Tack piano
altered version of an ordinary piano, in which tacks or nails are placed on the felt-padded hammers
A tack piano (also known as a harpsipiano, jangle piano, and junk piano) is a modified ordinary piano, in which objects such as thumbtacks or nails are placed on the felt-padded hammers of the instrument at the point where the hammers hit the strings, giving the instrument a tinny, more percussive sound. It is used to evoke the feeling of a honky-tonk piano.
Tack pianos are commonly associated with ragtime pieces, often appearing in Hollywood Western saloon scenes featuring old upright pianos. The instrument was originally used for classical music performances as a substitute for a harpsichord.
Honky-tonk piano
A honky-tonk piano has a similar tone to a tack piano; however, the method of obtaining its sound is different, and simply involves one or more strings of each key being slightly detuned, without the use of tacks. The resultant sound produces acoustic beats in a manner similar to undulating organ stops.
“Tack piano” enters the record as altered version of an ordinary piano, in which tacks or nails are placed on the felt-padded hammers. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tack, piano and altered can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tack piano” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.