Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Found on Ebay: 1939 RCA Storytone Electric Piano

click images to enlarge!

Here's something you don't see every day: a 1939 RCA Storytone Electric Piano. The piano is listed on Ebay for $250,000, but there's a "make offer" option, so maybe you could get it for less if you're interested. It's a real Art Deco beauty. The Piedmont Piano Company in the Bay Area has a nice page with some information and additional pictures of another Storytone Piano.

Here's a recording of Earl Hines playing a Storytone Piano. The Storytone was strung much like an acoustic piano, and had a pickup but no soundboard (according to the Piedmont Piano Company) but I can't figure out what kind of pickup it had. The Storytone has an interesting sound, but not as distinctive as either a Fender Rhodes piano, which uses tines and magnetic pickups, or the Wurlitzer Electric Piano, which uses metal reeds with an electrostatic pickup.

Here's the link to the Ebay listing in case you'd like to make an offer on the Storytone.

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