This blog has come out later than planned.
Please note that I write this as not only a piano restorer but also as a digital piano technician, piano teacher and professional working pianist.
Quick look at the history of the digital piano.
We all probably know that the piano was created from the need for keyboard players to have a more powerful, louder instrument which could play loud and quiet by the control of the performers approach and touch on the keys meaning they can play with expression which the earlier instruments to name a few, Harpsichord, Spinet, Virginal, Clavichord all could not offer.
But in the comparison of acoustic vs digital pianos we should really try to understand why the digital piano was created in the first case and its original function and look at its predecessors .
A changing market.
All domestic instruments fulfil the need to enjoy and appreciate music in your own home, but they needed to be mastered to achieve this, something which is a joy in itself, but is not for everyone, yet everyone needs access music to music as it is a relaxant and stimulant for the brain and great for both emotional and mental health, something we are now very aware of.
It is worth noting at this stage that automatic instruments in some form are believed by some to go back to pre piano with organs and harpsichords, like the very early automatic pianos the early instruments worked like a music box with a barrel such as in a street piano often activating the keys.
But the player piano or pianola meant you could enjoy the music without the hard work of learning to play the piano itself, then later when electricity arrived these pianos used an electric pump so you could sit and relax enjoying the music from your arm chair as your piano simply played itself. Today these player systems use digital technolgy with solenoids which play the keys and the music is stored on a cloud or tablet.
The First Electric piano
For most homes with the dawn of the radio and gramophone by the late 1930s the need for non pianists to have a player piano or a regular piano at all became redundant and many people sold their pianos or handed them over to someone in the family that was learning and the once booming piano industry saw its customers drop to only to just those wanting to play or musicians looking to upgrade an existing piano, the decline was noticed especially in America but also in Europe. In Europe in particular the market for player pianos quickly all but ended fairly soon after the arrival in popularity of the radio, only the wealthy were still buying player pianos.
In the 1922 Bechstein in Berlin had already decided to try and rekindle the then slowly dwindling market for pianos by embracing new technology and creating a new piano mainly using this new electric technology to appeal to those not really needing a piano, but also like to have the latest gadgets and after investing huge amounts of money putting the company in a serious financial situation they came up with whats recognised as being the worlds first electric piano and the Neo-Bechstein grand piano was launched in 1931.
However the Neo-Bechstein was a huge failure for Bechstein and it very nearly bankrupted the company. The piano did not have a traditional soundboard but instead used large pickups serving more than one note it and this meant it had an unusual tone, far more typical of the later electric pianos but not as clean and simply put it was way ahead of its time as there was no music suited to it so at the time so despite great marketing efforts from Bechstein including promotional films seen around the world their electric piano just was not well received.
But something good came from this disaster as this was the true beginning for electro magnetic pickups and long before they were used in the guitar. In the photo below you can see the very large pickups which collect the sound from four and five notes, instead of one note which became common practice as the pickups were able to be made small enough to fit into a guitar.
Like a guitar the sound was also played via a very large speaker adding to the lack of the pianos popularity as this also took up more space.
The action was that of a real piano but slightly modified with a second "micro hammer" which was used to strike the string to overcome the issue of distortion created by the normal heavier piano hammer, but the normal hammer was still there for the key weight and as not to compromise the pianos touch. So in many ways this piano was very advanced,
Only few hundred were ever built. It remained in production for around 5 years before the patents were sold to Petrof, who are thought to have looked into making an electric piano but, soon realised it was best not to pursue this venture.
Electric piano rivial
Here we will look at the main electric piano makers and the influence to going digital there have been several more electric piano makers including Hohner in Germany who released their first electric piano in the 1950s, I will mention others as well in this section, but here we will focus on the main makers and significant designs regarding the lead into the digital piano in relation to the acoustic piano which is the focus of the blog.
Honher Pianet models
Meanwhile over in the US also during the 1930s Howard Rhodes had been looking at a new way of learning piano in relation to understanding sound, pitch and how sound is made up from harmonics (what we actually tune when tuning a piano) etc, this teaching method also included students making instruments of their own, he created a music school which is said to have been popular across America and his methods are still available to learn today in the US.
During WW2 he dissolved his "empire" as some call it when he was enlisted to the military. During his service he was asked create music therapy and rehabilitation for the wounded servicemen and he quickly set about creating a bed piano for his new pool of students. After WW2 he went onto study electronics and created new piano based instruments and in 1959 at the NAMM fair his creations caught the attention of the now very successful electric guitar maker Fender who invited him to join him in creating electronic acoustic instruments and some early pianos and guitar themed instruments were built, but Fender was more focused on the guitar than piano and it is beleved that Rhodes felt held back by this but still worked on his piano ideas.
