Electric piano

An electric piano is an electric musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of the piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations which are converted into electrical signals by magnetic pickups, which are then connected to an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker to make a sound loud enough for the performer and audience to hear. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument. Instead, it is an electro-mechanical instrument. Some early electric pianos used lengths of wire to produce the tone, like a traditional piano. Smaller electric pianos used short slivers of steel to produce the tone. The earliest electric pianos were invented in the late 1920s; the 1929 Neo-Bechstein electric grand piano was among the first. Probably the earliest stringless model was Lloyd Loar's Vivi-Tone Clavier. A few other noteworthy producers of electric pianos include Baldwin Piano and Organ Company and the Wurlitzer Company.

Vintage Vibe

Vintage Vibe is a manufacturer of keyboard instruments, based in Rockaway, New Jersey. The company also offers repair services for electric pianos and amplifiers.

In 2011, they debuted their first line of electro-mechanical pianos at NAMM 2011. The piano combines tine tones with modern improvements to deliver an accurate Rhodes sound in a body resembling a Wurlitzer Electric Piano.

History

The company started in 1997 as an instrument rental business, before switching to repairs due to difficulties competing in that market. In 2011, they started manufacturing electric pianos, similar to those manufactured by Rhodes and Wurlitzer. Reviewing their product range, Keyboard Magazine's Jon Regen praised the quality of the sounds and feel of the instrument, but questioned whether there was still a market for a product with moving parts that only produced one sound.

Features

The Vintage Vibe Tine Piano was designed to be half the weight of traditional tine-based electric pianos. The action and tone are inspired by the early Fender Rhodes. The piano uses American swaged steel tines and hand-wound pickups along with a choice of active or passive electronics to achieve its tone.

Digital piano

A digital piano (not to be confused with electric piano and electronic piano), also known as piano synthesizer, weighted keyboard, or in the late-1980s, personal electronic piano, is a modern electronic musical instrument; a special type of electronic keyboard or synthesizer designed to serve primarily as an alternative to the traditional acoustic piano, both in the way it feels to play and in the sound produced. It is intended to provide an accurate simulation of an acoustic piano. Some digital pianos are also designed to look like an acoustic piano, both the upright or grand piano body style. Digital pianos use either an electronic synthesized emulation of the piano sound or a sampled piano sound, which is then amplified through an internal loudspeaker. Digital pianos typically have weighted or semi-weighted keyboards, which attempt to recreate the playing sensation of an acoustic piano.

Piano

The piano (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpjaːno]; an abbreviation of pianoforte [pjanoˈfɔrte]) is a musical instrument played using a keyboard. It is widely employed in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, and for composing and rehearsal. Although the piano is not portable and often expensive, its versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the world's most familiar musical instruments.

An acoustic piano usually has a protective wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings, and a row of 88 black and white keys (52 white, 36 black). The strings are sounded when the keys are pressed, and silenced when the keys are released. The note can be sustained, even when the keys are released, by the use of pedals.

Pressing a key on the piano's keyboard causes a padded (often with felt) hammer to strike strings. The hammer rebounds, and the strings continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies by more efficiently coupling the acoustic energy to the air. When the key is released, a damper stops the strings' vibration, ending the sound. Although an acoustic piano has strings, it is usually classified as a percussion instrument because the strings are struck rather than plucked (as with a harpsichord or spinet); in the Hornbostel-Sachs system of instrument classification, pianos are considered chordophones. With technological advances, electric, electronic, and digital pianos have also been developed.