Kawai crystal piano!

[yooniefied]

https://www.kendavismusic.com/assets/images/eveningcolorfrontpage.JPG

Out of curiosity, has anyone ever played one of these babies?

Kawai is my favorite brand of pianos, even after working at a Steinway shop.

It seems too beautiful to even touch, nevermind beat up after years and years of practice. Imagine if you scratched it...

Still, I'd love to use it as my "special occaisions" piano. (lol)

Thoughts, anyone?

[Axtremus]

I "played" a few notes on one of those "crystal" pianos before. It was sitting on a pedastal on display. The tone did not make much of an impression on me. The one pictured is CR-40A. There's a smaller model CR-30. See https://www.kawai.co.jp/piano/grand/crystal/index.html .

Kawai aside, Schimmel would be the other better known company that makes "crystal" grand pianos. See https://www.schimmel.de/e/glasfluegel.html

BTW, it's not really "crystal," just acrylic. Even then, the acrylic is limited to the casing.

[bella musica]

I've played Dale Chihuly's acrylic/wood piano before.  It practically feels like you are hallucinating because the piano body is bright lime green, the iron plate is periwinkle blue, the 'white' keys are orange and the 'black' keys are yellow...  The music rack is clear acrylic and the lid of the piano is also clear acrylic, except that it is painted in a sort of Jackson Pollock fashion with drips of paint etc... so much that you can't see through it anymore.  Chihuly's signature splashed across the top.

I was surprised at how good the tone was.  Helped that it was a 9' concert grand though, I think a Steinway.

[invictious]

Yes, it was very beautiful to look at, but the tone doesn't amaze me, in fact, since its made of acrylic, the sustain is almost 1/2 of a normal wood guitar, the tone is very unvaried, its very bland and doesn't stand out.

However it compensates its loss of sustain by making it a grand, but it doesn't extend the sustain that much, perhaps by 3 seconds.

It is pretty heavy to lug around and scratches show up easily.

[pianistimo]

i love the steuben crystal inlays in one of steinways pianos.  have to find the pic.  imagine those pianos come at a hefty price.

ps  i do like kawaii's too.  i think the tone just depends on the particular piano sometimes (although i don't know a thing about acrylic finishes and would tend to think it sounds right).  maybe if the majority of the piano was wood and just a little crystal?

steinway also has a marble piano.  not sure the exact make-up.  perhaps it's marble looking.  anyway - what would those play like?  harsh sound?  they look very nice.  maybe it's when you're looking for a piece of furniture that a person would go for marble?

[bench warmer]

I've played Dale Chihuly's acrylic/wood piano before. It practically feels like you are hallucinating because the piano body is bright lime green, the iron plate is periwinkle blue, the 'white' keys are orange and the 'black' keys are yellow... The music rack is clear acrylic and the lid of the piano is also clear acrylic, except that it is painted in a sort of Jackson Pollock fashion with drips of paint etc... so much that you can't see through it anymore. Chihuly's signature splashed across the top.

I was surprised at how good the tone was. Helped that it was a 9' concert grand though, I think a Steinway.

I played it too in Sarasota, Fl. I agree it had a great tone across its range. It did take a while not to get dizzy when playing though.   BTW the price tag was $365K. You culd probably bargain down to a cool $320K. Here's a pic:

[dlu]

I played it too in Sarasota, Fl. I agree it had a great tone across its range. It did take a while not to get dizzy when playing though.   BTW the price tag was $365K. You culd probably bargain down to a cool $320K. Here's a pic:

Omg that piano is so beatiful...I just love it.

[bench warmer]

here's a pic of the lid.

[quantum]

And for some mood lighting you could get a bunch of those green glow-in-the-dark sticks and place them on different parts of the piano...

[dlu]

And for some mood lighting you could get a bunch of those green glow-in-the-dark sticks and place them on different parts of the piano...

Haha

I just love that piano *swoon*

[bench warmer]

 

And for some mood lighting you could get a bunch of those green glow-in-the-dark sticks and place them on different parts of the piano...

