source file: m1351.txt
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 17:08:26 +0000

Subject: Conversion kits for pianos

From: "Patrick Ozzard-Low" <patrick.ozzard-low.itex@norfolk.gov.uk>

Judith Conrad wrote:

> I saw on rec.musicmakers.piano the other day that Story and Clark piano
> company sells conversion kits for putting electronic innards into old junk
> pianos. Anyone know anything about this? Are they tunable? I was once
> given an 88-note  silent keyboard... 

I have seen a number of these systems - including MIDI compatible 
ones.  There is a company in Cambridge UK which specialises in such 
transformations, and there certainly used to be various 
do-it-yourself kits available.  I can't remember the names of them 
now (there was one available some years ago called 'Crystal Keys') -  
but at some point when I have time I could find out easily enough.  
(By 'electronic innards' I'm assuming you mean sensors under the 
piano keys which pick up note on/off,  velocity, and presumably some 
thing to do with the sustain pedal - rather than player-piano type 
innards?).  To damp the piano some very heavy felt or even felted 
wire to catch the hammers will do, tho you wouldn't need it on the 
silent keyboard.

> >Are they tunable?

As tunable as the MIDI device you play it through. 

Patrick O-L