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Wewus! You Must Call Me!


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I had a dream about you last night. Your future is troubling, very troubling. Self-Tuning Piano Set to Make Sweet Music Reuters Dec 5 2002 11:21AM LONDON (Reuters) - An inventor has developed a piano that can tune itself in 40 seconds and which will hit the market next year. Conventionally, pianos are tuned by manually adjusting the tension of the strings struck when a piano key is pressed. But Don Gilmore''s invention warms the strings using an electric current to reduce an excess of tension deliberately built in when the piano leaves the factory. "Gilmore''s system will go on sale in some grand pianos made by American piano maker Story and Clark by the end of next year," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday. "The system...tunes the piano using a warming current to ease the tension of the strings," the magazine explained. A frequency analyzer, microcomputer and power transistor are incorporated into the system to tune the string to the correct frequency. Gilmore, who is based in Kansas City, Missouri, trained as a classical pianist before becoming a mechanical engineer and inventor. The company planning to use the invention in their pianos said it was too early to say exactly how much it would add to the price of their instruments.

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-Youree Cleomili Harris

 

"Your readin' will amaze you!"

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I'm sure this will have little effect on Wewus's livelihood. I bet those new-fangled pianos are gonna cost megabucks, so not a lot of people will buy them. Also, there will still be many old school pianos out there that need tuning. Sounds like a cool invention, though.
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I'd be very greatly surprised if something like that works with any degree of accuracy. Turning tuning pins is not like turning screws each pin might have a little more or less tension on it in the pinblock and it's a very delicate process to settle each pin. The cost on something like that is bound to be exorbitant also.
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[quote] It uses electric current to tune, it doesn't tune in the conventional method by turning pegs. -------------------- Joetown:) [/quote]thats pretty kinky, i could use a tune up :thu:
I cannot be bought, and I cannot be threatened. But if you put them both together then I'm your man!"
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[quote]Originally posted by Joetown: [b]It uses electric current to tune, it doesn't tune in the conventional method by turning pegs.[/b][/quote]If that's the case then they're talking about completely redesigning the piano without a pinblock or tuning pins which opens up a whole new set of worms. What happens when you get a broken string? How do you calibrate the thing? What happens if the calibration goes out on one string right before a concert. I don't think adding electronic parts to an acoustic instrument is such a plus. You'll probably wind up spending more for repairs than you would for tuning and I'm just very skeptical that anyone could build something like that that works worth a damn and doesn't cost a fortune. I'm all for it if it works but I doubt if you'll see this much.
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