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I have these ideas from time to time. Moneymaking ones. Like Hydraulic powered golf clubs (which would get you barred from the golf club) or, rotating outdoor clothes dryers (someone beat me to it) So, I Proudly Present to you good people - A Blueprint for a Maintenance Free Piano!

It is 2013. Pianos have moving parts. Cars have moving parts which require no maintenance save oil changes and minor adjustments over a prolonged mileage.

So firstly - we have the Electrically Operated String Tuner. Yes, you`d need a few. But they would perform minute movement neceassary to tighten up any string that had slipped out of tune. A rachet could maintain the string effectively; the tuning device would operate according to the information it had concerning the string. You wouldn`t know it was happening; you would know that it NEVER went out of tune. And if, after a time, the rate of tuning increased, it could indicate the need to restring. AND - get this - they could be set for any temperament instantly! How good`s that?

The keys and hammer mechanisms associated with striking the strings, well, I can see no reason why modern materials and bearings which could be used should ever need adjustment; this could surely be designed into any piano that ever existed.

These are just two suggestions easily designable yet to my knowledge, not. You could also have hammer felts which were synthetic, and repairable by filling in the slots which the strings generate over time with the proprietary filler made for the job. And of course, there could be various grades available to give your piano the sound most appealing to you.

All this good stuff coming your way guys! Who`s gonna make a fortune? You can use my ideas anytime you like . . .

Or you can laugh, shake your heads.. .and continue paying heavily . . .

The self-tuning piano already exists.

Tell us more, Eric...

I recall reading about a self tuning piano that worked by sending a small electric current through all strings. The current through the strings could be varied which caused a slight thermal expansion or contraction which lowered or raised the pitch. A computer was in charged of sensing and altering the current level through the strings. The piano still needed to be rough tuned by a human, the computer took care of the fine-tuning. That might be what Eric is referring to.

Peter: I get what you are saying, but I think you also underestimate the amount of precision necessary for what you are talking about. Getting machines that involve ratchets and gears to move so incrementally like a good tuner is not an easy task. Of course it could be done - but I think it's prohibitively expensive to do. Piano companies are busy trying to remain profitable so spending maybe $10-20 million on such an exacting engineering project would be beyond most piano companies, with the possible exception of giants like Samick and Pearl River.

Regarding the action parts: I think that's already happening WNG and Kawai both make carbon fiber actions that have great stability and durability. Things like felt bushings will always be wearable items because they have to endure significant friction but they also have cushioning functions. No machine is totally maintenance free though. Steingraeber is building pianos with carbon fiber soundboards. There is some interesting stuff happening out there.

here is some reading about Don Gilmore's invention.

Self tuning piano search results

Gilmore's electrically heated strings seem clever, until you consider that the heat used to flatten the at room temp sharp strings, will continue to warm the plate above ambient conditions, and this makes the strings sharp again, and thus the strings will require ever more heat to keep them from climbing sharp by the expanding plate. I predict that after many hours of operation the self-tuning boundaries would be reached and the piano would go back out of tune.

WN&G parts have the potential to work "forever" except for the cushioning parts.

Sheep's wool hammers have a very advantageous non-linear elasticity that is responsible for much of the dynamic tone color variability of a fine piano. I know of no artificial materials equal to the task.

Selfish plug here; I have a patent application in for my "Fully Tempered Duplex Scale" and you can link to a just published article about it in the March 2013 PTG journal over in the Tech Forum under the topic Fully Tempered Duplex Scale.

Gilmore's electrically heated strings may save you some dollars on the tuner, but the electricity bill will certainly explode. Imagine how many amperes you'll have to drive through more than 200 wires to heat them up...

"The self-tuning piano already exists."

I`m gutted!

Allow me to quote South Park... "Simpsons did it!"

In all honesty, call me a romantic but the whole technician coming home thing reminds me of old times doctors visits.

All great ideas, Peter, but until they
make a piano that plays by itself, concider
me bored.

That pianodisc is more difficult to rig up than any o` my suggestions . . .

I guess I need to remember
to turn on the "sarcasm" tags.

Come on, man! This is not boring. I`ve worked out how to do it . . .

Cast iron has one of the lower thermal expansion coefficients amongst common metals - less than metals used in strings. I think you'd find the system would stabilise relatively quickly. There is far greater mass in the plate than the strings, the currents through the strings are small, and the plate is able to dissipate heat too. Thermal contact between the strings and the plate is not very direct. That means very inefficient heat transfer. I would expect the plate is able to dissipate heat just as fast as it absorbs it. Keep in mind, the piano is supposed to be tuned by a human to a fairly accurate degree, the tiny currents are only to prevent unisons drifting out and minor pitch changes.

In short, I think it works. Not that many people would go for the whole box and dice.

Cat electrocuted by self tuning piano...film at 11...

Ando,
Cast iron and high-carbon steel (piano wire) have almost identical thermal co-efficients of expansion. Of course the strings can change temp more rapidly than the casting, over time the heat added to the strings will warm the plate. Gilmore has the strings electrically isolated from the plate-not thermally isolated. If I remember correctly the upper temp he can raise the strings to is around 105F. So if the ambient temp reaches 85F that doesn't leave much room to lower the strings with heat. Granted 85F is a little hot to be playing a piano but it does get done. The plate takes a long time to change temp-but it does over time given a steady input of thermal gradient. Slow temp changes will not change the pitch of a piano because plate and strings react with the same dimensional change.



Self-tuning pianos are an exercise in futility given all the physical and musical constraints.

The self-tuning piano already exists.

Electronic transducers that drive the soundboard directly would be an interesting advance.