The Digital Upright Piano Project--a "Functional Intermediate"

This has been a great project. While I still have a few things to do to really "finish" this thing, for now it's at a point where I could roll it into the house and set it up (and get it out of my shop!).

One question that came up in the process was, "why would you take on a project like that?" My first answer is, "why not?" But a more complete answer is this: as we all look forward to the future our kids will have, we need to look at things we are going to throw away, like an old piano, as either materials for new projects, or as a restorable resource. It's also useful to look at it in the same way you might look at restoring a classic car or a home from the early 1900s--it's a productive hobby with a beautiful product as the goal. It's a way to breathe new life into something that was probably headed to the landfill or the fireplace. Philosophy aside, this post details how I built in the functionality I though I'd need for my home music studio space. 

After getting down to the empty case,

I cut, chiseled, scraped, filled, sanded, scrubbed, wire-brushed, shop-vac'ed and cleaned. I purchased and installed new casters from Piano Showcase Online (they have a huge selection or replacement piano parts). It rolls MUCH more smoothly now, and is much more stable with 4 casters instead of the 3 it had.

I put strips of 1/4" birch plywood between the large posts (I wanted the posts to be visible and needed the depth for some of my bigger songbooks and 3-ring binders), used 3/4" birch plywood for the "floor," and mounted pieces of cherry veneered MDF (which my wife found years ago at a yard sale) on the sides to bring the insides flush with the trim and enable opening/closing of the bottom flap (here the flap is open).

The upper shelf is more or less temporary, but for now will hold my speakers, recording interface, a mixer, and a computer. The shelf supports were made from pieces of the piano guts.

The upper arrangement will probably change. Part of rolling it into the house is to determine what will ultimately fit my needs.

For a more "authentic" look & feel, I set up the damper (right-hand) pedal on the piano to actuate the sustain function on the keyboard. I dismantled the plastic pedal that came with the keyboard, removed the switch, and installed it under the piano's pedal. The pedals had a bunch of holes drilled in them, making installation of a post (a screw, actually) to actuate the switch relatively easy. A fairly stiff spring was placed underneath the pedal arm to return the pedal to the "up" position. The other pedals were "fixed" in place and are currently just there for looks. I made a removable cover so I can go in and add some function to the other pedals later on, if desired. This picture is taken more or less from the top.

The front plate below the keyboard tray needed a hinge and a method to slide it back out of the way. I took two of the maple rods from the guts of the piano and transformed them into slides for the flap.

 I fabricated pins for the slides from two of the screws that held the cast iron harp in place; I basically just ground the heads of the screws down to the diameter I needed and brushed them smooth. Here's the flap closed.

I wanted to rig the upper panel the same way, but there wasn't enough room in the carcase for the panel to slide inside very far. I'm still debating about what to do; I may make it so it slides straight up, but for now it'll just be removable (basically I'm going to leave it alone). There was a really cool, really simple mechanism that linked tilting the upper panel with opening the key cover. Since the key cover had to go, I just changed the mechanism so that I can still actuate it, but from the front with a lever (for now). Here's a close-up, which is the inside left of the piano between the upper shelf and keyboard shelf.

I finished all the shelves and plywood that I installed with rub-on polyurethane to stand up to wear & tear. Rub-on poly is my current favorite finish. It's easy to use, easy to clean up, goes on in thin,  controllable coats, and dries relatively quickly so I can get multiple coats on in a single day.

Here's the "studio" in the house with most of the equipment installed and the upper front panel removed.

The cords and headphones are hanging on some of the pegs that once held the strings. There were more than 225 of these things. It's great pegboard. Ultimately I plan to have a dedicated keyboard for this piano, but for now I'll move my gigging piano in and out.

And here is the piano case with all the remaining covers closed.

As with most projects, there were a few things that I didn't anticipate. Moving it into the house was more difficult than I thought it'd be. The depth of the piano is ~28 1/2", leaving about 1/4" on each side as we squeezed it through the doorway between the garage and the house. We needed a straight shot, which necessitated moving a few things around (and cleaning) in the garage. The next several days will be spent sorting the garage back out.

Another problem is that the digital piano is a good 2-3" thicker than the keybed that I removed, and the piano sits a bit too high to play comfortably for long periods of time. I'll need to create a recess in the keyboard shelf for the digital to sit down in before I can start teaching lessons to little kids with this set-up. Or I'll need to find an organ bench.


An unanticipated bonus is the resonance that I get inside the wooden case, even through the 5 1/2" speakers I currently have. I had bring the bass and low-mid down and boost the high-mid and high, but it sounds really good. I could even feel the sound resonating while I was playing the last few days.

Next steps, eventually, maybe:
- re-do the keyboard shelf
- a couple trim pieces need to be installed
- connection box that houses all the hook-ups (audio, USB, power, etc) to ease switching keyboards and hooking up for recording
- main power switch and wired outlets in a few places
- retractable upper front panel (instead of removable)
- better way to tilt the upper front panel
- multiple positions/angles for upper shelf (in the likely event I want a 2nd keyboard there) and/or multiple upper shelves/cubbies/drawers
- dedicated keyboard (at that point I'll also install the wooden spacers between the case and the keys)
- larger speakers (more bass response)
- possibly, functionality for the other pedals (on/off switch? soft? expression?)
- other projects with the odds and ends that I took out of the thing.

Oh, and if you have any ideas for what to do with a gigantic cast iron harp, other than scrap, please let me know!

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!