Digital Upright Project--Ergonomic Mods

A while back, I gutted an old upright piano to make a home for my small music/recording studio. While charming, it fell short in ergonomics. The piano keyboard and computer were too high to sit at and use comfortably for very long, and the studio monitors ended up being too low for optimum sound. So, while I had everything out of the old piano during a remodel of my studio, I moved everything down about 6 inches. Sounds simple, but it took some thought and work.

Before...

...and after. Oh, if only I could keep it that tidy all the time! 

First, I took it back apart, and cut out a slab of the keyboard shelf. That left a hole for the digital piano to sit in. I added some brackets I fabricated from galvanized angle metal for my digital to sit on, and put some craft foam on the surface to keep the digital from sliding. The slab became an end table. 

Detail of the brackets. 

Lowering the keyboard meant that the "desk" part was now too high. I decided where I wanted it (just over the top of the digital piano), added a cleat all the way around the inside of the piano shell at that height, and moved the shelf down.

But, where should the speakers go? I added some corner shelves at the old "desk" height. These were made from some trim pieces I removed while remodeling last year.

Lowering the KB also meant that the bottom flap couldn't open all the way. I took off the awesome custom brackets that I made from maple and routed a groove directly in the side of the flap. I then lowered the pins for the groove to ride on and screwed them into the side of the shell. I liked the maple brackets better since they rode the pins more smoothly. Oh well!

Power and cord clutter were two other issues I wanted to address. I added a power strip off to one side, under the right hand speaker shelf. That took care of a lot of the cord clutter I was fighting before. Moving the keyboard down also routed the necessary signal cords under the desk, out of the way. Win, win!

Detail of one corner shelf and power cord management. 

There were a couple other small things. First, I opened up the top (there's a hinge!). That may not seem like a huge deal, but it lets in a lot more light and feels more open. Second, I decided to give up on the idea of ever putting the top cover back on. I removed most of the provisions for doing so, which also freed up some space and paved the way for a couple other little projects (stay tuned...).

Back in action! All in all, it took about 5 hours worth of work, but that was after months of planning and thought. Best of all, it allows comfortable use of one of my most comfortable seats, a drum throne I use for gigging.

Thanks for reading!

What to do with a big slab of wood/old piano parts? The 3 Hour Endtable!

I just made some mods to my digital grand project, namely lowering the keyboard and desk to make the set up much more ergonomic (more on that later). I had to cut out the existing keyboard shelf. In so doing, I ended up with a large chunk of oak that used to be the shelf for the keyboard. After moving it around the garage for a few days (as I was working on some other projects at the same time), I was inspired by the book Home-Made Modern by Ben Uyeda. He had combined angle iron and 2x10s to make an attractive, industrial-looking bookshelf.

I happened to have a chunk from the old piano, as well as some angle iron cut-offs from an old metal shelf. I cut the oak in half, evened up the legs and cleaned them up with a bit of steel wool and my bench grinder, made grooves in the front edge of the shelf to hide the legs, put it together, made it mostly square, and cut a back to keep it from racking.

I used a circular saw, bench grinder, drill driver, a few measuring tools, and some elbow grease and came out with a fairly attractive, extremely handy end table. It was built entirely for free--I didn't purchase anything for this project.

Thanks for reading!