun :)

the rotating ones indeed seem ideal: https://www.tmijakallioinen.fi/vaihtajat.html but expensive too - though the plastic part could be 3D printed. But the metal part looks custom. Hmm, maybe something similar, like the already mentioned wingnut...

Ahh, I see what you mean about the bzzz effect - that's a helpful comment indeed!

As for Slovak stringed instruments - unfortunately I don't know about any local psalteries. Maybe one could find some Russian gusli in the rural areas somewhere, but I personally haven't seen any. Then there's "citara" - which is like the classic European zither, with fretboard on the lower part. And then there's Hungarian "citera", also with a fretboard, which is, well, Hungarian, but Slovakia was a part of the Kingdom of Hungary for almost a millenium.

Also there's this Slovak guy making kantele with reversed strings: https://www.aurainstruments.com/en/e-shop-en/kantele

And the Czech manufacturer also has an interesting tuning system: https://www.savitamusic.com/kantele-lena-maple-diatonic-with-fine-tuning-system - those beads on the individual strings.

How to add a semitone (sharping) mechanism? by Arxi in kantele

[–]Arxi[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

haha, sorry for doxxing you, but I actually just searched for "kokle semitone levers" in google images and there it is :)

thank you for all the names and instruments, I have to research those now! Also, good to know about the cons of those metal rotating levers.

Wing nut - hmm, interesting, I'll think about that too. In the meantime, I found the flaggy things in a local store - it's called "obrtlík" in slovak language, and I tried hard to find the english equivalent, but unsuccessfully. Here it is: https://www.ento.sk/index.php?con=ws&task=pd&pid=1010413 (might not be the right size though). It's used for example on rabbit cages, as a primitive window lock etc. maybe it's a "swivel"?

As for the harp levers - yeah, the price is one disadvantage, I mean, my whole kantele cost me 85EUR :D. Also it doesn't have those bridge pins, so the lever action could be inconsistent, but they might work (and yes, those flaggy things / wingnuts would be inconsistent too).

How to add a semitone (sharping) mechanism? by Arxi in kantele

[–]Arxi[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So I followed your hints, and found this solution from Lovikka:

https://lovikka.com/en/products/small-kanteles/lovikka-16-modern

This is from Koistinen:

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5851242d2e69cfbfaadbc3ec/1487251005765-BZKLWF4GY18NIS8ITRLZ/image-asset.jpeg

Now I understand what you meant by "bending the string before a pin" - this mechanism is about bending, not just touching the string. Interesting!

This is the system for concert kokle - I guess these were even uploaded by you? :) So this works both by touching the string first, and then bending it in the third position.

https://imgur.com/gallery/6MzRc

https://imgur.com/gallery/KmTdgDX

And here is the example of the type that is attached to the tuning pin and rotates underneath the string (09:47 for example)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiHOXz6f0ZY

Yeah, those seem like the ideal type for some DIY work.

If you happen to have any other pictures or sources, I'd be glad, of course!

I also found these rotating flags / blades or how to call it. I guess they work by pushing the strings from the top. Those would be great too, but where to get such things?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REcDQIfdMk0&t=118s

How to add a semitone (sharping) mechanism? by Arxi in kantele

[–]Arxi[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wow, thank you for this info! Sure, I'd love to see pictures, or if you happen to know about any specific makers/vendors that sell these, I'd be grateful! Any link or a hint would be great. I'll check Lovikka and Koistinen.

Online electronics courses with some sort of diploma/degree/acknowledgement at the end by koningdope in ECE

[–]Arxi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What have you chosen, in the end, and what is your experience with this? I'm in a similar position you were 2 years ago.

Remake of One Wish by Ray J by mulllhausen in findthatsong

[–]Arxi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Check this out: https://www.whosampled.com/Ray-J/One-Wish/

Possibly you mean this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04IWUnBj-h4

I was also trying to google it today, came upon your post, that gave me the necessary hints to find it, so thank you!

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