I'm planning to build myself a baby grand but inside a Ketron SD-1.
It has to be portable, so weight and size is a big deal for me.
I think that I will rebuild the Ketron DG100 but with foldable legs and using lightweight materials.
Anybody has suggestions?



[This message has been edited by ReneT (edited 03-04-2003).]

" I have never built a piano , but I did build an ARK ! " .

Best quote from " Adventures with NOAH " .




I think at the Germany music show , Ketron is showing an 88 note XD series with no speakers . Slim line piano I think .

Hold your horses >..........

------------------
Piano Man's Keyboard City
624 Frederick Rd .
Catonsville Md. 21228
410 747 0200
danosmusic@yahoo.com or keyboardcity@yahoo.com

I did re-build the entire player mechanism for a baby grand player piano one summer when I was in high school.

I do some wood working now. I would suggest if you want it to be portable you could use 1/4-inch plywood. That would be flexible enough to bend etc. Light weight. You could also go for a modern look and go with a corrugated plastic or something of that nature with multiple colors to choose.

Having it easy to break down and transport makes it harder to choose the types of materials for you. Perhaps Styrofoam covered with a black lacquered veneer would appear to be made of wood but very light.

Have fun. Sounds like a fun project.

- Brian

Rene,
I used to do a "Dualing piano" thing that required pretty loud amplification of the music, so we gutted 2 grand piano's and replaced the "innards" with digital Korg pianos. Really helped alot. The hardest part was taking the harp out of the case (HEAVY, clumsy).... the rest is just nuts and bolts.

I've also seen pretty successful "mockups" made of plywood tops with curtain sides that fold out of the way for travel, and just hang to give the apearance of wooded sides. ............ actually looks ok!

There is a company that builds Grand looking cabinets that do exactly what you are looking for, you just side your keyboard in. What makes these so cool, is they fold up and are really light, and cart out on it's on wheels.... For some reason the name of the company isn't coming to me, They are either in Arizona or Nevada (Las Vegas area), if my memory serves me, but that is little help as those are both big states.. Hopefully some can think of the name... Best news is they aren't that expensive, but look the part of a real grand on stage.

[This message has been edited by PaulD (edited 03-04-2003).]

I actually finished some plans yesterday for what I've been wanting to do with my PSR-550.. A while back I posted that I wanted to built a cabinet for the keyboard to make it more appealing in a living room. Building a baby grand cabinet will take some skill with wood work. Doing the lid, legs, and 2 sides won't be too hard, but getting that curve in the body will take some work. Plus depending on how you assmeble it you'll want to match seams up really tightly and if you like the wood color and just want to do a nice stain with a high gloss over coat, you'll need to make sure the grain all runs together at the seams as well. I actually have two designs, one is a grand style case and the other makes it look like a small 61 key digital piano.. I've actually considered making a full baby grand cabinet, and am trying to figure out a way to break the 550 apart.. I was thinking of using a nice 88 key controller for the keybed of the piano, and midi that controller to the 550.. I just need to come up with a way to take the 550 apart, and still use the screen and it's buttons (will be removing speakers too).. I'm planning on doing mine this summer.. I'll be asking my wifes grandfather for a little help though...

Squeak

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 03-05-2003).]

My niece Alzira plays a 100 years old piano with a Roland Kr inside.

Pedals are original and works as sustain and damper.

Chico

I was watching the taped performance of Paul McCartney that I taped just before Thanksgiving. It was his Back in th U.S. tour or something like that. He played a real grand piano sometimes and other times he played a keyboard with a piano case built around it. I could not tell what keyboard he was using.

His keyboard player had two keyboards. I could tell one was a Motif.

I'll tell you this, Paul still has it.

Tom