In 1965 CBS bought both Fender and Rhodes and the Fender Rhodes Mark 1 piano was released in 1969.
In the 50s with the rock and roll movement starting we saw the rise of bands. Bands would get booked to play in bars and venues and the keys player would have to use the piano they had, thats if they still had a piano.
Many of these house pianos would be in a less than perfect condition, many had not been tuned or looked after so would have missing notes, many were old pianos that had been donated so were wooden framed pianos which could not hold tuning and could not be tuned to concert pitch. Jerry Lee Lewis told a story how he had been asked to play on one such piano when the venue also had a better piano.
"I kicked that piano right out of that door, then I (Jerry Lee Lewis) went and kicked it right down the road to the ole river, the crowed following me and cheering as I kicked that junk piano right into the river givng it a watery grave. Nobody gonna give Jerry Lee a junk piano to play"
In the 1960s bands were really taking off and big names were still playing in local halls etc the need to overcome this problem of inferior and out of tune pianos needed addressing and suddenly these instrument makers now had a decent customer base, along with this new music styles were taking off including soul, new jazz genres, there was now potential for music that could be played on these pianos, hence the Electric Piano was born.
Musicians such as Ray Charles were keen on using these new pianos with their quirky sounds. Mowtown really found a place for the electric piano. Best of all for these upcoming touring bands without strings these pianos did not need tuning, they had a basic piano style action with hammers and dampers and proper piano keys all giving a solid touch, but they did not sound like a traditional piano, yet the bands loved them.
Rhodes pianos started out as Fender Rhodes but later under the new owners (CBS) it was rebranded to just Rhodes as it was felt that Fender were no longer contributing enough to the designs to keep their name on the pianos, some say it was to do with no longer restricting the pianos to only be sold via fender dealerships. After they dropped the Fender name many say that the quality fell and we certainly see more plastic in the later pianos replacing wood eventually nearly all the piano working were plastic including the keys themselves.
The train company AMTRAK asked Rhodes to build the "AMTRAK piano" for their trains in the late 1970s but these were short lived, the rumour is that they were often being stolen from the trains in the yards.
Rhodes smallest pianos had 73 keys.
Fender Rhodes Suitcase Piano (73 keys)
Rhodes Electric Stage piano (88 keys)
Rhodes Amtrak Piano on a train
later Rhodes Action with platic levers, flanges, center pins with no bushings rubber hamer heads no longer felt.
Wurlitzer had been long established making organs, pianos, gramophones, juke boxes and are said to also been looking into electric pianos again in the 1930s its believed by some that they took Rhodes earlier ideas and with their own work continued to work on perfecting them, Rhodes ideas had not been patented, their first piano was released in 1954. Wurlitzer pianos generally had 64 keys. They produced several pianos the 100 series had wooden cabinets the more popular 200 series in lighter plastic cabinets. In 1971 American Airlines asked Wurlitzer to build a piano to go in the piano bars on the Boeing 747 passenger jets.
Wurlitzer EP140
Wurlitzer EP200a
Wurlitzer 240a
Wurlitzer Boeing piano
Wurlitzer stopped making eleltric pianos in 1983, but built acoustic pianos until 2009. Rhodes stopped producing pianos the following year in 1984, both giving way to the Digital piano.
With these fun and popular electric pianos the more serious piano players were still not happy, they wanted something which looked and sounded a bit more like a piano, they felt these electric pianos were inferior, most did not have 88 keys for starters and the actions were not true piano actions and they did not have strings. But they were recognised as being instruments in their own rights.
In the 1970s in Japan the two major piano makers who were now being taken seriously on the world stage released their new electric pianos which they had been working on to appeal to the serious pianists. In 1976 Yamaha bought out the CP70 and CP80 electric grand pianos. These were simply put an updated version of the Neo Bechstein they had a real piano action, but with lighter hammers, reals strings, cast frame, but unlike the Bechstein they were aimed for touring so came apart making them portable. Like Rhodes pianos the cabinet was basically a fight case. These pianos also did not have a soundboard but just like the Bechstein they had pickups which were now small enough for one pickup per note giving a cleaner sound.
Kawai produced a similar piano the EP 308 which they revealed in 1980s and was this was the electric piano of choice for the band Queen. Abba, Elton John and most bands used the Yamaha.
Yamaha CP70 (right) and CP80 (left)
Yamaha CP80 frame and strings
Yamaha CP pickups you can see how much smaller they are than in the Neo Bechstein and one per note.
Yamhah CP70 taken apart for transporting, note the real repetiton piano action.
