Pre-orders
minichord harp plates I've designed. Three from the first batch are in stock, and two are on their way. Everything else, the proposed designs and colors other than black, gets made once enough people want it: tap I'm interested to be on its list.
Bundle deal How it counts
How it works
- In stock or on order? Add it to your cart and check out. Plates in stock ship within a few days of payment; for plates on order, pay now or when they ship.
- Proposed designs and colors that aren't made yet: tap I'm interested. Nothing to pay, no address. Once enough people want one in a color, I email everyone on its list with a date to order by.
Changed your mind? Cancel from the link in your email any time before it ships. If you paid, you get all of it back.
Colors and shipping
The first batch is black. Every plate can also come in green, purple, red, yellow, blue or white, proposed designs included. Those are made to order: I have a plate made in a color once enough people want it in that color. Tap I'm interested to be on its list, and I'll email you if it's going ahead.
Pickup in Gainesville is free. Shipping is $9 a parcel in the US: what's in stock ships now, and plates on order when they're in. Outside the US, postage is quoted at cost before you pay, and import taxes and fees are the buyer's.
Pickups and orders shipped to Florida add Florida sales tax on the plates.
First batch
In black, while they last. Twin Rows, Piano Keys and Framed Strings are in stock and ship within a few days. Zipper 24 and the Arcade Wheel are on their way, expected to ship this winter. Add any of them to your cart.
minichord
Twin Rows Harp Plate
$30.00
In stock: ships within a few days
A harp plate for Benjamin Poilve's minichord, with the twelve notes in two staggered rows of six, so a finger run straight down the middle strums all twelve in order. Designed by The Key & Cable Co. and not available anywhere else.
Plays on any minichord firmware. On the advanced firmware, choose Twin Rows in minicontrol and its bigger pads get touch velocity and pressure calibrated for them.
The first batch is black; other colors are made once enough people want them.
Sold only here, not on eBay.
minichord
Piano Keys Harp Plate
$30.00
In stock: ships within a few days
A harp plate for the minichord with its twelve notes outlined as piano keys, for the chromatic harp mode. Teeth along the edges keep normal strumming and the other scales working. Designed by The Key & Cable Co. and not available anywhere else.
Plays on any minichord firmware, and best on the advanced firmware: choose Piano Keys in minicontrol and the edge of your finger won't sound the next key.
Try it with the Minichord Arcade. The first batch is black; other colors are made once enough people want them.
Sold only here, not on eBay.
minichord
Zipper 24 Harp Plate
$30.00
On order: expected to ship mid-November to early December
Two octaves from the minichord's twelve touch contacts. Between each pair of zones their teeth interlock like a zipper, so a finger on the seam touches both, and that reads as the note in between: 24 positions, two full octaves, with a fret line at each one and a C marked at each octave. Designed by The Key & Cable Co. and not available anywhere else.
Two octaves need a firmware update I'm still testing. Until it's out, the plate plays as an ordinary twelve-string harp.
Sold only here, not on eBay.
minichord
Arcade Wheel Harp Plate
$30.00
On order: expected to ship mid-November to early December
A touch wheel for the minichord: a ring of ten zones round a hub split into A and B. In the Minichord Arcade it's a d-pad with A and B as it is, and spinning a finger round the ring plays a run of notes. Designed by The Key & Cable Co. and not available anywhere else.
Using it as a 360° steering wheel needs a firmware update I'm still testing, and the Arcade games don't read the wheel's angle yet.
Sold only here, not on eBay.
minichord
Framed Strings Harp Plate
$30.00
In stock: ships within a few days
Twelve strings held at both ends by a rail, with slots cut through the board between them, so your finger drops into each gap and crosses a real edge. Made for plucking as you lift, a firmware feature in the works, and fine with ordinary strumming too. Designed by The Key & Cable Co. and not available anywhere else.
Plays on any minichord firmware. On the advanced firmware, choose Framed Strings in minicontrol: calibrated for these boards, and a fingertip across two strings plays one.
The minichord's case shows through the slots, so pick a color to go with it. The first batch is black; other colors are made once enough people want them.
Sold only here, not on eBay.
Nothing on pre-order right now. Everything I have in hand is on Parts.
Proposed designs
Designed and drawn, not made yet. These are renderings from the design files. Tap I'm interested to be on a design's list: once enough people want it in a color, I have a batch made in that color and email everyone on the list with a date to order by. There's nothing to pay until then, and you can take your name off any time.
minichord
Long Teeth Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
The minichord's own twelve-tooth strip with the teeth drawn out long, so each string is a step your fingertip drops off. Made for plucking as you lift, a firmware feature in the works, and fine with ordinary strumming too.
The teeth are open at the tips, so a drop onto one is its weak spot. Framed Strings, above, is the sturdier take on the same idea.
minichord
Strumplate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
Two boards: twelve full-width bands, and a thin overlay that sticks on top with a raised gold bar between each pair, so you feel every string as your finger crosses it. Strums like the stock strip, with something to catch on.
