What is inside a piano?

Pianos are basically make of wood, felt, steel and iron. The basic structure, which is the rim, soundboard, ribs and pinblock are made of wood. The plate is made of iron.

The photo below shows a piano in its first stages of assembly, where only the structural parts have been put together. This picture was taken at the Smithsonian Institute Piano 300 Exhibit.

The next photo illustrates the additions of the tuning pins, which are driven into the pinblock, and the strings. The pins, along with the plate, anchor the strings to the instrment. The plate is cast iron, while the pins and strings are made of steel. When the piano is fully assembled and tuned, the structure of the piano must withstand approximately twenty tons of string tension.

The action is a removable internal unit connecting the parts which enable the hammers to hit the strings. It is made of thousands of pieces of wood, felt, springs, screws, and leather. Some of these parts can be seen in the following photo of action parts (also taken at the Smithsonian Institute). A modern piano has eighty eight pieces of each action part, meaning that thousands of small parts are moving when a piano is being played.

What is inside a piano? Part 2

HOME