There’s a lot more to making a great piano than you think:
See, I disagree… that’s exactly what I thought it took to make a great piano.
Thanks for sharing, none of it was terribly suprising but still quite interesting. Shame they didn’t show the casting of the iron plate, with such a complex shape it would have been intersting to see what moulding process they were using.
I quite liked this How It’s Made — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0DbcUUO-hI
I thought this one was far more interesting.
the only how it’s made I could stand to watch was the one Terry linked… because the voice over people just made it weird… I like the voice over guy in Terry’s video better… why do they have to change the voice over person all the time?
Sorry… I dunno what it is but it has to be a certain way (the way I’ve been seeing it forever) in order for me to pay any attention to it…
Madison, ahve you ever watch the Red Green show?
If not, youd love it.
Theres also a how they make ducttape segment on youtube with on of the guys form the show in it. =p
The Red Green movie is called Ducttape Forever.
I saw this show in Toronto after the Lifestyles 24hour race last year. Apparently there’s a different narrator for the Canadian version.
Either way, does anyone think the piano will ever be outmoded by its digital counterparts? The labor is incredibly intensive for a product that’s matched on a lesser scale by digital keyboards. I mean what happens when it’s cheaper to produce an authentic sounding keyboard than an authentic piano.
I used to watch that show all the time but now I never know when it’s on or even if it’s on anymore. Anyway… back on topic How it’s Made is a cool show, I just don’t like when they change narrators…
Probably, people will go with the digital. However, so far, I don’t think anyone has produced an authentic sounding live electric piano. They all lack something that a real piano has.
Even the most advanced electronic keyboard can’t match the endless tonal colors, dynamic gradations, touch, character, and sole of an acoustic piano. You could also ask why haven’t ALL digital intstruments supplanted the real thing; guitar, violin, woodwinds, brass, etc. Digital music still “samples” the real sound so it’s like making a very good, but ultimiately inferior copy of the Mona Lisa.
If digital pianos are so great, why don’t we see them on the concert stage with traditional orchestra? Great concert pianists wouldn’t be caught dead with anything but a real piano-there just isn’t any substitute.
Btw, today there are more pianos manufactured than at any time in history! Yamaha alone makes more than 200,000 new acoustic pianos each year!
What does this new mean?
Lol, yeah I guess nobody’s building “used” pianos!
Well, I was just trying to emphasize that there is no sign that piano building will die out any time soon.
No way. The acoustic piano elitists (like myself) would never let that happen.
I’ve played GEM pianos and they’re almost like a regular acoustic piano but they just don’t have that something that a REAL piano has.
Hey, if you want to look like a caveman banging out noises on your mammoth tooth pianos, by all means; I’m just saying Chopin’s cloned head will most likely be attached to a robot body playing some sort of synthesizer in the near to far future.
Yeah, I’m sure this will soon replace the traditional concert grand lol! 
Then all we need is to replace the traditional human audience with automotrons to do the listening for us…because I sure wouldn’t want to hear it! 
Then we’ll need to replace the artist canvas with a modern update of the etch-a-sketch! Of course, CGI is quickly replacing human actors, which, in some cases isn’t a bad idea!
nice electricish grandish Piano thingyish
I like mine better: Yamaha G1. Made in Japan. I restrung it, installed new hammers, had the case restored. Beautiful instrument!
