Plastic strip mod

[LarsDaniel]

(This is something I mentioned in another thread, but I thought it was better for future reference to make a seperate post, as the idea now has been realised.)

In pursuit of even smoother uninterupted pitch slides, also when more pressure is applied, I figured it might work to simply fill the gaps.
So I found this product:

Screenshot 2023-03-31 at 11.17.28.png

With the exact dimensions of the Linnstrument gaps, I hoped for a snug fit, and luckily that is exactly the case.
So with nothing but a sharp knife I had them installed within 10 minutes.

Screenshot 2023-03-31 at 11.18.36.png

I have played the "stripped" linnstrument for an hour now, and it is everything I had hoped for. The strips stays completely in place (I can turn it upside down and pat the back but they stay in place) , and sliding notes under pressure is effortless and smooth. Very noticable when sliding chords.
Oh, and the strips are around 4$ for a 128 size linny, so a rather cheap way to see if a smooth x-axis is your thing.

[t-IB]

Clever!

[Roger_Linn]

Hi Lars,

Great solution. I love it when an off-the-shelf item like that happens to be exactly what is needed.

[LarsDaniel]

Hi Lars,

Great solution. I love it when an off-the-shelf item like that happens to be exactly what is needed.

Exactly.
But it could only be done thanks to you sticking to some very sensible metric dimensions.

[Roger_Linn]

Yes I prefer metric, despite the fun arguments of the Dozenal Society:

https://dozenal.org/

But somehow it seems that changing the world to base 12 might not be the easiest to do.

[BobDog]

Well what a good Idea, and much cheaper than a new rubber sheet.

I have tracked some down in the UK as well.

[Fannon]

Got me a set of plastic stripes as well. It's for sure worth the experiment! If it works out, I'll give feedback here and which set I chose in Germany.

[LarsDaniel]

Update: As I also bought the strips in 0.3mm thickness, I have tested them also. They leave a 0.2mm gap, which is also a very good option. When you are touching with no pressure, you feel the gap almost like normal, but when you slide with pressure, the gap is so shallow that your finger does not catch. It obviously does not feel as smooth as the 0.5mm, but it seems to have no actual impact on the smoothness on the slides (compared to the 0.5mm).

So I would say get both, and see what you like best.

And a note about this brand of strips: There was one in each of the pacs (of 10) that had a width that was slightly off. So make sure to have a few more than you need.

[BobDog]

Thanks for the info, I got two bags of them for the 200 which should give me some leeway if any are off and for me being ham-fisted.

[LarsDaniel]

An observation about the 0.3mm vs 0.5mm:
With 0.5mm, if you glide with the absolute minimum pressure, like just enough touch to make it register as a note, the glide will tend to "break up" in half notes. (In other words every pad will register a new note.) This makes sense because the 0.5mm strip is diffusing the pressure sligthly, so when already at the lowest threshold for making a note, the strip can make the pressure drop under the threshold. I don't notice this at all when playing, since sliding at threshold level is not "normal". I only noticed it, when I was accidentally lightly brushing over the surface.

However on the 0.3mm strips, this behaviour is not really noticable, which again makes sense, since at superlight pressure the strip will not be diffusing the pressure as much.

We are talking really small differences, but still worth mentioning.

[glittle]

Nice find. I'm going to try it as well. I could not find the AK strips in the US, but I found something similar here:

https://evergreenscalemodels.com/collec ... ene-strips

These appear to be inch-based, so I got 0.015" (.380mm), and 0.02" (0.508mm) thicknesses.

I have to admit, I'm a little skeptical of the 0.02"/0.508 ones, I'm actually surprised that you had such good luck with the 0.5mm. Isn't that flush with the unpressed surface? When you slide with moderate pressure then, isn't your finger slightly *below* the height of those strips? How do you keep it from catching? Did you smooth the corners?

[LarsDaniel]

Nice find. I'm going to try it as well. I could not find the AK strips in the US, but I found something similar here:

https://evergreenscalemodels.com/collec ... ene-strips

These appear to be inch-based, so I got 0.015" (.380mm), and 0.02" (0.508mm) thicknesses.

I have to admit, I'm a little skeptical of the 0.02"/0.508 ones, I'm actually surprised that you had such good luck with the 0.5mm. Isn't that flush with the unpressed surface? When you slide with moderate pressure then, isn't your finger slightly *below* the height of those strips? How do you keep it from catching? Did you smooth the corners?

Yes, 0.5mm is flush with the surface. But the compression of the silicone is really neglegible as long as you use your fingertip “pad” (and not your nails) as you normally do on the linnstrument. It just works. (The silicone under the strip is compressed the same, so we are only talking about the compression of 0.5mm of silicone.)

But I am sceptical about 0.508mm too. It is very likely that you will feel that bump, and my guess is that you will like 0.380 better.
I am using 0.3mm at the moment, and that works very well.

[glittle]

Thanks for trying this out and reporting back. Will report back once I've had a chance to try it out and get some real impressions. Still pondering how/if I want to tactilely "mark" the square centers as well. One last question about the styrene strips... did you find it necessary to install them so their ends are pinned underneath the metal plate, or do they work well as friction-fit?

[LarsDaniel]

Thanks for trying this out and reporting back. Will report back once I've had a chance to try it out and get some real impressions. Still pondering how/if I want to tactilely "mark" the square centers as well. One last question about the styrene strips... did you find it necessary to install them so their ends are pinned underneath the metal plate, or do they work well as friction-fit?

It is a simple friction fit. So it is very dependant on the strip width (but a less than ideal fit could be fixed with some tiny drops of glue.).
I don’t think it would work well to pin them under the metal plate, - could create several problems.

[Fannon]

Ok, I've got those plastic stripes today:

20230405_162609.jpg

They do not seem completely exact at the beginning on one side, but you can just start cutting from the other side and then there's some left over after 2 columns.

I've added the stripes just to one side of the LinnStrument, so I can compare better.
This was a really easy mod and the stripes have the right width so they just stick and it's easy to put them in our out again. You can still feel them, maybe even better (because they are a different material and stick out a tiny tiny little bit) than the gaps between the pads.

20230405_185404.jpg

Right now I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. It "feels" a bit better to slide on top, but I'm not really sure if it makes a big difference to me. I still sometimes get a "broken" slide because the LinnStrument triggers a note in between if I don't apply a stronger touch when sliding. I also just got a "ghost note" triggering with me touching the LinnStrument at all.

Also not sure if the strips drop out. If you slide vertically (which you should not, I understand), you can accidentally slide them out. I also wonder if it would have been a better compromise to get strips that are slightly less high, as @LarsDaniel pointed out.