Re the discussion on reeds.  A long time ago I came across a little
piano-style 3-octave thing called a Hohner Pianet.  The electronics
were blown up so I rebuilt them and it worked.

It was classed in books as a "reed piano", but it was a very peculiar
action: as each key was pushed down, the lever attached to it rose up.
At the end of each lever was a plastic piece with a sort of foam sticky
tape on the bottom side, which "stuck" to one of the teeth on a music
comb underneath it.

As the lever rose the sticky tape "unstuck" from the tooth of the comb
and "plucked" it.  This gave the instrument a very soft sound with soft
attack characteristics, very distinctive, and as you might expect
expression was very limited.  However, over time the sticky tape
started losing the stickiness; I tried various products to replace it,
to no avail, and finally gave the thing away, still playing, to a
nearby elementary school.

Had I known what I know now, and had I been thinking, I might have
salvaged the large steel 3-octave Comb out of it for use in a
mechanical music instrument, since it was a fairly large chromatic
scale!

Tom Detweiler in Rocklin CA