Plenty of musicians experiment with their instruments in different and creative ways.
Usually, those experiments revolve around taking a track that’s supposed to be played on one instrument and playing it on another. We’ve seen cases of flutists playing piano compositions, for example—and some artists love creating piano renditions of heavy metal songs. The outcome is surprising and pleasant in most cases. In this video, a guitar player is about to conduct an experiment you probably haven’t seen before. Let’s see what would a piano sound like if you put guitar strings on it.
Mattias Krantz probably has one of the most original guitar channels on YouTube—and with 391,000 subscribers, he’s inspired to play his instruments in unexpected ways.
His videos are mostly guitar lessons, but there are a few interesting experiments, as well.
That’s how it all began: he published a video of him playing Yiruma’s famous composition “River Flows In You” on a guitar. Someone commented that he should put guitar strings on a piano, though he later added that was just a joke.
But it was too late—the comment served as an inspiration, and here we are!
Without a doubt, restringing a piano is a huge amount of work. The number of piano strings depends on the model, but it’s usually around 230. Even so, Mattias didn’t stop there—he later did it the other way around and put piano strings on his guitar. We can’t deny the effort, that’s for sure.
He went from IKEA employee to viral sensation!
This creative, music enthusiast is a 21-year-old Swedish guy who works in IKEA. His colleagues must have seen the channel by now, and we wouldn’t be surprised if he was the superstar of every lunch break.
Mattias seems like a fun guy to be around, and he sure knows how to mix things up a bit.
He’s clearly an excellent guitar player—we know because we’ve checked out some of his other videos, particularly the one where he plays “24K Magic”. Even so, we should move back to a modified piano to see how that one went.
It does sound surprisingly different!
An old piano became some sort of hybrid instrument, and the difference in the way it sounds is very notable. Krantz named it “the guipiano,” and he said he was surprised that it was playable at all!
We love how Mattias shows all the work he’s done prior to filming this—it serves as a tutorial for a very innovative project.
First, you need to sustain the pedal; then, you remove all piano strings.
Finally, one by one, you attach guitar strings on hundreds of corresponding places before the final step.
With the whole thing in place, it was time to test it out.
As we said earlier, the guipiano was playable, but to what extent? Some piano keys couldn’t produce a good quality sound. Mattias first played “Wonderwall,” and it didn’t sound bad at all.
Sometimes you get the feeling that’s he’s playing the guitar, and sometimes not.
It tends to sound confusing but in a good, interesting way. “River Flows In You” certainly sounds a lot different, with a sound that’s a lot more haunting.
There is a follow-up video where Mattias calls a piano technician to try and tune the “new” piano.
Because he realized that he basically messed up a bit, the probe-prone Mr.Krantz decided to ask for help.
He called a professional, and acted as if he didn’t know why his piano was making “weird noises.”
For those who are curious, you can see the full video right here.
Keep up the good work—we love your ambitious ideas! Watch the full thing in the link below:
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