The overlay adds about 0.7 mm of height.
minichord
Zipper Strip Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
Twelve zones whose edges interlock like a zipper, so a finger on the seam touches both. Today it's an ordinary twelve-string harp, microtonal tunings included. With firmware that reads the seams it's 23 positions, a whole octave of 22-EDO, or a smooth pitch bend between strings.
The 23 positions need firmware that isn't written yet.
minichord
Fretless Wrap Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
A ribbon controller: the zones taper into one another, so the pitch can follow your finger smoothly up and down the strip and glide between notes, in whatever key and tuning the harp is in. A thirteenth place at the top lets the ribbon run a whole octave, C at the bottom to C at the top.
Needs a firmware update I'm still testing. Until it's out, it plays as an ordinary twelve-string harp.
minichord
Piano Glide Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
Piano keys and a fretless strip on one plate, two ways to play the same twelve notes: tap them on the keys, or slide along the strip to strum or glide between them.
The glide needs the harp ribbon setting, a firmware update I'm still testing. Until it's out, the keys and the strip play as twelve strings.
minichord
Drum Pads Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
For the minichord's drum machine: twelve pads, and an interlocked seam between every two that meet, for 28 places to hit. Each pad plays a voice of the kit, kick and snare at one end, hats beside them, and a seam plays its two pads together as one layered hit.
Seams as sounds of their own (ride, half-open hat, mid tom...) need firmware that isn't written yet. Pads aren't labelled, so any kit fits.
minichord
XY Pad Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
A touch surface. The copper under it is woven so the minichord can tell where your finger is anywhere on the plate, across and along it, not just which of twelve zones it's on. Slide on it like a trackpad, or snap to the Drum Pads' 28 places.
This one needs firmware that isn't written yet, and it doesn't play as twelve strings without it. For the adventurous.
minichord
Fretless 31 Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
The Fretless Wrap with a fretboard for 31-tone equal temperament printed on it: a heavy fret at each note of the scale, named on both edges, and a light one at every step of 31 between them. The settings to play it with are printed on the back.
Needs the harp ribbon setting, a firmware update I'm still testing.
minichord
Celtic Knot Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
One endless Celtic knot: a single ribbon that crosses itself twelve times, over and under in turn. Follow it with a finger and it walks the circle of fifths, C, G, D, A and on round, for ever. At every crossing a fingertip plays a three-note chord, and most of them sit in a pentatonic scale.
Works with today's firmware, with the harp set to chromatic.
minichord
Torus Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
The Tonnetz, the map of how major and minor chords join, as a honeycomb of twelve note cells. Cells that touch are consonant, and every corner where three meet is a major or minor triad: put a fingertip on a corner and it plays the chord. The edges wrap round to each other, like a doughnut cut open and laid flat.
Works with today's firmware, with the harp set to chromatic.
minichord
Tesseract Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
A four-dimensional cube seen end-on: three nested rings of four round a centre split in four. Round each ring the notes climb in minor thirds, and every place where three zones meet is a major or minor triad: all 24 of them, each once. A finger on the very middle plays a diminished seventh.
Works with today's firmware, with the harp set to chromatic.
minichord
Raga Strumplate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
The Strumplate with its strings named for playing a raga: Sa up to tara Pa on one edge, and only the Sas on the other, for five-swara ragas. With melodic direction on, a strum up plays the aroha and a strum down the avaroha. Comes with the raised-string overlay.
The overlay adds about 0.7 mm of height.
minichord
Veena Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
The Zipper 24 plate as a Saraswati veena's main string: 24 frets, each named by its swarasthana, Sa at the bottom to tara Ni at the top. A thin overlay adds raised gold bars at Pa, tara Sa and tara Pa, so you find them without looking.
The 24 frets need a firmware update I'm still testing, the same as Zipper 24's. Until it's out, it plays as an ordinary twelve-string harp.
minichord
Veena Tala Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
The Veena plate with the three side strings a player strikes with the little finger to keep the tala: 17 frets, Sa to tara Ga, then three plain strings.
Reading it as frets and tala strings needs firmware that isn't written yet. Until then it plays as a twelve-string harp.
minichord
Violin Harp Plate
Expected price $30.00
Proposed: made in a color once enough people want it
Two fretless strings for Carnatic violin or chitravina, a Sa string and a Pa string, each an octave long, with a tick at every swarasthana like a beginner's fingerboard tape.
This one needs firmware that isn't written yet. It's built on the XY Pad.
How to order
Plates in stock or on order: tap Add to cart on the plate, then check out from your cart. Choose pickup or shipping there, and you'll see every total before you pay anything. What's in stock ships now; plates on order are a separate reservation that ships when they're in.
Proposed designs and other colors aren't made yet, so they're a sign-up instead: put your name down below, and I'll email you if one goes ahead.
Rather text? (352) 325-1222.
I'm interested
Put your name down for a proposed design, or for a plate in a color that isn't made yet.
Parts in stock now are on Parts. Looking for restored instruments? See Gear For Sale.
