Piano on board - crazy!?!?

[ali_oh]

Hello,

We will be moving onto our liveaboard narrowboat over the summer and I am desperate to take some kind of piano onboard with me. Having moved pianos before I know what a pain it is so have been looking into electric pianos, but I am worried that without a big upgrade to our current electrical system I won't be able to run one. We currently have 2 leisure batteries and a small invertor. We're looking to get solar panels installed in the next couple of months. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Ali

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

What a Grand idea.

[RLWP]

You will need to do the sums on the power consumption of keyboards to know if your installation is up to it

 

I think we have discussed pianos on board here before

 

And apologies for this, you triggered it with

 

 

 

Having moved pianos before I know what a pain it is

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7Bvd33V9dQ&feature=kp

 

Richard

[MtB]

There is at least one poster I can think of here who has a real piano on their narrowboat.

 

Compact-format (for want of the correct term) but a real, good quality piano all the same. So it can definitely be done, and uses no electricity

 

 

MtB

[carlt]

 

 

And apologies for this, you triggered it with

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNslTmBRuww

[bottle]

There is at least one poster I can think of here who has a real piano on their narrowboat.

 

Compact-format (for want of the correct term) but a real, good quality piano all the same. So it can definitely be done, and uses no electricity

 

 

MtB

 

Ah! Yes the multi talented....

[GUMPY]

There is at least one NB with a proper ships piano on it. These are smaller than a normal upright and use no power. Its the way forward.

[RLWP]

Thinking about it, you could go for something like the Kemble Minx, a very overstrung compact piano:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kemble-Minx-miniature-piano-/261470344106?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL&hash=item3ce0d8d3aa

 

 

My mum has one in her house

 

I'm not sure how it would cope with the temperature and humidity changes on a boat. On the other hand, pianos are dirt cheap these days (unfortunately)

 

Richard

[carlt]

My OH's full size Yamaha PF15 electric piano draws 45 Watts so it's not much of a drain.

[Chagall]

and my most favourite version, with Bernard Cribbins http://youtu.be/IOWA-L3JZO4

 

 

 

don't know how to embed the video!

Edited May 3, 2014 by Chagall

[carlt]

Thinking about it, you could go for something like the Kemble Minx, a very overstrung compact piano:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kemble-Minx-miniature-piano-/261470344106?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL&hash=item3ce0d8d3aa

 

 

 

The OH must never be allowed to see this.

[RLWP]

The OH must never be allowed to see this.

 

This one is only 99p: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kemble-Minx-Piano-with-stool-Croydon-/231221612529?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL&hash=item35d5e1cff1

 

The Minx is a good piano

 

Richard

[carlt]

 

 

The Minx is a good piano

 

 

It also takes up exactly the same space as a floor loom.

 

She must never know.

[RLWP]

Floor loom, that's a percussion instrument too!

 

Richard

[carlt]

Floor loom, that's a percussion instrument too!

 

Richard

So my neighbour tells me.

[Athy]

Have you considered a harmonium?

 

I have read of one boater who plays the organ and has one on board, not a wee electric keyboard either. I think he was in one of the boatimags.

[blackrose]

I know of a few boaters who play the old skin flute.

[b0atman]

what about a pedal powered alternator so keeping fit whilst playing .

[RLWP]

Have you considered a harmonium?

 

I have read of one boater who plays the organ and has one on board, not a wee electric keyboard either. I think he was in one of the boatimags.

 

Harmonica would take less room

 

Unless it's a glass harmonica

 

Richard

[Arthur Brown]

My Yamaha home keyboard runs off AA batteries if required so power consumption starts at minimal unless you want it LOUD which may not suit your neighbours (even if they do run a genset 24/7)!

[Neil2]

It all depends on what volume you want to play at. If you used an electric with headphones the power drain would be well within your boat's capacity, but if you want to play through a 100watt amp that's a different matter. Got to be the way forward though, I've met several professional keyboard players who don't have an accoustic piano now that the digital ones have become so sophisticated.

[Arthur Brown]

My Yamaha Kbd was about £70 and I really LIKE the piano voicings, try a few keyboards, find one that you like for touch and voicing.

[carlt]

It probably won't suit the purists (the OH doesn't join in for example) but I use a MIDI keyboard and VST plug-ins to play any keyboard I can think of and lots of others besides.

 

A Korg MS20 is still on the wanted list though...

[jim and pat dalton]

We have a Yamaha CLP950 Clavinova on board. Which is in effect a half height piece of piano furniture with full size 88 key electric piano

I'm not sure how to load up photos so to see what one looks like, here's one I found on on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-Clavinova-CLP-950-Digital-Electric-Piano-/271464549895?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL&hash=item3f348c4e07

 

We decided to take that one on board rather than out real upright as obviously there are no tuning issues. Plus it dismantles and was easy to get into the cabin via the cratch by two people. Its very heavy and balances out our Library units on the other side :-)

I can recommend the Yamaha Clavinova range or the Roland range as they go to great lengths to replicate the feel and sound of real pianos in the minutest of details.

 

My Clavinaova has served me well up to Grade 7.

Roland pianos sampling samples Steinway and Yamaha sampling samples the Bosedorfer hence our choice for better sound imo (and I'm fussy).

Power wise? its not a big user, tho I cant be bothered to pull it out to check the label. But ours would not work on a quasi sine wave inverter. So before we had fitted the 3000w pure sine wave inverter last month, we used to use one of those 12v 300w carstarter packs with a 230v power plug thing in it bought from Halfords and it would work fine for hours(ours is a Ring 12v 800A-300W model)

I recommend any model of Clavinova or Roland that will fit in the space of your boat

Please!!! whatever you do, do not buy one of those cheap Yamaha/casio or other make of laptop style keyboards made for the masses at xmas. Where the sound quality is relatively crap and there is absolutely no feel at all to the keys and no flipping pedals which are essential to playing and expressing yourself properly on the piano.

Unless of course you just want a Keyboard which is an entirely different thing imo, in which case go for a Korg or a top of the range Yamaha specific keyboard

 

Hope you get what you want and enjoy it :-)

 

Jim

Edited May 3, 2014 by jim and pat dalton

[ali_oh]

I would love a real piano on board but I think the logistics of actually getting it into the boat would be too much at the moment - it's on the list of ideals for our next boat!

 

Would the kind of invertor needed for an electric piano be like this one:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/300W-pure-power-inverter-convert/dp/B00GHMCSZA/ref=sr_1_1/279-4233543-8429346?ie=UTF8&qid=1399162161&sr=8-1&keywords=300w+pure+sine+wave+inverter

 

?

 

Thank you for all the help / amusing videos.