Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum So what ever happened to the self tuning pianos?

Remember all the hoopla surrounding the grand pianos that would tune themselves? Back in probably 2002-2003?

Then it all just quietly went away...

The person who was working on it used to post here, but no longer does.

I remember his last breakthrough was about something that seemed impossible. Maybe it truly was impossible. It had to do with controlling the electrical current through each individual string without “back feeding” through the plate and other strings. Might be possible with radio frequencies that are tuned to the particular strings, but I don’t see it being possible with direct current, unless one end of the string is electrically insulated. That would be a real problem for retro-fitting.

I sure wanted that to succeed!...imagine, push a button, 2 mins later, the piano is perfectly tuned to whatever temperament/stretch you had in his software, and it could record any tuning and store it.

His nick on here was 'eromlignod'...which is Don Gilmore backwards.

I hope he can get it to work someday.

Ryan Sowers,

Apparently, Don Gilmore lives in Kansas City. Is there any hope of contacting him and inviting him to exhibit at the convention? (Or has that been done already?)

Another way would be to terminate the strings at holding points which are controlled by superconducting magnetic levitation, which are computer controlled. There are also sensors in the keytops and an optimal just intonation for the particular note is computed depending on which other notes are currently sounding, and the string tension is adjusted accordingly. We'd get effectively an improved archicembalo.

Well, tongue in cheek of course

Kees

I remember that QRS either bought Don's idea or somehow got permission to use it. That was the year that the PTG booth was directly across from QRS at NAMM show and I was hoping to not get jabs from people about the self-tuning piano. I was even arming myself with jokes to have ready as come-backs. QRS showed a self-playing violin that year.

I think the way electricity flows and needs to terminate somewhere was a major stumbling block in design/production since ceramic parts would have to be manufactured. Also switches and heating elements would have to be placed in specific areas, etc. $$$$$$

Pianocat, you are correct, however, as I recall, Don posted that in the end, the QRS deal did not work out, and he was working with another piano company to further the development. That's the last I have heard. He has not posted here for quite a while.

I remember Story & Clark announcing their grands would be equipped, but that was the last I heard of it.

Never really made much sense to me; from their description, it only served to flatten the strings. What if they needed to move sharp?

Here is a PDF that explains exactly how the components in this device worked. Loren, it was capable of moving the frequency either sharp or flat. The concept was to start the string at a temperature of 95 degrees farenheit, and then allow it to cool or heat up, through use of the current, to attain the desired frequency. This explains it quite well:

http://www.amica.org/Live/Publications/Past-Bulletin-Articles/SelfTuning-Article.PDF

Ah, thanks.

Interesting article. I can't comment on the technical aspects but early on one encounters

"With the computing power of the unit's microcontroller this inherent power could be put to work to derivate not only what the frequency of a string was vibrating at, but how much it deviated from it's ideal
frequency."

Is "derivate" some obscure term used only by piano technicians?

Sorry. Couldn't pass it up.

My computer's dictionary lists derivate as a noun, not a verb. A lot of people have trouble distinguishing "it's" from "its."

A piano with 220 strings heated to 95 degrees farenheit would do wonders for the AC bill. But then again, folks could gather round and roast weenies over the bass and marshmallows on the treble.

"Chestnuts roasting on an open chord,
jack frost melting on the keys,
tiny tots with their feverish eyes,
cant wait cool off in the snow...

"They say the tuners gone away,
no more tunafish, no more delay,
and every 4th and 5th is still in tune
and the room is like Miami at nooooooonnnnnn.....

And so i offer you this simple phrase,
"Spend a fortune to save a buck,"
and tho its been said many time many wayyyyyyssss...
You can tuna piannaa but not tune a fish.................

Sam:

Don't give up your day job.