Thanks for the tip Bert--it shows that you do your homework--and a Santur-like instrument is a definite possibility-Harry Partch actually used an instrument based on the Kanu'un(which is a similar instument, but plucked instead of hammered) for his 39 pitch scale--

The only thing is that the Santur is intended for playing melodic music, the bridge really functions as a way of altering the pitch of any given note--since my intent is to work with harmonies, I need to have all the pitches available all the time--

It would be very possible to just tune a Santur or Kanu'un to each of the fractional pitches that I derive--and it would work for demonstrating intervals, but I am not sure how easy to play this instrument would be--

On an extremely wonkish note--Neither Persian, Arabic, nor Turkish music use actual "Quarter-tones"-- The intervals between pitches are allocated in a completely different way than in what we call "Western" music--and there are additional steps that are possible--some of which are considerably smaller than the smallest half step that we use--

I have been told that in Turkish classical music, there are about 180 different scales that are used--The scales typically have seven steps, and each scale has a name, which describes the pattern of intervals in the scale, the lengths of the intervals themselves are tradtionally set by the players themselves--

This alteration of pitch by player is in concept and function to the "blue" note that occurs in blues and jazz--It is easy to jump to conclusions here, and, considering the considerable interrelationship of Arabic and African cultures, it would be hard for anyone to refute you--

Anyway, S'Paw, if you are still there, what are the cost/time components of a project like this?