My son has an old upright piano circa 1920 on which the action is totally shot. The keys have had numerous repairs and look like a set of well worn dentures. The internal action is well past it's use by date and has a number of problems.

But the cabinet is lovely; walnut (I think)

Doubtless I could spend some money sorting out the mechanics /keys, but I wondered whether it might also be possible to convert it to digital. Do kits exist for such things? I am an effective DIYer so the propect of the modification does not faze me. Apologies if my suggestion is near sacreligious

Theoretically, you could probably take all the inner workings out of a cheaper digital piano (say a Yamaha P70) and fit them into the keybed area of the upright. You'd just need to do some wood working around the inevitable gaps created. Also, you would need to make a control panel for the volume sliders, and ports for the power input and headphones. I would suggest putting the power/volume to the left of the keys. I'd also suggest under the keybed for the headphones. There shouldn't be many electronics inside a simple digital piano. The digital keybed of a Yamaha should come out all in one piece. While you're at it, you might look into upgrading the internal amp and putting in some better speakers. The sound board already in the piano might help out the tone.
If the digital piano is slim enough, you might could mount it into the piano without modifying the digital piano itself. However, the piano would more appear to be a conversion with it's plastic case. I've heard of this being done before, and in the right hands is very possible. In fact, it sounds like a fun project!

Thanks - you have given me some useful ideas. I hadn't thought of cannibalising a standard digital piano. I'll do some research along those lines.

Paul, Duke Special a popular piano player from Belfast plays a Nord stage piano inside an old upright. I have seen him play live several times and it is quite convincing. The sound he achieves, using Ivory software is amazing.

Check out website for photos


www.dukespecial.com