An
electric piano is an electric
musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of the
piano-style
musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations which are converted into electrical signals by
magnetic pickups, which are then connected to an
instrument amplifier and
loudspeaker to make a sound loud enough for the performer and audience to hear. Unlike a
synthesizer, the electric piano is not an
electronic instrument. Instead, it is an electro-mechanical instrument. Some early electric pianos used lengths of wire to produce the tone, like a traditional piano. Smaller electric pianos used short slivers of steel to produce the tone. The earliest electric pianos were invented in the late 1920s; the 1929
Neo-Bechstein electric grand piano was among the first. Probably the earliest stringless model was
Lloyd Loar's
Vivi-Tone Clavier. A few other noteworthy producers of electric pianos include Baldwin Piano and Organ Company and the Wurlitzer Company.