Until now most of the stuff I’ve been doing has been very similar to building an acoustic guitar, which I have experience with. Now I’m getting to a new phase.
Today I slapped the first keybox together and realized:
- the square holes are too small; the square rods would not have enough meat for the job they have ahead.
- The 2 rows of holes are not far enough apart form each other, and the top row is too close to the top of the box.
- I sill haven’t figured out how I’m going to make the ‘Talents’, the little fingers that press against (and fret) the strings when the keys are pressed. They have to be strong and solid, and also adjustable in the fore-and-aft and side-to-side dimensions, so the instrument can be intonated correctly.
So I made a second Key box, with bigger square holes, correctly placed. I’m going to need to brood about the talents for awhile. The ‘keeper’ is the one laying down. I’m still going to keep working the discard, so I can make fabrication mistakes on that one and then do things right on number 2.
That’s the way Design-Build goes. You have a good idea, you execute it, then you figure out it needs someting more. Fortunately this instrument is modular — more modular, say, than an acoustic guitar. I can make subassemblies and perfect them and if they don’t work, figure out what’s wrong and make something better.