Electric grand piano

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An electric grand piano is a piano with strings hit by hammers, but the sound is picked up by electronic pickups and turned into an electrical signal. This lets the instrument be amplified like an electric guitar. Because amplification removes the need for a large resonant box, electric grand pianos are smaller and lighter than acoustic grands and easier to connect to a sound system.

Electric grand pianos began in the late 1920s with experiments such as the Neo-Bechstein. The first widely sold model was the RCA Storytone in 1939, which used pickups with the traditional hammered-string mechanism. Over time, other instruments called electric pianos appeared that used different sound methods (like hammers striking tuning forks or reeds), and these are not the same as electric grand pianos.

In the 1970s, hammered-string electric pianos came back with Yamaha CP-70 and CP-80, followed by models from Kawai and Helpinstill. The rise of digital pianos in the 1980s led to a decline in electric grands, and production eventually stopped. Today, the electric-grand sound lives on in the General MIDI standard, with many makers licensing Yamaha’s CP-70/CP-80 sounds.

Notable users include Shep Fields with the RCA Storytone in 1939, and later artists such as Tim Rice-Oxley of Keane (a main CP-70 player), Tom Chaplin, Tony Banks of Genesis, Billy Joel, Vangelis, Benny Andersson of ABBA, The Edge of U2, and Prince.