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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
Yes, the baby grand idea is to have a good look also. yes I realize that from a functional piano standpoint it is in fact wasted money but to say we don’t make decisions with a view on looks is disingenuous. Take a look at all the nice looking cars everyone has paid too much money for when all that is required is 4 seats and a steering wheel.
An awful lot of people here (myself included) have bought "slab pianos" primarily because we want to spend our money on a piano, not on a piece of furniture. You get an awful lot more for your money that way. For your suggested price of $2000 (you didn't specify a currency, so I'll assume US$ for the sake of argument) you can buy a really top end new slab piano which will sound far, far better than what you're proposing to buy, as well as having a much better keyboard action.
Many people think the tops of pianos are great for pictures and plants. And a place for guests to put their drinks!
And underneath was room for my little lad in his catapult seat . . . . .quiet when his mother played. She played often.
Well it least she played! My comment was about how many pianos I've seen that were never played by anyone. The stories usually go like this: "I bought it for my child but he quit lessons after 6 months" "Nobody plays it but my grand kids sometimes plink on the keys" "It hasn't been tuned since 1980" "It's a family heirloom, my grandfather bought it at a flee market back in the 60's"
My wife volunteers for the restore which sells donated items for habitat for humanity. When it opened it had 8 pianos mostly baby grands, 4 various brands of organs none Hammond. Every piano was in horrendous condition, extremely out of tune and white rings on the finish from placing a hot cup or dish directly one the wood. They no longer accept pianos.
Last edited by Kbeaumont; 04/17/1911:24 AM.
A long long time ago, I can still remember How that music used to make me smile....
An awful lot of people here (myself included) have bought "slab pianos" primarily because we want to spend our money on a piano, not on a piece of furniture. You get an awful lot more for your money that way. For your suggested price of $2000 (you didn't specify a currency, so I'll assume US$ for the sake of argument) you can buy a really top end new slab piano which will sound far, far better than what you're proposing to buy, as well as having a much better keyboard action.
And as JohnSprung said above, you can take that $2000, awesome slab, and insert it into someone's "free to take away" grand, and get a great looking piece of furniture too
across the stone, deathless piano performances
"Discipline is more reliable than motivation." -by a contributor on Reddit r/piano "Success is 10% inspiration, and 90% perspiration." -by some other wise person "Pianoteq manages to keep it all together yet simultaneously also go in all directions; like a quantum particle entangled with an unknown and spooky parallel universe simply waiting to be discovered." -by Pete14
Some other options are pre-manufactured "piano shells" that some companies sell, so no need to find a technically non-salvageable but good looking grand.
And Dynatone and Medeli make some cheaper grand shaped digital pianos that may be "perfectly adequate" even if not Yamaha/Kawai/Roland quality.
There are others too and some might actually be bad. No idea about the Orlas and such.
No comments on the Kohler and Kurzweil, but there are some videos on YouTube.
The Kurzweil sounds like a...Kurzweil. No surprise there:
Won’t you lose the big speakers and volume output from building a slab into an acoustic cabinet compared to one wired into speakers built into the baby grand cabinet?
Many people think the tops of pianos are great for pictures and plants. And a place for guests to put their drinks!
You should be banned from the forum for such obsenity
What about pianos as a place to set a decorative cat?
across the stone, deathless piano performances
"Discipline is more reliable than motivation." -by a contributor on Reddit r/piano "Success is 10% inspiration, and 90% perspiration." -by some other wise person "Pianoteq manages to keep it all together yet simultaneously also go in all directions; like a quantum particle entangled with an unknown and spooky parallel universe simply waiting to be discovered." -by Pete14
A piano is furniture and a piano is decorative and a piano is a musical instrument. I insist on all of these things.
I think that being able to have both an aesthetic piece of furniture and a functional musical instrument really depends on whose perspective is being consulted. My wife who is an art historian specializing in contemporary art, would likely want me to get this:
or
neither of which I consider as "functional" as an N1X or NV10. Fortunately, this decision it's not up to her!
Having been together 20+ years, I know she would not consider either the N1X or the NV10 to be decorative, despite the ebony color/surface.
across the stone, deathless piano performances
"Discipline is more reliable than motivation." -by a contributor on Reddit r/piano "Success is 10% inspiration, and 90% perspiration." -by some other wise person "Pianoteq manages to keep it all together yet simultaneously also go in all directions; like a quantum particle entangled with an unknown and spooky parallel universe simply waiting to be discovered." -by Pete14
Yes, you lose the speakers when building the slab into a cabinet.
Originally Posted by dvuder
Won’t you lose the big speakers and volume output from building a slab into an acoustic cabinet compared to one wired into speakers built into the baby grand cabinet?
But slabs don't have big speakers. You have to add them yourself ... like this:
Or perhaps this one in an all-custom-built grand cabinet:
Wow! That's a very well done DIY project!
(aside - wonder what those red buttons on the floor to right of the pedals are for? page turning?)
across the stone, deathless piano performances
"Discipline is more reliable than motivation." -by a contributor on Reddit r/piano "Success is 10% inspiration, and 90% perspiration." -by some other wise person "Pianoteq manages to keep it all together yet simultaneously also go in all directions; like a quantum particle entangled with an unknown and spooky parallel universe simply waiting to be discovered." -by Pete14
If my memory serves me correctly, that cabinet was to house a VPC1, and was used in a theatre production. The owner documented the build process in considerable detail.
I guess everything has a price. If this was $100 i suspect many people would go ahead and just take it. Let’s say theoretically you could only buy one of the two pianos I had listed above. What would be a reasonable price for something this old?
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