Steen Nielsen 61-key Grand Piano / Harpsichord Hammerspinet

The shipping price listed above is not accurate, please contact me if you'd like a shipping estimate.

For sale here is a rare and unusual Steen Nielsen Hammerspinet, probably built in 1971. The Hammerspinet is a compact, 61-key single strung (una corda) grand piano. Each hammer has both traditional felt and hard wooden faces, and either can be chosen instantly via a single mechanical lever below the manual. The felt side sounds more or less like a traditional piano, with a gorgeous single string bell quality. The character of the hard side of the hammers falls somewhere between a tack piano and a harpsichord; a little more elegant and precise than the average tack piano. It's a fun, inviting, very playable and recordable instrument, and in my experience, songs just tumble out of it. I've had this Hammerspinet for about 15 years, and it has made its way onto virtually every record I've worked on in that time.

This Hammerspinet is in very good operational condition. It's been in a studio environment for as long as I've had it, and while it has some studio wear, it's overall a nice piece, and the wear is consisitent with its age. It is mechanically sound; it has a one-of-a-kind hybrid action assembly, which lives entirely under the keyboard. This intrigues every tuner or tech I've ever shown it to; it's a novel approach and it works quite well. I recently re-glued the keytops, which were coming undone one by one, and replaced two that had been damaged. The keys are slightly narrower than standard keys, and the key fronts I've sourced don't fit, so there are presently no fronts except for the two new keys, which are the all-in-one type. Because it's single strung, it's easy to tune and it holds tune fairly well.

There are definitely idiosyncracies: anyone expecting to fly through technical repertoire will be frustrated by its unusual action and dynamic range. Occasionally a key will not fire correctly. And it's not dead even, tonally or dynamically or in terms of sustain, from octave to octave or even key to key. But that's the nature of this instrument, and I've never met a creative, intuitive, writer / stylist type who hasn't fallen in love with it. There's a recent recording of the instrument at the link if you'd like to hear it in its natural state. The clunk at 1.25 is me changing the action from felts to hard hammers (forgive the squeaky bench).

It's worth noting that when I acquired this piano, its legs were falling apart, and it was very unstable as a result. Rather than find a luthier to reconstruct them, I opted for the dumbest Home Depot remedy: L-brackets, screws, and epoxy. It's a little ugly but not hideous, and the legs will last until the end of time. See photos.

I have a crate for this piano and I can ship it worldwide. Obviously it won't be cheap but it can be done. Ships from Norway. If you're in northern Europe, I may be able to meet you somewhere with it, let me know and we can discuss.

Looks like these have been selling recently for around $8 - $10k, which seems steep to me. I'm starting lower in the hopes that it'll help offset shipping.

This Steen Nielsen Hammerspinet is sold in good faith, as pictured and described here, but otherwise as-is. I will miss it a lot! Please let me know if you have any questions, and thanks for looking.