Take it a step further: Sell the house to buy the piano, use the glow sticks, add a refrige & stove & live in the piano. Hell, put an engine on it, get it licensed and drive it around. It does have that clear acrylic music stand that could double as the windsheild.

[yooniefied]

Take it a step further: Sell the house to buy the piano, use the glow sticks, add a refrige & stove & live in the piano. Hell, put an engine on it, get it licensed and drive it around. It does have that clear acrylic music stand that could double as the windsheild.

Ingenious!

Maybe we can trailer a shag van on the back of it, this way we have a place to comfortably...surf the forum? 

[rachmad]

Comments in this thread prompted me to search the net regarding transparent pianos! Well, this one makes and looks the claim to total transparency, including the soundboard:

https://www.crystal-piano.com/defaulteng.htm

Here, Glass soundboards are fitted to upright and grand pianos
https://www.stemco.nl/index.html

I personally like the idea of music stand transparent on a grand as you can still see the other piano when doing duo work and also you can look and appreciate the inside of the grand. Usually one is cut off by this "wall" necessary to prop the music against. I suppose that if they went that step further and made the keyboard transparent, then a new form of confusing music might result as we at times got confused about just what notes to play...

[bench warmer]

Here, Glass soundboards are fitted to upright and grand pianos
https://www.stemco.nl/index.html

I'd really like to play/hear those  pianos w/crystal sounboards. Interesting concept.

 In the 1970's, Steinway had an interesting concept also: Use Teflon bushings in the piano action instead of felt. Brilliant, since there is less friction and less wear on the piano parts.
Years later they realized it was a mistake since the wood contracts & expands but the teflon stabilized when it got compressed; so you got a wiggily piano action. They went back to felt bushings.


PS. that $350K for the Chihuly piano also has a Disk Recorder/player installed.

[pianolist]

I played a Kawai transparent piano on Dutch television in the early 1980s. The atmosphere in the studio was hardly conducive to the finer appreciation of the piano tone! What I remember most about it was its weight. Just lifting the fall was like lifting the lid of a normal grand piano.

Also in the studio was a group of Tibetan monks, who intoned in long, incredibly low notes, and a lady presenter who, in the previous broadcast, had sung Wagner in some luscious dress, and had then turned around and walked away from the camera, completely nude all down the back. I did hope she might do something similar for me, but no such luck!

[bench warmer]

[

Also in the studio was a group of Tibetan monks, who intoned in long, incredibly low notes, and a lady presenter who, in the previous broadcast, had sung Wagner in some luscious dress, and had then turned around and walked away from the camera, completely nude all down the back. I did hope she might do something similar for me, but no such luck!

The good news is that the monks didn't go making those sand-art objects in the piano.
The bad news is the womans dress was only that way in the back.

Nice anecdote

[jwkpg]

I was searching for info on KAWAI Cr40a & came across this 10 year old post.
Whatever was the crystal piano then is not what I am playing now at Kawai.
The CR40a is very cleaning & not overly bright. The acrylic is much more denser than wood so it sends the waves back into the soundboard faster, perfect for complex chords.

The current retail for CR40a is $220,495.00

There are 4 crystal Kawais in the world in the world & 2 are in Houston Texas.

[raytia]

And one is in Bar Fizz of the Grand Hyatt Hotel near Canal City in Fukuoka,Japan. https://fukuoka.grand.hyatt.com/en/hotel/dining/BarFizz.html (you can see it in the corner of the main picture)

Very random but I happened to be there last week on a trip. Never knew they made these!

Was also there for live music, but unfortunately, the singer's mic was SO LOUD it drowned out the piano sounds a bit too much.

[adelebrooks]

Modern technology has made the impossible  possible. The crystal piano refracts the light casting rainbows of colors into the room.
I've seen a lot of transparent piano in Euro Pianos Naples https://europianosnaples.com/. On one of them I was able to play. OMG!!!!! The piano was with LED backlight. It seemed to me that I'm in a fairy tale. The sound was awesome.