Old Baby Grand Piano

[Acousticado]

A question for any members who know pianos pretty well...

A friend has a Milton BG built in 1900 in NYC, known as a quality instrument back then. They’ve had it for 20 years, but are not players...wife thought she might want to take it up but didn’t, thinking about it again, but have loved it as furniture. They just had it professionally inspected and although it looks very good on the outside, the report isn’t good for the innards...it’s essentially dead (words of the tech)...cracks in soundboard, hammers/pins/strings need replacement...a $5k+ investment needed which they’re not going to do.

So rather than blowing it up (too expensive to move, not worth it), the tech suggested that they might consider removing the keyboard and have a digital keyboard installed, which they’re pondering. Likely, speakers would have to be installed. The tech said that such conversions are not uncommon and can be very well done. Even a digital player piano can be considered.

On behalf of my friend, my question is...how much of the under-lid components should be removed, if any, to optimize the sound, hopefully to take advantage of the possible good acoustics? If the strings are left in, might they positively or negatively affect the sound?

Thanks for any advice.

[Song]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

A question for any members who know pianos pretty well...

A friend has a Milton BG built in 1900 in NYC, known as a quality instrument back then. They’ve had it for 20 years, but are not players...wife thought she might want to take it up but didn’t, thinking about it again, but have loved it as furniture. They just had it professionally inspected and although it looks very good on the outside, the report isn’t good for the innards...it’s essentially dead (words of the tech)...cracks in soundboard, hammers/pins/strings need replacement...a $5k+ investment needed which they’re not going to do.

So rather than blowing it up (too expensive to move, not worth it), the tech suggested that they might consider removing the keyboard and have a digital keyboard installed, which they’re pondering. Likely, speakers would have to be installed. The tech said that such conversions are not uncommon and can be very well done. Even a digital player piano can be considered.

On behalf of my friend, my question is...how much of the under-lid components should be removed, if any, to optimize the sound, hopefully to take advantage of the possible good acoustics? If the strings are left in, might they positively or negatively affect the sound?

Thanks for any advice.

That is an extremely interesting project.
How much removed will probably best be determined by experimentation.
Have to decide what speaker(s) to use and where to place.
If the strings are out of tune then it may sound strange and I wouldn't think unmuffled strings would be good.
Good luck!

[frankmcr]

Why don't your friends just ask the tech? It's his suggestion, he must know what's involved in making it happen.

[Acousticado]

Thanks. Yep, whatever components would be installed, somehow determining the quality and proper placement will be tricky. There may not be a lot of expertise out there to determine. The strings are not in tune and the tech said that even if he tried to tune, it would not hold. I tend to think removal of the strings at a minimum would be best, but not knowing pianos, I really didn’t know.

For my friends, they still live it as a fine furniture piece and since the wife is not a player, at least not yet, probably they won’t need to be overly picky about it and perhaps down the road, if she becomes a player, it can be upgraded. Getting it properly functional as a digital/acoustic baby brand is the most important first step.

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by frankmcr

Why don't your friends just ask the tech? It's his suggestion, he must know what's involved in making it happen.

They did, and although he can certainly handle the removal of the keyboard itself, he doesn’t seem to have that much knowledge about a suitable digital keyboard replacement (or speakers) or what existing components should be removed or not to achieve the desired result. Likely, he can figure it out (at a cost) and that still may be a possibility...depending.

[hubcapsc]

The Luthier I go to made a nice guitar top with an old
piano sound board...

http://www.mikeweems.net/latest-guitar-build

If it is coming out and all, does anybody want it?

-Mike

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by hubcapsc

The Luthier I go to made a nice guitar top with an old
piano sound board...

http://www.mikeweems.net/latest-guitar-build

If it is coming out and all, does anybody want it?

-Mike

Hmmm, interesting. I wonder what piano soundboards are typically made from...like a guitar, spruce? Being that the piano will mostly remain in-tact, I wonder if leaving the soundboard would help the tone. I tend to think so. If not and the structural integrity of the piano wouldn’t be compromised if removed, my friend would likely let me have it. Depending on the situation with the cracks, being a well-aged/opened-up soundboard might lend itself to an incredible guitar. Until 2 years ago, Sergei de Jonge was a neighbor of mine. Your list has me thinking. Thanks for the suggestion...I think!

[DCCougar]

My knee-jerk reaction would be to gut it. I used to have a (digital) Yamaha PF-something or other, 88-key balanced hammer keyboard with little built-in speakers (better run through an amp). It had a good sounding piano voice and about 10 other voices -- harpsichord, etc. I eventually moved into synths and got rid of it. Nowadays there's no reason not to get a synth with 100s of different voices, rhythm accompaniment, arpeggio "accompaniment" that tracks the chords you're playing. Some are a bit pricey, but others are ridiculously affordable. This is the pro demo that sold me....

[DCCougar]

By the way, I don't recommend balanced hammer keyboards. The keyboard on my Motif XS7 is touch sensitive, of course, feels great, and is lightning fast. Otherwise I'd be totally unable to pull off the fast runs in this fun little recording....

[rule18]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

Hmmm, interesting. I wonder what piano soundboards are typically made from...like a guitar, spruce? Being that the piano will mostly remain in-tact, I wonder if leaving the soundboard would help the tone. I tend to think so. If not and the structural integrity of the piano wouldn’t be compromised if removed, my friend would likely let me have it. Depending on the situation with the cracks, being a well-aged/opened-up soundboard might lend itself to an incredible guitar. Until 2 years ago, Sergei de Jonge was a neighbor of mine. Your list has me thinking. Thanks for the suggestion...I think!

Many (most?) piano soundboards are Sitka.

[Song]

Originally Posted by hubcapsc

The Luthier I go to made a nice guitar top with an old
piano sound board...

http://www.mikeweems.net/latest-guitar-build

If it is coming out and all, does anybody want it?

-Mike

Nice! Looks sorta like adi.

[Song]

Originally Posted by DCCougar

By the way, I don't recommend balanced hammer keyboards. The keyboard on my Motif XS7 is touch sensitive, of course, feels great, and is lightning fast. Otherwise I'd be totally unable to pull off the fast runs in this fun little recording....

That sounded awesome, thanks for sharing!
A Motif or Genos are grand instruments in themselves.

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by DCCougar

By the way, I don't recommend balanced hammer keyboards. The keyboard on my Motif XS7 is touch sensitive, of course, feels great, and is lightning fast. Otherwise I'd be totally unable to pull off the fast runs in this fun little recording....

That Motif XS is quite the instrument, and you’ve shown that yourself with your recording. Thanks for sharing that and the video. The XS is way more sophisticated than my friend and wife would want to install since he doesn’t play at all and she’ll just be a beginner, if she bothers to play at all. It does seem that they’re willing to do some sort of conversion though.

[Acousticado]

Conversion from 121 year old acoustic baby grand piano to digital is complete! My buddy and his wife decided on a Roland FP-60X digital keyboard and had a friend install it. I saw it today. Perfect fit, the speakers are mounted inside. It sounds great! What a wonderful project to have saved this piano!

[frankmcr]

Looking good!