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Ask HN: How to build a piano that sounds good after decades of low maintenance?

10 points by JabavuAdams ↗ HN
Are there existing pianos or designs for acoustic instruments that could survive a shtf scenario? The idea is to require minimal non-specialist maintenance. Should be able to survive being transported in a vehicle over rough terrain, sitting in a bunker for years, or what about a space capsule?

11 comments

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missedthecue
The problem is that the steel piano wire, which is stretched extremely tight, becomes looser over time. There is nothing you can do to counteract this. It's just physics. Humidity and temperature will make this worse. The second problem is that a piano literally has over 10 thousand different parts, and many are relatively fragile. You wouldn't want to transport that over rough terrain unless you completely disassembled it into a secure carrying case.

Your best bet is an electronic piano, which are quite good these days. A Casio could survive everything you list, and would still sound true decades later.

Jnr
This. Of course the sound of electric piano is different, mainly because there is no big box that resonates, but I really enjoy being able to play on my headphones in the middle of the night.

When I was a kid our family had a very good cast iron frame piano that sounded wonderful, but at some point it cracked and had to be replaced with a not so good sounding piano. That one is still working but the requirement to tune it frequently and inability to play whatever and whenever you want reduced my interest. Some years ago I bought a digital Casio Privia. The keyboard feels very good, but on it's own it doesn't sound too good. However when plugged into computer as a MIDI device and running something like Pianoteq, it becomes one of the best instruments out there (at least in headphones). I especially enjoyed it during the long nights of pandemic lock-downs. :)

michaelsalim
Can you share a little bit on your setup for Pianoteq?

I tried something similar a while back but didn't find a sound i liked. That plus needing to plug it into a computer had me abandoning the idea.

But now that the Steam Deck is releasing, I can use that instead of my PC. Your comment made me want to try it again!

Jnr
I have it at my home office, so the PC is always next to it. I am using good open-back headphones (DT 990 PRO) connected to a USB audio interface that supports low latency using ASIO driver on Windows and JACK on Linux (in my case UMC204HD). The rest is handled by Pianoteq. One thing to note - the Casio Privia that I have has nice weighted piano keys and they feel great but the sustain pedal that came out of the box was a binary one. You can purchase better pedals separately.

10 years ago I tried similar approach with Raspberry Pi and some small keyboard that I borrowed. It was a bit tricky to find a good synth that was optimized for such a weak device, but I managed to find one that sounded OK. It had no display and I had to do some tweaks to boot it up in a few seconds time. If I was more serious and not just tinkering for fun I would probably have used a laptop instead.

Steam Deck will have plenty of CPU power but it will probably still require a separate audio interface to get that low latency.

eternityforest
Boxes that resonate are easy enough. Just put speakers where the strings would be! You could probably convince even the pros if you did it right.
sigstoat
synthetic materials for the action and body will help a bit.

using something rust resistant for the harp wouldn’t hurt.

not claiming that will do the job. pianos are heavy and more delicate than they appear.

samwillis
It seems to me that an instrument that uses tuned mettal bars like a Glockenspiel should be incredible resilient. As long as it is protected from rust it should stay in tune basicly forever. Also packs super small.

If you are after something more Piano like then a Celesta would be a good bet, it’s basically a cross between a Piano and a Glockenspiel.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celesta

Do not dismiss a normal piano though, a steal frame piano should stay in tune for a considerable time under stable temperature and low humidity. Should be achievable in a bunker.

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jononor
A kalimba would do pretty well, especially if using a rust resistant metal (ex stainless steel) and humidity resistant body (eg plastic). Some people call them thumb pianos.
karmakaze
How about going high-tech and using an auto-tuning mechanism?

That seems simpler than whatever exotic methods would be needed to prevent loss of tuning.

eternityforest
All electronic. No springs, use weights and magnets.

Power it by solar and LTO batteries. Double or triple redundant key sensors.

A full redundant copy of the firmware and automatic checking and repair of anything going bad, or better yet an ASIC(I think a RISCV synth with samples in mask rom could still be cheaper than somw high end pianos...)