Building Tines

[racerandspy]

I was wondering.... has anyone ever attempted to craft their own rhodes tines? After inspecting my own setup, I deduced that the tines seem to be constructed out of 1/32 inch wire (or rather, circular stock), made of hardened steel. If I can find such a thing (I could harden the steel myself), I can try it out on my harp. Thequestion remaining is: what was the secret to the "new and improved" tine process? Will just regular old steel work? has anyone done this? I'm using an old Mark I suitcase for this experiment.

Thanks.

[hrees]

I believe you have to be able to recreate the taper by the mounting block in order keep the strength of the tine. The 60s tines used the centerless grinding process and the 70s tine were swaged (whatever that means).

If you have the facilities it would be interesting to experiment to see if you can get a different tone out different metal hardnesses etc. But I get the sense that trying to duplicate tines to the original spec is difficult and very expensive.

[piano ma'am]

Swaged means pressed flat.

Most acoustic piano bass strings are like that underneath the copper windings. (Helps hold on the copper windings.)