Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Mammoth Piano!

Ha! You call that a piano? *This* is a piano:
http://www.klavins-pianos.com/index_en.htm

370cm = 12.1 feet!

--Cy--

.....

As far as feeling like a grand i assure you it does. The catcher has a couterweight which was necessary due to gravity, the one small advantage a grand has. But again, the partially loaded spring makes up for that.

So it's 7'2"... I might be able to reach the tuning pins - (I'm 6'4") how is a tech supposed to reach the keyboard and the pins at the same time?

Ron Koval
chicagoland

It is an interesting concept. I always like the extreme pianos such as the Borgoto doppio piano and Adrian Mann's 19 foot grand. I will be interested to read Del's opinion of it. Having said that, I wonder about two things: what would the touch be like? How could it be anything but extremely heavy? It may have a great and deep tone but who would want to play a piano with extremely heavy touch weight? What person with the ability to pay for such a piano would even want such a thing in their home? Yes, the doors and other passage ways would have to be extra large to get it in. The whole concept of a vertical is that it takes up a minimum of floor space. What person who could afford to have that and get it into the living space would want to put it against some wall?

The other observation I have is that it would be all but impossible to tune it with the kind of precision that is expected of pianos today. I often see suggestions about how to tune a square grand for example, that say to remove the dampers, go to the rear and pluck the strings. How does a modern ETD calculate a program for that kind of scale? How to you settle a string and pin when all you can do is pluck the string? The answer is that the ETD can't possibly produce an accurate tuning and even if it could, you can't possibly settle the pin and string. If you are somebody that believes that only the most equal of temperament with the purest of octaves produces the best sound, there is no way that could ever happen on a square grand either tuned by plucking or with an extension lever.

Now, I can see that this piano may have a well designed scale, such as any 9 foot concert grand would have. But tuning a 9 foot grand to broadcast quality requires highly developed technique. Many will rightly argue than an ETD calculated program can only be approximate. An ETD can be useful if aurally verified and custom corrected so that in the end, each unison holds steadily and solidly to each pitch that was determined for each note. That's where we hear the true magic that a fine piano can produce.

The logistics of doing that with this piano are a nightmare! I have often thought that one must have spent an entire day trying to tune the square grands of yesteryear entirely by ear. Even then, the results would have been quite substandard to what we expect today. So, OK, two people go in, one on a step ladder, the other plays the keys. An ETD calculates a program which is fairly good because the scale design is good. There is still going to be a large disconnect between what is normally the left hand playing the keys and the right hand manipulating the tuning lever. OK, so one person does it with a super long extension lever. How precise could that be? What about aural verification and customizing the ETD program? What about an entirely aural tuning?

I'm afraid that what will be heard at the unveiling of this piano will be a very rough and unpleasantly tuned piano. It won't be a matter of aural vs. electronic, ET vs. non-ET, how much or how little stretch or whether the unisons were tuned as purely as possible or whether, as some say they like it, a deliberate "color" placed in the unisons. I just don't see how the results will ever be anything other than "all over the place" and that music from this piano could ever be found to be enjoyable. Maybe as a one or two day project between two expert technicians each time, perhaps.

But what serious musician or music lover would go for that? Yes, there are people with money to spend on eccentric things. Often, however, somebody who would purchase something like this is the same person who would balk at what it costs to actually maintain it. If somebody wants to spend a quarter million on a piano, I would suggest a Ravenscroft.

Hey jeff,
The hammer assembly is not much different than a regular upright. In my piano the catcher shank is longer and the catcher itself is a little bigger with a lead weight in the catcher. The catcher shank is angled so that the catcher (with lead weight) is below the flange pin line acting as a counter weight of the hammer.

Chris, don't be discouraged by negative comments. After all, whenever someone tries to make something out of the ordinary, there are a lot of people to say it can't or shouldn't be done.

I would like to know more about the piano's plate. How did you make it (material, cutting, welding etc.)?