Kawai ep308
The Yamahas pianos proved very popular with bands like and certainly stole the main stage. But these pianos still required tuning, but this was ok as being very basic many pianists could "tune them well enough" for playing with a band as with the effects etc they did not need the be perfectly in tune and the sound was still not true to a piano so a guitar tuning device was good enough for these. Both Yamaha and Kawai stopped making electric acoustic pianos in the 1980s
A curve ball taking us closer to the digital came from a maker called Helpinstill in America they started creating both grand and upright electric pianos but this time despite using the inspiration seen by the japanese from the Bechstein, undestanding, that piano players wanted a truer piano sound they made a strung electric piano but with a soundboard as well as pickups creating and exciting new instrument. These pianos were very short lived as they were produced between 1977 and 1980. However they still make a pickup system for regular pianos today.
Helpinstill Upright
Helpinstill Grand
(Notice the traditional three wire stringing in the treble)
Now that the electric piano trend had taken off, music was suiting the pianos, many makers were keen to experiment with these instruments.
In the UK the piano maker Bentley started to make an electric upright piano but this was more for domestic use. Personally I have not come across these but have heard of them and seen them on EBay. They seem to date to the 1970s, I understand that they do not have a proper piano action and are sometimes described as a harpschord or saloon piano. From photos im not sure if the have strings and pickups, or a soundboard, they may use tine bars, wi suspect they are strung.
Bentley Electric Upright.
By the early 1980s MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) had taken off. Elton John having played on many a dud piano seeing him switching to a small organ, then to electric piano as well as a Steinway had ditched the Yamaha CP pianos and had midi installed to his Steinway and was using this to control a MIDI synth out of sight of the audience behind his piano.
The beauty of MIDI was you could replicate and build a copy of true instruments sounds these files get stored onto a Rompler chip in a device which does not even have to be a keyboard, you can then control these via another MIDI instrument, or a controller which is a MIDI device without the sound chip.
Dawn of the digital piano.
So now we have established an understanding that with the arrival of electricity in a big way, a need to expand their customer base piano makers had been experimenting with electric pianos, but when rock, soul, pop, jazz bands really took off there was the need for portable easy to tune pianos, but musicians and audiences still wanted a true piano sound and the electric piano was getting close when MIDI came around with the new digital age.
It was Roland again in Germany who is recognised for making the first digital piano, though many will argue and say it was Yamaha, we will look at that chain of thought shortly.
In the 1980s Roland built a keyboard with 88 keys and a with a realistic piano sound built inside. This was a synthetic sound, but had all the charaturisrtcs of an acoustic piano. The piano was the RD1000. Elton John played on these in a huge tour in the 90s. One thing with Elton he is not afraid to try new instruments and tech! The current RD piano the RD2000 which has the RD1000 piano sounds as a sound option. The RD1000 is what we call today a stage piano and it used a real piano keyboard.
The RD1000 was a huge success! Finally the desire from bands which started the popularity of the Electric Piano in the 1950s had been achieved! Bands could now have an easy to setup piano which was in tune, which actually sounded like a piano! No more were they praying there was a decent piano or making the best out if an electric instrument outside of the soul and pop world. Plus with this new instrument via the synthetic and midi sounds they could play an entire orchestra and use other sound effects and for the sould and jazz bands the electric piano sounds were also built in. This tiny instruement had and entire orchstra and more in it.
RD1000 keys and action
The popularity of this instrument soon lead to other makers quickly to start designing and producing digital stage pianos, Korg, Kursweill, Kawai and of course Yamaha. The end of the electro acoustic piano had come.
But the Roland pianos were very heavy (they still are due to being built out of strong materials) other makers started to look to make them lighter and soon they had plastic keys and cases.
Yamaha took this instrument a step further. Yamaha saw a market for the smaller home and took the stage piano, put it on a purpose made base which later would incorporate two or three pedals and called it the "Digital Piano".
The first model was the Clavinova YP40 which was released in 1983, around the same year they discontinued the CP electric grand pianos, the CP prefix would go to their stage pianos, and some digital pianos.
Unlike the Roland the first clavinova did not have 88 keys and everything was plastic. This is why many people say it was Yamaha that made the first digital piano not Roland, but the truth is they just took the roland concept and put it on a stand.
Since then every maker has been building digital pianos, roland, yamaha, Kawai panasonic (technics) Casio and more.
Evolution of the digital piano.
Today instead of using synthetic sounds, recorded samples are used. A sample is simply an audio recording of a real piano which is saved as a sample file onto a rompler chip. Its actually more complicated but thats the basic theory.
