Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Why no thin white key covers?

Why are we stuck with white key covering materials that are quite thick? It necessitates planing or milling down the wood of the keysticks to fit a new set properly (not that I've done many).

And when you have the odd missing ivory head, fitting a piece of plastic key covering means that it would stick up proud unless you do tricky woodwork. There are plenty of old pianos around which are not worth the expense of a new set for the sake of one or two or a few missing ivory heads, and where the owner might not mind if the colour match isn't exact. But we have nothing of the right thickness to put on them, except saved old ivories, which will get more scarce.

Celluloid has been around for well over a century, and some celluloid-covered piano keys have lasted very well. The celluloid covers were thin, and opaque. OK, they were highly combustible! But surely in this day and age it should be possible to make white key coverings from a safe, thin type of white plastic? Why do they gotta be THICK?

You could just order some thin plastic sheet stock from a plastics supplier. Thicker tops are better from a playing standpoint, as well as for giving a smooth surface when it is glued up, but you are not limited to what piano suppliers offer.

I was able to order some "ivory-like" plastic fronts from Schaff in slightly different sizes and colors to use for replacements. Not bad for general use, and the right thickness.

Ron Koval

I saw a photo once of a couple of keytops that had burst into flames from a lit cigarette the player left on the keys. Must have been celluloid.

Does anyone here have a recommendation which are the best simulated ivory keytops and where to get them?

Have you tried the Vagias simulated keytop heads and tails? They come in 7/8" and 15/16" lengths for the heads and a light or medium color to help match with existing ivories.

Available from Schaff and perhaps others.

Ron Koval

Why replace the odd missing ivory in an old piano with plastic? With so many pianos getting disposed of these days, it is quite easy to accumulate a large collection of ivory heads and tails. The heads can be pre-sorted into notes (C, D, E etc) , by length and by color/quality. Replace ivory with ivory; it looks horrible to to see someone has attempted to replace a few individual missing ivories wit plastic. Even the simulated ivories are horrible, the Vagias plastic is soft and a very poor match, I find.

Thanks Ron, I did order a set of the Vagias tops from Schaff. Slow shipping but should arrive for the weekend. I’m hoping they have a good vintage look. I have several sets of high quality white tops with fronts but they look too modern for this piano so I was hoping to avoid using them. They might be my fallback solution though.

-Bill L.

Well the Vagias tops I ordered from Schaff arrived today. I put one on for evaluation and have a couple of comments. First, they look more like an artificial marble countertop from the 70s than simulated ivory. Second, they are very soft and scratch and scuff very easily. I will try to polish it tomorrow and see how well that helps. Third, they don’t seem much thicker than an original ivory head but they aren’t any thinner than the white plastic ones with the molded fronts that I have used before.

I ordered the ‘satin ivory’ one piece heads with tails. Not impressed.