A neat little mechanical "toy piano"

[Gleix]

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

[noystoise]

nice! all it needs now is an output

[Gleix]

Considering sticking a little contact mic in there...

[phantompowers]

Nice! I like that a lot.

[Gordonjcp]

That sounds awesome.  It reminds me a bit of the "toy piano" sound in The Chemical Brothers - "My Elastic Eye"...

[LoFi-Ninja]

Nice.. I love the sound of chimes.. getlofi had an entry about toy piano a little while ago.. http://www.getlofi.com/?p=1879

[ne7]

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 will pop up a pic or two soon...
groovy paint job