Each key is recorded muplitple times with different strikes from soft quiet playing the heavy loud playing giving the effect when played of the pianos change in tone and volume and varying glottal attack, delay, harshness etc. To create acoustic effects hall, room etc they then move the microphones further away the record again, some better maker the recordings are all done at the same time via different microphones on different devices all using the same key strike at the same time to gain consistency and realism in the piano voices.
These samples are then put into a computer where they are then adusted, cleaned etc to deliver the best out of the pianos.
Digital pianos have even been built (and still are) inside grand piano and upright piano cases to make them look like a real piano.
Differences between digital and acoustic pianos.
So now we have an understand off the digital piano and why they were created lets look at Digital Vs Accoustic.
Remember, I am not just a piano restorer, or just a pianist. I play professionally with residencies in London, I teach and I restore. I also mend digital pianos and use them myself at a professional capcity. So I am not writing this from a one sided opinion but from a wider perspective than most people.
At this stage we need to look at the two instruments from how they physically deliver the musical notes. They sound the same, have keys etc so must be the same instrument right?
An acoustic piano takes the physical energy used from the pianist to activate the key to trigger the workings of the piano to throw the felt hammer onto the strings, the hammer strikes the string 5 times harder than the initial key strike from the pianist, but the same force of energy is used. This energy direct from the pianist is now transmitted onto the strings, the bridge, then the soundboard, even the pianos cabinet. The entire piano is now creating a note using the energy the pianist put into that key. This energy creates what is called tone and voicing when playing many will say how a pianist has a nice or hard touch, this is because they can hear the touch in the playing. There are pianists which poeple will say "they can make any piano sound good" and people will hear a pianist on a ropey piano and say "my piano never sounds that good when I play" this is due to their approach to the key and how they are literally creating the tone coming out of the piano, Its organic and natural, no two pianists play the same, hence profetional pianists may only play on a specific piano. even at a concert the pianists will have spent hours chooseing then practicing on the piano which they are performing, some take their own piano.
In a digital piano the pianist strikes a key, it will activate a sensor as it drops, the pianists enery now goes no further than the weighted action. The really clever part is now the onboard computer measures the force which the key was pressed to select a sound file or sample file mentioned earlier (recorded sample of another pianist) from the Rompler chip to then play the audio file of that note at the file that nearest best matches the touch.
I will be blunt, it is no different to me typing on this computer.
In a word, other than the sounds its not like playing a piano, the tone and voicing is not the pianists but the recording technician who created the samples.
Hence many serious pianists say they feel disconntected to a digital piano and will only play acoustics where possible.
Roland action, (wood is a grain plastic venneer not wood, same with Yamahas)
Weighted Keys? Weighted keys are really good! but are often very flawed, a great example is the Casio PX series of slimline pianos. The black keys are lighter than the white keys creating an uneven touch, over the decades this has been an issue with many digital pianos.
In the 90s Yamaha resorted to an amazing creation The GranTouch, Jools Holland still plays these (at the time of writing) where a real piano, with an acoustic piano action only with hammers very similar to that in the CP series, bit only there for weight, acoustic piano case, but no strings but a built in MIDI system creates the sound via built in amplifier and speakers. Several decades later these are still made, but in cases more like the Neo Bechstein. Kawai build similar pianos where digital tech and acoustic actions are both used.
Many others followed this idea but not being piano makers do not use an acoustic action.
Early Yamaha Grand Touch, (notice no strings)
Yamaha AvantGrand NX3
AvantGrand NX3 Action, note the unusual hammer heads
Casio have worked with Bechstein on their better pianos and instead of incorprating real piano actions Casio have created a replica grand piano action, its good but not amazing.
Casio Pianos have vastly improved over the last twenty years.
Casio grand action with the key in play
So decades after the initial electric piano makers are still striving to provide the pianists with what they are after and simply put no matter how hard they try they struggle to replicate the acoustic piano touch, the sounds are getting very close.
Now Yamaha and Kawai use speaker actuators to stimulate a real spruce piano soundboard to generate the sound. This has been a vast improvement to sound quality.
Difference between digial pianos and electric guitars and violins.
In discussions regarding digital pianos people occationally mention electric guitars and violins as a comparison. These instruments are electro aouctis as they still require the musician to phyically energise a organic string to create a physical vibration even moving the air a pickup uses the vibration to create the sound.
Digital pianos just use a recorded sample. The key acts as a play switch to inform the computer what power the pianist is playing to select a pre recorded sample to best match that key strike.
Does this mean digital pianos are bad?
