Saving History or Sacrilege?? Putting Digital keyboard into Antique Square Grand

[mahlers2nd]

Hello all,

I love vintage and antique things and while I prefer playing an acoustic piano, I also have a digital piano so I can play at night when the family is sleeping.  Digital pianos can seem so "cold and clinical"... especially compared to a great looking acoustic grand.  I've been thinking about buying a square grand piano and replacing the original keyboard with a digital keyboard.  I don't have the money to fully restore the square grand.

I talked to one guy that "rescued" an old grand and replaced the original keyboard action with a digital.  He also built a speaker into the compartment (he removed the innards) to improve the sound.  I'm not as concerned with the sound since, as I said, I use the digital primarily through headphones.

Are there people that do this professionally or is this something I would have to do myself?  Is this ruining a beautiful old antique or saving something that would otherwise have diminishing value?  Any suggestions for electronic keyboards to put in there?

Any comments pro or con would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[stevebob]

I’ve heard of this being done, though I’m unable to suggest how to find a professional to do the job.  I recommend asking to the person you mentioned who’s already had experience with a project like this, and I suspect it’s not suitable for a do-it-yourselfer unless you know exactly what you’re doing and the potential hazards.  (The metal plate that bears the pressure of the strings is under an enormous amount of pressure.)

Whether you opted for a square piano or a conventional grand, you probably shouldn’t worry at all about despoiling an antique.  Square pianos—an evolutionary dead-end considered by most people to have little-to-no value as modern musical instruments—have sometimes been repurposed into desks, dining tables or other creative reuses; while many of the large number of surviving grand pianos made in the first half of the 20th century could be restored to serviceable playing condition, it’s economically feasible (i.e., profitable) only in the case of a few select top-tier brands like Steinway and Mason & Hamlin.

Many of these antiques were only of mediocre quality when new, and now they languish in dusty disuse and disrepair.  If you find one with a nice case, you’ll ultimately be rescuing the piano from a trip to the dump.

If you’re in the U.S., there’s a website with nationwide listings of pianos that people are eager to relinquish for free: 

https://www.pianoadoption.com

The donors actually save money:  they shed the burden of having an unsalable piano hauled to a landfill.  But one man’s trash might be another’s treasure. 

[latrobe]

Hi!

Based on the absolutely superb Square Grand at the Finchcocks museum of pianos in Kent UK, I'd say out and out that it's SACRILEGE! For goodness sake, spend the money on having this excellent instrument brought into good playing order - they can sound reallly superb.

Best wishes

David P