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The Alexander Piano

alexanderpiano.nz

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Re: The Alexander Piano

#41

Post by jacquesm »

Hah! Or rather Wow!!

I was aware of this piano because of the Hyperion Knight recording and have always had an interest in 'one off' instruments, especially pianos. But I never caught on to this amazing story of how it came to be, the mixture of constraints, determination, inspiration and generosity working all out to result in this incredible creation.

To 'build a piano' is no simple undertaking, even if you already have a lot of shop knowledge tools and instrument knowledge. I've rebuilt one that was neglected and that already required a ton of knowledge and I've made some (technically minor) modifications to existing instruments[1]. That doesn't begin to put me in a position where I would attempt to build a piano from first principles. All the parts have to collaborate just so to get a working instrument and the history of the piano is littered with failures. To see a one off made by a young man like this is impressive already. But to see one at this level of quality, that's something else entirely, I have no words to really express how impressed that leaves me.

Thank you KolmogorovComp for posting this, it really makes my day (and my week, probably).

[1] https://jacquesmattheij.com/midi-fied-baby-grand-piano/

Re: The Alexander Piano

#43

Post by jamsch »

Had the pleasure of meeting Adrian around 2014 when he was showcasing his piano in Hamilton, NZ. All around a great guy (thanks for the birthday cake!). Still awed by how he pulled it off with essentially no experience!

Re: The Alexander Piano

#44

Post by jacquesm »

NalNezumi wrote: post #39

Oh man this fills me with nostalgia. In (public) Suburb middle school I had a friend who played folk music as a hobby, and also made his own instruments. Mostly violin and hurdy-gurdy [1], probably because his parents were farmers in the suburb and owned a smith/wood workshop. His unique hobbies made him a bit of an outcast and people made fun of him in school, but I was in to classic music so we got along well. A ye…

That's a touching story, and one thing that it highlights for me is that there will always be people that seem to relish pushing others down to their own level. That's such a frustrating thing.

Re: The Alexander Piano

#45

Post by jacquesm »

leoedin wrote: post #18

There's quite a lot of discussion about how it was made (which is pretty interesting, and impressive for a 15 year old!) but not very much discussion about the results. My understanding is that it has a normal range of notes, but with a different type of string - is that true? Or can it go lower than a normal piano? How is the experience of playing it? Is it the same? Or does it respond differently (eg a different re…

There are some videos at the bottom where it is played. It sounds beautiful. The range is like a normal 88 key piano, no extra keys but what matters is the difference in timbre in the low notes. Your 'regular' piano has what is called an overwound string, a steel string that is covered with one or two layers of copper. This results in a string that sounds less pure. The Alexander piano is special in that it uses no overwound strings, all the bass notes are simply simplex strings at their natural length without added weight to reduce their period of oscillation. It also has a huge soundboard, so presumably it is quite loud, but the main difference is in how the bases sound.

Re: The Alexander Piano

#46

Post by bko »

NalNezumi wrote: post #39

Oh man this fills me with nostalgia. In (public) Suburb middle school I had a friend who played folk music as a hobby, and also made his own instruments. Mostly violin and hurdy-gurdy [1], probably because his parents were farmers in the suburb and owned a smith/wood workshop. His unique hobbies made him a bit of an outcast and people made fun of him in school, but I was in to classic music so we got along well. A ye…

That's an incredible story. Do you know where he is now? It would be great if he found some profession that played towards his unique set of interests.

Re: The Alexander Piano

#47

Post by jacquesm »

mnw21cam wrote: post #32
franky47 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built my tube amplifier (along with some effects pedals) for my electric guitar at 17. Now that I have kids, I wonder how my folks let me work with 400V of electricity and not freak out. Makes me wonder what kind of weird things my kids are going to get into.

I built my stereo at age 12, then followed it up with a (much larger) bass amplifier for my bass guitar when I was 14, and a mixer/effects box at 15. Of course they linked together, using the bass amplifier as a sub-woofer. I didn't have to deal with as high a voltage as you, just the 240V mains supply, and then the +-70V supply to the bass amp circuitry. I think kids these days are much more likely to do something d…

Indeed, and I consider that to be a huge loss. Real world skills are important skills. Just as important as digital skills but financially we seem to think otherwise.

Re: The Alexander Piano

#48

Post by jacquesm »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #28
franky47 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built my tube amplifier (along with some effects pedals) for my electric guitar at 17. Now that I have kids, I wonder how my folks let me work with 400V of electricity and not freak out. Makes me wonder what kind of weird things my kids are going to get into.

400v? what that what your mains was packing?

Just a rectifier and a cap and you're there from regular household current (not safe without galvanic isolation!!). But with a simple transformer you can go way higher. Some of the end stages on tube systems I had when I was a kid would sit at 500V when idling (EL44).

Usually as soon as you see a tube with a cap on top you know you have something pretty high voltage.

Re: The Alexander Piano

#49

Post by jacquesm »

crdrost wrote: post #12
function_seven wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. We were too smart to try such an impossible thing. He naïvely thought he could “just build a piano” and… well dammit he did!

In middle school, ~13 years old or so, one of my classmates set himself a goal of using shop class to make himself a guitar, wasn't half bad either. I regret that I didn't pick up the woodworking bug until later, I have made tables and bedframes and shelves now but still never got around to trying to make my own guitar. Occasionally I get jealous when I see folks with microtonal fretboards.

I helped a friend make his. He got this insanely hard piece of wood for the neck and we spent a good couple of days shaping that. I'm pretty sure that if you were to look closely at that attic today you'd find that dust unchanged, that wood will never rot. It was also very heavy, a small off-cut would not float. I have no idea where he got that wood, I really should ask him because that probably makes for an interesting story but we rarely are in contact today. 42 years later and he's still into music. I wonder if he still has it.

Re: The Alexander Piano

#50

Post by Waterluvian »

I don’t recall ever getting a conclusive answer on if it sounded any good. I remember a video a while ago of various musicians playing it but it omitted any kind of feedback. It sounded fine for a YouTube video.

Has anyone got a lead on those details?

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