Digital pianos are incredible instruments which are getting better with each new development. They are amazing for the jobbing musicians in bands and accompanying singers, they are not really designed for solo performances, but in many situations can handle this really well, especially when played through a theatre sound system as most onboard amplifers and speakers are extremely inferior. Some you can adjust each note giving resonance, adjusting each note, tweak the tuning so you can create your own piano or create a sound for a show. For established working musicians and the hobby piano player in a band etc these are amazing instruments. This was the main reason pianists adopted the electric then stage piano, they want a reliable decent souding piano for the road and the digital piano is perfect for this.
But they are an instrument in their own right alongside the acoustic piano.
However if buying a digital piano stick with the well known makers, Roland, Yamaha, Casio, Kawai, Korg, Kurzweill, Nord. There are many gimick companies using cheap chinese digital pianos which are utter rubbish. In these instances then a junk old upright piano would be better!
Ongoing maintenance.
People often use the lack of needing tuning as a reason to buy a digital piano. You are saving a huge £65.00 *2024 average price outside London* a year some people will spend £130 a year on piano tuning *2024 average price outside London* Most people spend more than that just on TV subscriptions. Older pianos may need more work.
But the average Digital Piano with light use may last twenty years then need repairing, this all depnds whats wrong. It will be out of warranty and finding a digital piano technician has become very hard.
I only work on certain pianos and cannot gurantee repairing a piano. Main reason for all this is the parts can be impossible to get or source once they are out of production and as the newer models no longer use these parts.
So in this case its a new piano. This could cost far more than you saved in piano tunings. Then adding to this is the cost of disposing of the old piano as pianos are chargeable waste.
All acoustics are repairable, it is a matter of is the piano worth repairing, is it worth taking on such a big job for example fitting a new wrest plank to an upright, it can be done, the planks are easy to source, but it is a time consuming skilled job.
I have mended pianos I would not normally consider mending due to tight budgets, sentimental value etc. I have mended 200 year old pianos, yet walked away from 15 year old digitals as I simply cannot get the parts.
In 2024 a cheap digital piano from a reputable maker will start at around £800 (there are cheaper options for stage pianos), A decent cheap refurbished piano will cost similar, but from tuners can be cheaper.
Is a digital piano good for a student?
This is where things get very blurred. Some teachers will say no. others will say yes.
My view on this is no. This is coming from understanding how they actually work, plus believe it or not many are built out of tune.
But for me it is all about touch and voicing control. It's mastering loud and soft and developing the students unique voicing and touch. This can only be truly developed on an acoustic piano.
BUT there are some awful older pianos out there, in this case then a digital piano is the better choice.
But if buying a new digital piano you can get refurbished uprights for cheaper.
But I have limited space,
In this case I always advise to look at compact uprights from the 1960s onwards from the better makers such as Kemble, Eavestaff, Zender, Welmar. These acoustic pianos take up less floor space than most digital pianos. BUT if in a flat then a digital could be easier.
We need to be able to play quitely.
Today there are digital retrofit systems which fit into most acoustic pianos, you pull a lever and the hammers do not hit the stings but the piano keys still play, Then just like a digital piano sensors are under the keys and you now have a digital piano you play via headphones, or can play to a computer etc. This gives you the best of both worlds and these are not overly expensive. Some makers like Yamaha, Kawai, Bechstein sell the pre fitted in a new piano.
AdSilent system in an acoustic grand piano.
Verdict.
I love both digital and acoustic pianos. But its best to see them as two completely different instruments with their own uses and purposes and to remember where they both came from. Digital pianos have a strong place in the performing world and there certainly are situations where they fit well in the domestic home, but this was never the original intention.
As a instrument for learning with a digital there are many limitations for students, though I have known students do very well on them. but often touch and tone control is an issue, I have seen students struggle to play an acoustic piano properly having learnt on a digital.
For the classical pianist a digital is very restrictive. The TV show The Piano exposes how students struggle and fail to understand touch and voicing on an acoustic piano after having played mainly on digital pianos.
For those doing rock and pop music or accompanying singing, playing in bands then there is no better instrument than a digital piano as they are portable.
If looking to purchase a digital piano over an acoustic piano my advice is to think hard, look at your home situation, look at your choice of music, look at your playing level. They do not always take up less space than an compact upright, some take up more floor space as they are bigger than uprights.
If a child or beginner is looking to play then seriously consider an acoustic as this will help the student develop as a musician. If playing classical then acoustic is your best option.
Both pianos fulfil a great purpose, acoustic for serious music studying and performance, digital for gigs and lighter work, composing etc.
But you can always buy or convert an acoustic piano to a true hybrid with a silent (midi) system fitted. However you cannot convert the other way.
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