Pianotech

In the thread on "How many customers do you REALLY have," Steven Rosenthal brought up the Hybrid Piano. I thought it best to branch to a new thread with a few comments on it.

As with Steven, I also expect more industry movement on the hybrid piano front. In addition, I didn't realize that David Reed of Kawai gave a class on the hybrid piano at the convention. I recommend reading Scott Cole's excellent article introducing the hybrid piano that was published in the August 2021 issue of the Journal, some of which was contributed by David.

I wrote an article on the hybrid piano that concentrates on the functionality that the computer provides, particularly for the no-strings version of hybrid, and mostly on the topic of musical expression. Not sure at this time where it might be published. It has some points about the potential use of historic temperaments to enhance musical expression within the use of the hybrid piano.

I have attached the article here. I would appreciate your feedback – a sanity check. If you have editorial markup, feel free to email that to me directly. Thank you.

Regards, Norman

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Norman Brickman
Potomac Piano Service
Potomac, Maryland
potomacpiano@verizon.net
https://potomacpiano.com
(301) 983.9321
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I'm one of a very few that service Yamaha Disklaviers in my area. Most techs are afraid of them, and sometimes I don't blame them. 

Only problem I see with real pianos hosting digital reproducing systems, like DKV's, is that the electronics have a much shorter lifespan than the piano. 20 year old units are starting to fail and fortunately, depending on the problem, can still be repaired. Biggest problem is lack of parts, like IC's. Ya can't just go to the store and say I need "one of these". The company that does these repairs has had to invent stuff on occasion to get stuff working again when parts are no longer available. Eventually the electronics in all these devices, Kawai, Yamaha and Steinway, are all going to fail beyond repair. Give 'em twenty-plus years and what the customer will have left is just a really nice piano that will, fortunately for us, remain a really nice piano for decades. 

My problem with, for example, the hybrids where it's a real action inside an otherwise digital piano, is that in 20 plus years or so it will no longer be serviceable and it's going to need to be replaced. And the high end hybrids can cost almost as much as a real piano, which is going to last four to five times longer if respectfully cared for. Plus, in order to work on them you not only need to understand an acoustic action but you need to have more than a basic understanding of electronics. The hybrid pianos and many of the high end digital pianos are almost magic in what they can do so I understand the attraction. But since they will only need servicing perhaps two or three times in their life they will never be a reliable source of income for piano techs. 

That said, how many times has history laughed at those who poo-poo'd innovation. If I live long enough I'm likely to be proven wrong.

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Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA
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