Gibson Maestro Electric Piano

Very Friendly.

Sustain, Volume, RCA input in rear runs through internal speaker, RCA mono out in rear, and two mono quarter inch outputs left of keys.

I am forced due to circumstance to record on a Stage Piano and it feels like I'm wearing gloves compared to playing my Maestro. I write everything on this instrument and enjoy playing it very much. It's a devil to record through, as the RCA out is weak and the quarter inch outputs are very quiet or extremely hot. It's sounds wonderful in a room with it's own speaker, but mine has taken some rough treatment and the keys clack a bit too much (and the sustain pedal squeaks and clanks) to get a good (isolated) recording. Those are developed mechanical problems however, and not intrinsic to this instrument.

I have a 73 next to it at home and only play it when I need a fuller bass, due to the smaller range of the Maestro (61).

When a tine goes out of tune it cannot be manually re-adjusted and tuned like a rhodes, you need to actually increase the mass of the tine by adding solder. I've hit certain C's too often and they are beginning to drift, but for now it's just more depth of character. Mine was fully tuned and serviced when I bought it five years ago so it is possible to get it trimmed up if things start to go wrong.

Also every time I have ever turned it on, it barks like a wild dog, probably due to dirt in the on/volume switch, or some other arcane problem with it's amp/PA circuit.

I have learned it's quirks and have recorded many things at home with this instrument and find it's character cannot easily be emulated by other electric pianos.

Find the local guy who tinkers.

plug it into the wall and turn it on.

haha, it has a volume nob and a sustain pedal. oh yeah, it has two quarter inch outputs and it seems to have 2 RCA inputs in the back or something. its has hammers similar to a normal piano, but instead of strings it has these metal strips similar to a xylophone i guess. it has a built in speaker which i believe is a 10 inch and with the 1/4 inch outputs, you can pretty much plug it into everything.

it only has one sound, but it sounds very cool. it doesnt exactly sound like a rhodes, but it is similar to one and i think this piano sounds pretty dang cool. it would seem to work for like old jazz or like an indie sound but since its so big, it seems like it would be hard to haul around but be really good for recording. it works just like a piano according to sustain and key release.

um, i got mine with problems. all the keys from the middle C and up seem to work perfectly, once you go down from there the tone and stuff with a few of the keys doesnt work so well. other than that it seems to be decent for a 35 year old piano or however old it is.

haha, i wish i knew where the heck to get this thing repared. i ha ve no clue how much they cost or anything. i got it at a thrift store and thought it was rad so i bought it and stuck it in my room and do recording with it.

its definately worth what i payed. 20 bucks at a thrift store seemed like a steal. i really love the sound. i wish the bottom keys were fixed but i dont know how the heck to fix this thingy. i think this thing is awesome

Does anybody know how much these things are worth?

Turn on. Play. Turn off when finished.

The Maestro is an electro-mechanical piano. It's tone-producing innards are much like a Wurlitzer electric piano, and it sure as hell sounds like a Wurlie, but that's where the similarities end.

The Maestro looks like a tiny apartment-sized spinet piano, with a cheesy walnut woodgrain finish. It was built in Japan in the late 60s or early 70s for Gibson/CMI.

Total polyphony - 61 keys (as opposed to Wurlitzer's 64). The keyboard action is very light (and very fast) and closely resembles a typical upright piano action. The keys are plastic (the Wurlie's are wood), much of the mechanical action is made of plastic and metal rods (not sure about the Wurlie's), the tines are identical to Wurlie tines and sound absolutely wonderful. The tone can go anywhere from a warm "glow" when you caress the keys all the way up to a spitting/barking/growling in-yo-face aggressive attack. (Not surprising, considering the tines are the same Sandviks as those used in the Wurly). There's a built-in mono amp and a single speaker.

You have to play this thing to appreciate it. It's just one sound, but it's a beautiful sound and very expressive. You get great feedback from the Maestro, as the entire cabinet resonates when you play it (that built-in amp with one speaker puts out the perfect amount of juice). Great distortion at maximum velocity. The Maestro has a line output on the rear panel (which on my piano is weak and noisy). The tone reminds me of "the" jazz guitar sound - I've run it through my POD and it's pretty amazing, even though the line out is noisy - (gating doesn't help of course).

I've found a bit of info online about the Maestro, but it's sketchy. Seems the Maestro is pretty rare. I've read that the cabinet is particleboard, but mine's not - it's 1/2 inch plywood (double laminated to one inch on the sides) and actually quite solid. All the keys work perfectly, and when I checked the tuning with my BOSS TU-12, only three are out of tune, and of those, only one tine is "dead" (poor sustain, unstable pitch). I'm looking for a replacement, and have a few leads already. The rest are in perfect tune (although not well-tempered, but then again, neither am I).

Not bad for a 30-year old instrument.

None

It's beautiful, it has the classic Wurly sound, with a faster action, in a very rare form factor. I love it dearly already, even though I've only had it for two days.