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Rulerphone

 Boing
  (+9)(+9)
(+9) 		  [vote for,
against]

There are few sounds on earth to surpass that of a well- twanged ruler held over a desk edge.

I therefore urge the construction of a piano-style instrument, in which the keys are a series of rulers overhanging a soundboard by carefully adjusted distances.

—MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 30 2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb_piano [spidermother, Oct 30 2012]

Wooden_20Ruler_20Ensemble [calum, Oct 30 2012]

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       One Ruler to Ring them All.
—AusCan531, Oct 30 2012
   

       [sm] thumb pianos do not usually have rattling bridges, right? Which is a characteristic of [mb]’s idea.
—pocmloc, Oct 30 2012
   

       Not that I'm aware. They also don't use rulers. (The link is just for prior art).
—spidermother, Oct 30 2012
   

       //sound of the ruler ruler being moved//   

       Excellent point, [bellauk]. We will require a pitch- bend pedal which can slide all the rulers back or forth by a semitone or three.
—MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 30 2012
   

       [+] Actual rulers should be used, as a visual tuning aid.
—FlyingToaster, Oct 30 2012
   

       Reporpoised slide rules, with their log scales, would be ideal for this.
—MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 30 2012
   

       I think slide rules are too stiff. I seem to recall that the cheap white plastic rulers were best.
—pocmloc, Oct 30 2012
   

       Length and force. The solutions to almost all problems.
—MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 30 2012
   

       "...in bed" </fortune cookie>
—hippo, Oct 30 2012
   

       Pentatonic scales ?
—8th of 7, Oct 30 2012
   

       This needs a set of Catholic nuns and some misbehaving soprano boys as well.   

       Seems right at home in a jug band.
—RayfordSteele, Oct 30 2012
   

       I believe those sopranos are called altered boys.
—xandram, Oct 30 2012
   

       baked to a crisp!
—xenzag, Oct 30 2012
   

       I bought a 2-meter stick made of aluminum (3 inches wide) and clamped the lower end onto a back-and-forth cam driven by a big DC motor. With the ruler pointing upwards (the top end was free), I could find the first, second and third vibration modes of the ruler (frequencies were like 1 Hz, 3 Hz, and 9 Hz or something). When hitting the third overtone the whole thing nearly took off. Good thing I had on a motorcycle helmet for safety. One could make an instrument of this. (An IMD - Instrument of Mass Destruction.)
—sqeaketh the wheel, Oct 30 2012
   

       I've got a couple of acrylic rulers, very poor tone, avoid. I yearn for the days of the hard white plastic Transformer's ruler of my early high school years... the Stradavarius of rulers.
—bs0u0155, Oct 30 2012
   

       I thought this idea would be a new type of cellular phone with the interface being a slide ruler.   

       I have no idea how a slide ruler works, even though my father tried to explain it to me about every 10 years in the last 40.
—pashute, Oct 30 2012
   


 

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