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What's the weirdest, rarest, or most unusual piano you've ever seen? Post your pictures if you have any, and tell your stories if you have no pictures! Probably the coolest one I've ever seen in person was a "giraffe piano" from the 1800's... think of a 7 foot grand piano with the form factor of an upright. At least thst's how I remember it, I was about 7 at the time... Some of the early pianos sure were strange!

I've encountered twice very short spinet/console pianos. The shortest one was about waist height I think and didn't have very many keys. The store had it in between two office doors so I thought it was some kind of weird table until I looked at it. Made by Kawai I think. The tallest, made by Kimball, was 42" tall. Also saw a craigslist post for a very short grand piano once.

In 2010 I built a piano for myself from scratch. I designed it using CAD software. It was an unusual design so i had nothing to compare to. It is an upright piano that is 7 ft tall and has a custom designed action that features a double escapement. The string scale is the same as a 10 ft grand. It was a 2 year project that I finished in 2010. Here are some pics:

Cool project! How did you fabricate the plate?

Cad Software sends a DXF file directly to laser cutter. Once all the parts are made, its then welded up.

-chris

Wow, a piano that’s it’s own feature wall. Pretty cool! I’m impressed!

Chris,

You might not know this but your Mammoth has been discussed here several times. I haven't yet seen it in person, I only know it through your photos and your desciption. If you still have it maybe it should take a tour - at least for a showing in Philadelphia.

What do you think?

For my oddball piano... geez, I have seen so many.

ok, I chose this piece that I saw at the musical instrument museum in Vienna. It is not a modern piano, but something way cooler. This folds up with a handle so it could be carried around. It is a gaming board for chess or backgammon, but it is also a clavichord AND a tiny little pump organ, which are both predecessors of the modern piano, so it works, I think.



I am looking forward to seeing (or hearing) what others can contribute.

Sounds interesting Rich, and it would look good in your store. However, it would cost more than 2 cents to pull it off (sorry,couldn't help myself). It weighs 1600 lbs and takes 4 people to move it, so a tour didn't cross my mind.

-chris

Interesting! Thoughts on steel vs. iron?

Various experimental alternatives for the keyboard have been tried:

Curved:



Janko:



Left handed:



Thing is, unless you've learned to play on one of these right from the start (and then limit your playing to that configuration), it would be very difficult to adapt your years of learning and intuition to anything but the standard you're already used to, so these will remain rare.

Malmsjö Banana piano. I have never seen one, but the images are fascinating.

I have tuned a Lindner Grand piano. There are several interesting things about this piano. The sides are all straight, and all of the wooden parts, including the soundboard, just screw or bolt onto the aluminum frame, which has nothing but straight lines. This must have made it inexpensive to build. By undoing a few bolts, the body of the piano tilts on the tripod stand, and one leg folds inward, so you can roll it through a single door, which is very handy. The only drawback is that moisture cycling made the soundboard come loose, but I was able to tighten the screws very easily.

Piedmont Piano in Oakland has a number of interesting pianos. The Rippen is the more conventional cousin to the Lindner. I have seen it in their window. I have also seen the Paul Henningsen Blüthner, which was a piano design originally made in Denmark, and which Blüthner offers now.

The local Craigslist had a 6-6 keyboard upright once, 6 naturals and 6 sharps per octave alternating. I did not see it. There is a disadvantage in that you cannot orient your hands by feel.

Here is the Sauter Microtonal piano.Aparently still available --



https://youtu.be/AdAY-RhRhls

All those keys add up to one octave.Each tone being 1/16 of a whole tone.

The words first practical electric piano!



https://www.piedmontpiano.com/all-used-pianos/1939-storytone-spinet

I thought more would jump on board with this thread. I will keep my posts to pianos that I have actually seen. Let me start with this baby grand piano that was made for long distance trains. A family loved the piano (built by Lester here in Philadelphia) and had us fully rebuild it. It had 64 notes and was around 4'2" in length. It sounded just as fine as a Betsy Ross spinet.




For comparison sake, I am 6 '3".

Ok.

Here is one that should get a little attention. This is a Mathushek concert grand piano with the spine (the flat side) on the opposite side as well as an unusual lid. By the way, this piano has a separate little pin block for every tuning pin.

Wait.

What?

Separate pin blocks each for different pins (each block has a few pins )may be a good idea ?Cheaper to replace ,or not practical ,perhaps?

You heard it right. Each tuning pin had a tiny little block of pin block material. The only advantage would be that one little piece could be replaced without any real fitting instead of cutting and fitting and restringing an entire piano. But it is likely that many of the pins would become loose in or around the same general time frame. You might as well put in a new block, right?

The piano sounded - and still sounds - beautiful.