MIMF

@Jim: Thanks; glad I asked. Totally understand. I've been on forums where things get out of control (and readability) quickly! And I appreciate your clarification that this is the right thread.

@Teresa: No worries. I appreciate your thoughts!

@Jim: I see you are MIMF Staff; could you answer a question for me? Would it be okay and/or appropriate for me to cross-post about this (perhaps posting a link to this thread) on the string instruments section of MIMF? The descriptor, "If it has strings, post it here" (or something like th...

@Jim: Yes, that is the lines along which I was thinking. I'm able to imagine a chain of levers and sliding surfaces that would go from, say, a one-octave keyboard through to the interior of the drum which would then press tangents out against the strings, but I haven't CADed it out to see if it coul...

LOL -- Yes, I ran across that myself recently! Crazy. It does kind of scratch that itch, though, to figure out how to make a rotola that can change notes on the fly. (I have some ideas about that, but other problems beg solutions first!)

It took me a bit to figure out how to get a video uploaded, but here's a link: https://youtube.com/shorts/8F_hU9M-fKw?feature=share . The instrument is tuned here to F, Bb, and C above middle C (I like quartal harmonies). Thanks all for the encouragement! Despite its shortcomings as a prototype, I'm...

Over the past about three years, I've been working on an instrument of my own design; I call it a "rotola." I've attached pix below. The original design (what you see in the pix) had 16 strings; I've made some modifications since that I'll discuss below. The sounding body of the instrument...