Yamaha Torch T01 digital piano - Sand, software and sound

Sometimes Yamaha does cool projects. The Yamaha TORCH T01 digital piano “uses unused grenadilla (African blackwood), a rare wood used in woodwind instruments such as clarinets.”

Yamaha TORCH T01 digital piano

If you browse through Yamaha’s annual corporate report, you’ll find several “green” initiatives. Oto no Mori is one of them. Quoting Yamaha:

We use natural materials such as wood in our products, and are working on the “Oto no Mori” initiative to protect rare wood that is essential for musical instrument manufacturing and to create sustainable forests for the future. As part of this initiative, we have launched a project to explore technologies for effective use of wood and at the same time challenge ourselves to create sustainable products. We have produced prototypes that use unused wood as the material for musical instruments and held a special exhibition called “Musical Instrument Trees” (Note 3), and are working on product development that draws out the new value of wood.

The keys are made from unused grenadilla — a rare wood that is essential for woodwind instruments such as clarinets and oboes.

Yamaha TORCH T01 keys

Piano tones are the CFX grand piano and the Bösendorfer Imperial. The keyboard uses the GrandTouch-S™ mechanism.

Only twenty T01 digital pianos will be sold only in Japan by lottery. The suggested retail price is 990,000¥ (about $6,700 USD).