FAQ

Part of our design philosophy is to give people a closer connection with their piano by allowing them to see much of the mechanics that occur behind the scenes. The strings used on the Keybird lightweight acoustic piano are made of metal and are therefore much more durable than most things that might come in contact with them. Furthermore our open design allows the user to reach every corner inside of the piano, meaning that you can easily clean the piano and don't have to worry about accumulating dust inside the piano.

Yes you can! One of the key design elements of the Keybird piano is that you should have full control over your instrument. With the help of a digital app that we will have as a partner, you will be able to get your piano in tune almost as easily as you would with a guitar or another instrument. We hope that this gives you a new understanding and appreciation of your Keybird instrument and makes you more engaged.

Our main focus lies on transportability, low space consumption, and affordability. We wanted our piano to fit in every vehicle (which is generally 1m wide), and that is precisely the width of a 69 keys piano. Admittedly, we are well aware that many people prefer 88 keys. Yet, the upper octave and the lowest 1/2 bass octave are not frequently used in most pop, jazz, and early classic piano literature. In other words, it fulfills the needs of beginners as well as more advanced players. Given that this is our first instrument, we chose to focus on compactness and practicality - we might develop an 88 key version later if we get the chance.

Due to its affordability, portability and classic feeling and weight of the keys, we believe the Keybird acoustic piano is an excellent choice for both beginning and intermediate piano players. The Keybird piano produces a quality of sound that you are used to from large upright and grand pianos, while providing you with the ease of use and transportability of a digital piano. Moreover, with 69 keys students and piano beginners will be able to play most if not all of the pieces in the first years of their education. Being experienced piano players ourselves, we also believe that unless you are a concert pianist the Keybird piano will fulfill your more advanced piano needs.

We have developed our own electrics to provide MIDI signal that can be used in any sound module. We will recommend certain sound modules from third-party manufacturers, according to our own taste, but you will be able to play with any MIDI sound module.

The Keybird piano does have a soundboard, but the strings span across more distance on the soundboard than they do on a regular piano. As such, there is now the unique option to keep the top of the Keybird piano open. Moreover, the acoustic case on the piano is actually not all that important - pianos generally sound better with an open lid as is often the case with grand pianos, or without the cover plates as seen on the typical upright piano.

Because of the unique design in general and the use of lightweight construction principles, we are able to keep the piano at a very low weight at only 43 + 16 kilograms (Soundbody of 43 kg can be transported separately). We used modern simulation methods to optimise the material usage for stiffness and reduced the amount of strings, so that the tension on the structure is reduced. We envision that this instrument will be primarily used in a domestic context, therefore the loudness of the instrument is a disadvantage rather than an advantage as it was back when Mozart wanted the piano to be as loud as the orchestra.

Although our attempts to be as affordable as possible, we also need to think about good health for the company. We sold a first batch of instruments with a reduced price, in order to go through all the processes and to get feedback, prior to setting a final product price. As a start-up company it is quite easy to be ambitious and optimistic, this certainly happened to us as well, and although we were warned multiple times, we simply have to acknowledge that using high quality materials has it's price. We will always try to come with the most competitive price though, as it is our mission to make the acoustic piano more accessible.

Both pianos have a single string per key - with our focus on weight reduction that was the obvious way to go, as the combined tension on the strings determines the required stiffness of the frame, and stiffness often implies mass. A Keybird is optimized on weight reduction more thoroughly, so that a Keybird weighs only half of the weight, while maintaining slightly more strings and keys. The two unique piano developments are completely independent from each other, and the makers share the vision that diversity on the piano market can only be a good thing. We are both ambitious and happen to see similar opportunities for innovation. We were close to working together, but ended up going our own ways.

We are generally ready to ship around 3 months following the order - feel free to contact us if you want a more precise estimate.

We hope so! Our growing number of customers are often happy to offer you to see and try out their Keybirds! Just reach out to us and we will be able to tell you. As we do direct sales only in our current stage of business, there are no shops where you can test a Keybird. We will do our best to add audio-visual content to the website and our social media channels with the goal to give you the best possible impression of the instrument. You can also sign up for our newsletter to get notified in case we organise an event in your area or for when a kind individual would be willing to let you test a Keybird.

Of course you are always welcome to come visit us in our workshop. We also have a growing number of opportunities to offer seeing/hearing the Keybird in different countries as well. Send us a message if you are interested to come try!