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I've put thumbtacks in the hammers for the past couple of pianos I've owned, but am looking to make a removable rinky tink device for my next piano so I can easily switch between a regular and tack piano sound. I'll be getting a spinet, console, or studio.

I've not been able to find much information about rinky tinks online, though I've seen one in action at Debence Antique Music World (amazing place, BTW). All it is is just a piece of felt cut into "fingers" with a tack glued in the strategic spot where the hammer is going to hit the string, right? I was thinking of attaching it to a long dowel rod that can be removed from the inside of the piano.

Do you have any suggestions on constructing this? Are there any pictures online of this sort of device?

Thanks!

No thumb tacks in the hammers. Ruins them.

http://www.mypianoshop.com/store/Rinky-Tink.html

You can actually “de-tune” a piano to sound like a “rinky-tink”-“honky-tonk” piano. Once the piano is tuned the way it should be, you deliberately flatten one of the strings in the unison just a little.

I agree that the thumb-tack method is not the best approach, though it works. If it doesn't matter that the hammers are being damaged, I guess it is fine.

Rick

But to then get back into the "normal" piano sound, then you would have to tune it again, and that would be costing WAAY too much just to switch between sounds, unless you are a tuner (which I am not, but you may be ).

Yep -- that's the only picture I could find of it, and it's difficult to tell exactly what it is

It's really the bright, harpsichord-like attack that I'm interested in getting -- not the honky-tonk out of tune strings. I like the "Care of Cell 44" piano sound, but after getting that sound with two other pianos I've had (using tacks in the hammers), I'm looking to vary it up and get a normal piano sound on occasion

You could have two pianos, one with the tacks, one without.

Order that and put it in. Simple, and with a push or pull of a knob you can have either rinky tink or regular piano.

I agree with Roy. Just buy that kit. It would be far easier to use something that has been pre engineered. If you haven't purchased a piano yet, you can probably get your dealer to install this prior to delivery.

Has anyone had any experience with this rinky tink kit?

link (Scroll down to where it says "Rinky Tink or Mandolin Kit for Uprights.")

I've had good luck ordering piano parts from Steve's Piano Service, but without seeing real photos of either of these rinky tink products, it's difficult to be informed...

I put a few of these kits in for folks. It's pretty simple to install. Directions are included with the kit, and it's pretty straight forward.

Yes, we installed one on a piano a few years ago. It is very simple to add, works much like a mute bar. The "rinky tink" component is strands of felt with a metal clasp at the end which strikes the string when the key is depressed by forcing the felt up against the string (much like the mute). It takes some adjusting to get correct, but its pretty simple and basic.

There is a great demo recording of the Synthogy Ivory II tack piano at

http://synthogy.com/demos/play/d2011-06-03b.html

At the 20 second mark, the performance gets very interesting.

Well, I ended up ordering the rinky-tink from Steve's Piano Service and returned it. Once I received it, I realized that the main advantage to this device was the ability to switch the rinky-tink on and off easily via a pinball plunger-like thing. This would be helpful if you keep the piano lid on, but my piano lid is always off. Plus, the leather thing did not cover the lower bass keys -- a sound that I like, from the previous tack pianos I've had.

So I built my own removable rinky-tink, for about $15 in parts:







An example of what the piano sounds like without and with the rinky-tink can be found here. Note that the piano hasn't been tuned yet and the recording/performance was a quick-'n-dirty thing, but it's enough to give you the general idea...

I've seen quite a few of these, over the years. Sometimes the paint jobs rival the sounds of the tacks ruining the hammers.

I was going to say, "What a horrid idea, don't do it to a piano," but once I realized it was a spinet, I could only shrug indifferently. You do realize there's no going back and forth. I don't think even that leather jock-strap is going to give you that.

Still. This is the kind of sound you can get out of a DP--- and more. If you don't like the pre-set, you can detune it and change the attack and layer it up all you want.