Circuitbenders Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Author Topic: A neat little mechanical "toy piano"  (Read 7294 times)

Gleix

  • Dayglo Volunteer of International Masturbation
  • ***
  • Karma: 25
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 152
A neat little mechanical "toy piano"
« on: August 14, 2009, 11:14:46 AM »
This isn't circuit bending, but I really wanted to share it! Paul, feel free to move this topic if you feel it's in the wrong spot.

Today I found this guy at the thrift store for $3.



Ugly as all get out, not sturdy at all but has a very interesting sound.  It's a little actual mechanical "toy" piano. Some of the keys would stick or didn't work at all soooo...



Took the entire thing apart, gave all the keys a nice bath, and replaced every piece of foam with a cut-to-size piece of a cut up sponge.

But it's missing something... it's still ugly as hell! So I took it all outside with my favorite paints :]





It's my badass little dark fluorescent watermelon flavoured piano now!

Here's a little video of what it sounds like: http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=168brwz&s=3


« Last Edit: August 11, 2020, 09:20:26 AM by Gleix »
Logged

noystoise

  • Guest
Re: A neat little mechanical "toy piano"
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2009, 11:51:13 AM »
nice! all it needs now is an output
Logged

Gleix

  • Dayglo Volunteer of International Masturbation
  • ***
  • Karma: 25
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 152
Re: A neat little mechanical "toy piano"
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2009, 12:07:31 PM »
Considering sticking a little contact mic in there...
Logged

phantompowers

  • Dayglo Volunteer of International Masturbation
  • ***
  • Karma: 24
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 131
    • http://www.myspace.com/rockinrobzilla
Re: A neat little mechanical "toy piano"
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2009, 12:20:22 PM »
Nice! I like that a lot.
Logged
BEND YOUR BRAIN

Gordonjcp

  • This person is dangerously insane.
  • *******
  • Karma: 78
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1005
    • http://www.nekosynth.co.uk
Re: A neat little mechanical "toy piano"
« Reply #4 on: August 20, 2009, 07:23:11 PM »
That sounds awesome.  It reminds me a bit of the "toy piano" sound in The Chemical Brothers - "My Elastic Eye"...
Logged
If at first you don't succeed, stick it through a fuzzbox.

LoFi-Ninja

  • Dayglo Volunteer of International Masturbation
  • ***
  • Karma: 8
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 136
Re: A neat little mechanical "toy piano"
« Reply #5 on: August 20, 2009, 09:18:16 PM »
Nice.. I love the sound of chimes.. getlofi had an entry about toy piano a little while ago.. http://www.getlofi.com/?p=1879
Logged

ne7

  • Dayglo Volunteer of International Masturbation
  • ***
  • Karma: 17
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 142
    • ne7 web
Re: A neat little mechanical "toy piano"
« Reply #6 on: August 21, 2009, 10:22:02 PM »
hehe brill - i've got a little toy piano that works in a kinda bizzarro way (keys hit very large metal rods via cardboard strips, some of which have disintegrated over time that connect to other smaller rods - if that makes sense) that i'm sorting out atm too :D will pop up a pic or two soon...
groovy paint job :D
Logged
ne7/triad
------------------
http://ne7.untergrund.net