Hey all, early in my piano technician career, I decided that it may be good for the piano world to have a miniature piano.

Before you send me off to the loony bin, remember that miniature guitars are quite popular with child students. It took a couple months in my brothers cabinet shop, but we actually came up with the keyboard that was about 2/3 normal size. We used oil dampened steel rods that were very stiff to make the connection from the miniature keyboard to the full sized keyboard. (with felt covered feet so we didn't damage the acoustic piano). It actually worked quite well.

After I got the bugs worked out, I did a patent search and found that there were many other patents for something like this already out there.

So I gave up on the idea and went into teaching.

My question is this, has anyone else seen a working miniature keyboard for kids? I know there are lots of small keyboards out there, but miniature acoustic pianos, or keyboards to reduce the size of acoustic pianos?

Don't worry, I'm not going to start building them again. Just curious.

Shoenhutt, the toy piano maker, also has a miniature acoustic grand and vertical model.

Greg Seagraves

Unbelievable - The Shoenhutt pianos make my prototypes look like caveman art. Oh well - it looks like their piano business is doing well.

On the extreme other end of the scale from pianos with less keys, has anyone heard of the 1/4 tone grand pianos being built in South America? I was told about them, but I shudder to hear them I think.

I rebuilt a Wurlitzer Butterfly grand -- a beginner's piano. built around 1937 or so.

Interesting piano - we installed a PianoDisc in one several years ago.

1/4 tone piano? Please explain further; ever since a non-western music class where I heard music in something besides 12 notes/octave and heard how much more in tune it can be, I search for sources of such. I count one of my great musical experiences the time I heard a zoomoozophone (see) http://www.newband.org/instruments.htm#partch%20instruments
and other instruments tuned 31 notes/octave.