you make a great point if i had the some 180,000 us dollars these things i recall sold for i certainly wouldn't spend it on this, still it was a very nice sounding piano, at least the bodendorfer kids made sure they had a solid piano before letting hans hollein play with the visuals. the lid was neat, hydraulic, lifted up by itself, gold leaf inlay underneath, it was at least fun to play it.
Sounds interesting. I'd certainly be intrigued to play some of these pianos- whether I like the way they look or not. It would make for quite a change. Looking at some of them, I actually wonder how quickly I'd be able to play as normal. Even though the keyboard is obviously the same as any other, I could imagine feeling a little disoriented.
The weird thing about this is that I generally think that appearance is the very last thing that bothers me about a piano. I'd generally take whatever I like the sound of- even if the case were badly scratched or peeling. However, even though these were specifically designed for visual purposes, I'd personally be going out of my way to avoid such a look- even if these designs were cheap. If I had to choose between one of those and an equivalent sounding piano with a damaged case, I'd sooner go for the badly damaged one than most of these monstrosities. In fact, I'd probably being willing to pay extra for it.
Topic: Piano Porn