[David Colpitts]

Hi, folks. I am a newbie here and at the melodica (40 year old Hohner student models aside.) I actually bought one (the little Yamaha 25) for experimental modification to a Janko keyboard, and used the two available YouTube “builds” for inspiration. Actually, I settled on the “Instructable” (with the pennies as keys) and whacked away at it. After about 6 hours of work (and 6 more staring at it) I got the prototype working this morning. I was put off by the multi-layered/stepped rows, and thought it would be fragile and hard to pack. Coincidentally, I got buttons as keys, rather than pennies, so I could get black and white. Lo and behold, they (mostly) fit between the wooden added key strips, which lets me have a virtually flat keyboard hardly deeper than the original. I made some correctable woodworking errors, but am thrilled with the results. I will post a picture once I have returned to the button store for more, so my patterns are as they should be. BTW, it’s three rows, and I think it will be durable. Lost one spring….any ideas? Am using ballpoint spring in emergency. Now, the idea of multiple keys with identical fingering literally wakes me up early. The disease begins.

Regards,

David