Drum rolls…..
My Cybrid is livingroom worthy! I think we had this conversation with @arc or perhaps @vagfilm about having a whole mess of a DIY project in my house, which led to some odd priority of making the outside of the instrument before the inside was ready. That means I can work on it in the comfort of my home, rather than in the cold garage (where I basically could not do anything in winter). In fact I "vacated" the garage for other family possessions being stored for the winter (so it's as full as it can be).
Enough tittle-tattle, here you go!
I made my DIY grand hybrid an upright-looking, somewhat spinet-like, but a little bit chubby. Some of that was on purpose, some was forced by what I have (grand cabinet parts). I really like the result, in my opinion is better than the tiny-grand look of the Yamaha N1 and the Kawai NV10.
If you think you don't like it, don't despair. A strategically placed door 🤣 makes it look less chubby
Now, let's not forget the pedals. Having the original lyre and pedals refinished took much less than I thought, but reattaching it back where it was was much longer and complicated than planned, culprit of a missing part. In any case, I did solve the problems, and the pedals work great
Well, the sostenuto does (which has a dummy levarage). Una corda does shift the keyboard correctly, but I am still missing the shifting springs, so the keyboard does not go back (yet 😊) and the not-original back action is still being built (remember the garage?) so the sustain hasn't anything to sustain (yet 😊)
I really like how the professional enamel finish ended up being. Very close to classic "ebony polish" look: shiny and smooth. Even though there are some small flaws which I will fix with another application when weather permit (temperature has to be above 70F for at least 24 hours, better if 48, ideally a week -- and we are going around freezing most of the times). Take a close look:
Even with the flaws, I think it's more than acceptable! So let's switch now to a "player perspective", and I mean look, not sound 🤣
What do you think? Last but not least, a full view (and please forgive the mess in the bottom left):
Wait what's there under the lid? There's a missing piece, let's take a closer look
Yeah, you got me, two missing pieces:
- the back of the piano, which I omitted only because I want to make my life easier until I finish action work and electronic assembly
- that part that usually "hangs down" from the lid to covers that hole; it's missing because I need to cut it to size to allow room for some controls (probably just the amplifier). That part will also makes the fly (technical name for this part of the lid of an acoustic grand) much more rigid avoiding the bend that you can see in the full picture (where is exaggerated because of perspective), because of the screen weight
The advantage is that you can peek inside 😆 but if you are not satisfied enough, I'll open the fly/lid for you
I really like these aluminum extrusions, and notice how I can easily adjust the height of the bar, something that would ease regulation, particularly hammer blow distance. Speaking of blows, here is one
Notice there's no back: you're staring at the wall! And that's all folks, you may go….
…. wait one last thing, as your friend Steve used to say….
If you looked really carefully, you'd see the pink panther samewhere, have you? No? Look closely, sirs, please. Still nothing? I'll give you a hint then. Here it is. Now do you see?
And excuse me if I use this townhall to address also a couple of friends, now you really can go if you don't care about these personal chit-chats.
Pete14 Perhaps what I’m trying to say is…..congratulations!
Thank you!
Pete14 Kudos to CG for inspiring others to take a GO at it
Yes, I totally second that. Thanks @CyberGene
Pete14 someday one of y’all will be our David to Yamaha’s Goliath.
Since I also go by David (besides Del) I really like this!
