Five incredibly vile pianos worth $1.2m

Through some unfortunate twist of fate, many of the world's most unpleasant-looking pianos are simultaneously for sale on eBay US:
1) Swarovski Bosendorfer - $750,000 Here's an idea. Take a fantastic piano. Cover it in silver spray paint. Attach fake jewels. Attempt to sell for three quarters of a million dollars.
2) Hand Painted Kawai Grand - $19,500 Got a piano? Got a crazy wife with a paintbrush? Got a divorce? The description says: "All the work was done in Europe. All the art on the piano was made by hand by a European artist." What is that, an excuse?
3) Deck of cards Steinway - $32,000 Maybe in 1943 (when this was made). Maybe in a casino in Vegas. Maybe. But in some frat-boy banker's pool room?
4)Yamaha Disklavier - $299,000 Only 5 in the world? Thank God. Looks like a £40 home keyboard mated with an old Hewlett Packard PC. Does it have light-up keys?
5) 1897 Steinway B Cherubs $125,000 Sure, it's old. Does that make tasteful? It's not even French...

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

"Hand Painted Kawai Grand - $19,500 "

I knew a guy who had the same thing painted on the side of his van. I wonder if he used the same European Artist.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:00 am

The Yamaha Disklavier system is actually quite cool. It's essentially MIDI for a real, acoustic piano, giving the ability to program 'performances' on a computer, then have them played back on the piano. It also gives the ability to record performances, recording velocity, notes, pedals, etc.

I don't know if this particular one is really worth that much as opposed to getting a piano with the most recent system, and it is definitely not the nicest looking thing I've seen, but still...

Keith Fullerton Whitman composed a beautiful piece of music that utilizes the Disklavier on his album Multiples called "Stereo Music For Yamaha Disklavier Prototype, Electric Guitar, And Computer".

As for the rest of the pianos, I really only have one thing to say: That's unfortunate.

# posted by

Tristan : 2:24 am

Yeah well I got a piano for $125 a couple months ago and it's in tune and plays great. here's some pics:

http://sociopathways.blogspot.com/2007/04/got-this-player-piano-from-thrift-shop.html

# posted by

Other People : 6:19 am

I quite liked the deck of cards one. The louis XIV (is it not?) made me throw up in my mouth.

# posted by

dan s. : 9:18 am

Sans the tacky beige/black computer screens, that Disklavier is rad. And as Tristan said, the Disklavier pianos are highly advanced MIDI player pianos, e.g. http://youtube.com/watch?v=i9Uy6YJNl1w

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:09 pm

Haha $1.2 million! Incredibly vile...that's an understatement!

"90s Music Videos".

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:37 pm

I work at a piano museum where we have some wacky pianos (including one with a transpose lever!) but these are just plain foul! Disclaviers are cool but only when they come in glossy black. For shame Yamaha, for shame......

# posted by

Unknown : 10:44 pm

anyone else notice that Tom has seemed a bit surly as of late?

not that I'm complaining... its good for a laugh.

... but Tom? everything ok at home?

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:17 am

My girlfriend has a nice Baldwin baby grand that has full midi capabilities. I know she didn't pay anywhere near $299,000 for it, so what makes these yamaha disklaviers so special? It's not like adding midi functionality to pianos is technology exclusive to yamaha.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:38 am

Check out www.zenph.com for what can be done with a Disklavier. Not for the purists but it's a fabulous use of technology. I have the Glenn Gould Re-performance album (Bach Goldberg variations) and it's mighty nice to sit there next to Glenn Gould in the binaural part (i.e. headphone time!) of the the hybrid SACD. Try it!

# posted by

Unknown : 9:42 am