Tack piano

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The tack piano is an altered version of an ordinary piano, in which tacks or nails are placed on the hammers of the instrument, giving it a tinny, more percussive sound. See prepared piano.

This preparation attempts to emulate the sound of a poorly maintained piano; as the felt hammers age and compact through use they become hard and cause the piano to yield this characteristic sound. A piano tuner will use a tool consisting of a number of fine pins to open and loosen the striking surface of the hammers.

The use of tacks on a piano is generally discouraged as they will usually be ejected from the hammers and can then become lodged in other parts of the mechanism. If the jammed mechanism is then forced by hitting the keys parts of the action may be broken.

Canadian pianist Glenn Gould experimented with a tack piano, which he called a "harpsipiano" (a portmanteau of "harpsichord" and "piano"). It was intended to imitate the sound of the harpsichord, and he used it in a recording of a Bach cantata.

In popular music, Elvis Costello used a tack piano on two songs on the album Mighty Like a Rose: "The Other Side of Summer" and "So Like Candy," which was co-written with Sir Paul McCartney. The German pianist Fritz Schulz-Reichel had considerable success c. 1955-57 on the hit parade with his tack piano recordings, released under the name "Schräger Otto" ("Crazy Otto" or "Slanted Otto" in German). During the craze, ragtime and blues pianist Johnny Maddox also recorded The Crazy Otto Medley with a tack piano, starting a "honky-tonk piano" fad. Both purportedly used thumbtacks in the felt hammers.

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