Hi Guys.
I'm going into my 3rd year of BA Product design this October and for the past 3 years I've dreamnt of making my own electric piano.
I've always been fascinated by the sounds produced by Rhodes/Wurlis and owning a Rhodes over the past year and a bit has furthered that fascination.
I've pretty much ripped off a Rhodes in terms of this first design here but it was mostly an exercise to convince myself I can get something down on CAD and to get the ball rolling.
For my lecturers to accept this as a project I've got to A. show that this isn't just going to be another Rhodes and B.. come back to uni having done some research and with a rough idea of what it's going to do/be like.
As far as making it not like a Rhodes I've got a few ideas.. I want to experiment with different materials for tone/vibration generation and eventually look to having the tine/tone generator customization so that the user could have their own unique sounding instrument. I have ordered some spare Rhodes pick ups and am in the process of making a one key model. (I'll post the design for this in a few days.) This model will allow me to identify some potential tone generation materials and will give me confidence I will be able to make something that makes a sound lol.
A few problems I currently feel I'm facing.
Action.. I'm struggling to wrap my head around how I'm going to get the hammer to return from hitting the tine while the key is still depressed, I'm going to play around with putting a CAM on the hammer so hopefully once its past a certain point the hammer drops off even with the key still depressed.
Tuning... How the hell am I going to get this thing to be in tune... well from my understanding the Rhodes is tuned using the little coil of wire wrapped around the tines and moving them up and down changed how many vibrations per second they are moving ? I think? anyway for now I'm hoping to employ a similar technique and my soon to be made test model will also help me understand such things.
Construction.. So I'm planning to 3-d print some repetitive parts e.g. hammers, pickup holders, possible even keys?!.. if not 3D printed I could acquire some keys from a piano perhaps?.. not sure yet. As for frame I will be looking at perhaps a metal framework and then lots of plastics.. possibly see through plastics in some areas if the insides look nice enough..
anyway I'm sure there's loads and loads I've missed here and perhaps I sound totally mental.. who knows lol
What I do know is I have a hell of a lot of determination, I'm paying a lot for this degree, and we're given the opportunity to write our own brief for third year given pretty much unlimited creative freedom.. I WANT TO MAKE THIS WORK!!
I don't want to offend anyone who might think I'm simplifying the EMP for what it is, I know these aren't the simplest of things and a hell of a lot of R and D went into them, but still I want to have a go.. anyway the pictures below demonstrate my design so far. The action could be said to be too simple as there's no way shown for the hammer to return to a neutral position when the key is still depressed however that's something I hope to tackle.
I will also be leaving out a sustain pedal for now unless it seems feasible for me to do in the time I'll have.
Kind of hoping I don't get shot down with this idea but I thought that I'm best putting it to the experts first to see what you guys think.
I'm going into my 3rd year of BA Product design this October and for the past 3 years I've dreamnt of making my own electric piano.
I've always been fascinated by the sounds produced by Rhodes/Wurlis and owning a Rhodes over the past year and a bit has furthered that fascination.
I've pretty much ripped off a Rhodes in terms of this first design here but it was mostly an exercise to convince myself I can get something down on CAD and to get the ball rolling.
For my lecturers to accept this as a project I've got to A. show that this isn't just going to be another Rhodes and B.. come back to uni having done some research and with a rough idea of what it's going to do/be like.
As far as making it not like a Rhodes I've got a few ideas.. I want to experiment with different materials for tone/vibration generation and eventually look to having the tine/tone generator customization so that the user could have their own unique sounding instrument. I have ordered some spare Rhodes pick ups and am in the process of making a one key model. (I'll post the design for this in a few days.) This model will allow me to identify some potential tone generation materials and will give me confidence I will be able to make something that makes a sound lol.
A few problems I currently feel I'm facing.
Action.. I'm struggling to wrap my head around how I'm going to get the hammer to return from hitting the tine while the key is still depressed, I'm going to play around with putting a CAM on the hammer so hopefully once its past a certain point the hammer drops off even with the key still depressed.
Tuning... How the hell am I going to get this thing to be in tune... well from my understanding the Rhodes is tuned using the little coil of wire wrapped around the tines and moving them up and down changed how many vibrations per second they are moving ? I think? anyway for now I'm hoping to employ a similar technique and my soon to be made test model will also help me understand such things.
Construction.. So I'm planning to 3-d print some repetitive parts e.g. hammers, pickup holders, possible even keys?!.. if not 3D printed I could acquire some keys from a piano perhaps?.. not sure yet. As for frame I will be looking at perhaps a metal framework and then lots of plastics.. possibly see through plastics in some areas if the insides look nice enough..
anyway I'm sure there's loads and loads I've missed here and perhaps I sound totally mental.. who knows lol
What I do know is I have a hell of a lot of determination, I'm paying a lot for this degree, and we're given the opportunity to write our own brief for third year given pretty much unlimited creative freedom.. I WANT TO MAKE THIS WORK!!
I don't want to offend anyone who might think I'm simplifying the EMP for what it is, I know these aren't the simplest of things and a hell of a lot of R and D went into them, but still I want to have a go.. anyway the pictures below demonstrate my design so far. The action could be said to be too simple as there's no way shown for the hammer to return to a neutral position when the key is still depressed however that's something I hope to tackle.
I will also be leaving out a sustain pedal for now unless it seems feasible for me to do in the time I'll have.
Kind of hoping I don't get shot down with this idea but I thought that I'm best putting it to the experts first to see what you guys think.
