pic showing Janko octave span compared to trad piano

[gguitarwilly]

Hi guys,

I stumbled upon this pic. It seems that a German company made pianos with both Janko and regular keyboard, just to make sure they were sold.

The photo of the instrument clearly shows how much smaller the entire keyboard has become with Janko keyboard.

Willem

[Doug Keislar]

Interesting. I guess you got it here:
http://www.technischesmuseum.at/object/pianino-mit-janko-klaviatur
There's another photo here:
http://squeezehead.com/uniform-keyboard

I wonder whether, and how, they solved the mechanical problem of leverage. If both sets of keys press upon the same underlying keyboard action, as I imagine they must, then the normal keyboard in front must have a completely different "feel" than the Janko keyboard in back -- the Janko keys would be much harder to press, I would think, unless the designer was quite clever.

[gguitarwilly]

Hi Doug,

this same afternoon I saved a pic showing just that. The mechanism is as poor as you describe it. See attachment.

My Vandervoort piggyback is much more sophisticated. all keys have equal action and are attached to a parallelogram.

Unfortunately, because of the indirect mechanism (a keyboard pressing keys on another keyboard) the action is fairly heavy.

Willem

Op woensdag 4 november 2015 15:45:36 UTC+1 schreef Doug Keislar:

[Doug Keislar]

Hi Willem,

Right.  I think you're talking about the fact that the rear keys (higher rows) of a Janko piano keyboard are harder to push than the ones in the front, unless one adopts a clever mechanical solution such as Vandervoort's parallelogram linkage.  This is also true of a normal piano keyboard -- because it's a lever, it's slightly easier to push a key down at the front part of the key than the back.

I was talking about a similar but worse problem when there are two complete keyboards, one in front of the other.  From the photo, it looks as though the distance from front to back would be quite a bit more than twice the usual front-to-back distance of a single keyboard.

Doug

[gguitarwilly]

Hi Doug,

That is what I meant. I can't imagine though, that the keys of the two keyboards shown on the pic share one lever. the Janko would be unplayable.

My piggyback has fish wires that pull the small levers that press the piano keys. It should be possible to build such a mechanism in a regular piano.

Willem

Op woensdag 4 november 2015 19:00:56 UTC+1 schreef Doug Keislar:

[Doug Keislar]

Hi Willem,

You got that piggyback from Vandervoort, right?  Unless he built more than one, I had a chance to play on it briefly, three decades ago.  I was impressed with how well it preserved the "feel" of the keyboard it was sitting on (a Fender Rhodes electric piano, in that instance), even though the feel was transmitted through the fishing lines.

Doug

[gguitarwilly]

Wow Doug,

It really is a small (janko) world! It is the same keyboard. It is amazingly well built: it is still functioning perfectly after 30+ years.

It's the nearest one can come to playing a 'real' Janko piano. I believe the only other piggyback is the one built by Luc Lippens.

Willem

Op woensdag 4 november 2015 22:57:20 UTC+1 schreef Doug Keislar:

[Corky Peavy]

You have a piggy-back design?  Is it something that you are willing to share?  

[gguitarwilly]

Hi Corky,

I would, but it wouldn't be of much use. It is a carefully crafted piece of equipment and one of a kind (although Lippens also made one).

As I have slowly overcome a number of problems in the process of equipping a regular piano with a Janko layout keyboard, I'm starting to think that such a conversion might be the cheapest and 'easiest' way of obtaining a real Janko piano. 

But I'll refrain from stating that already until I actually will have finished the piano project.

Willem

Op zondag 22 mei 2016 09:49:28 UTC+2 schreef Corky Peavy: