Piano shopping...
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I believe that Steinway had issues with Grotrian-Stenweg back in the day, alleging that Steinweg was an attempt to confuse the US audience into thinking they were getting a German Steinway. As I understood it, as a result of a settlement, Grotrian agreed to not use the Steinweg name in North America. At least that's the story I was told. Larry or one of our other pros would know if that's true.
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That is awesome @klaus. Hope you have many hours of happy playing!
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@sd-tav said in Piano shopping...:
Very nice piano Klaus! I've hardly played any Euro uprights since dealers here have a harder time selling them compared to Yamahas and Kawais. I have played Schimmels which are just OK. In which city are Grotrian's produced?
Schimmel has two different lines of upright pianos. The cheaper line is "just OK", as you say. The "Konzert" line is significantly better. Not on the same level as Bechstein/Grotrian/Bƶsendorfer, but really nice.
Grotrian's are produced in Braunschweig in Lower Saxony.
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Here's an interesting shopping experience:
When I tried the Grotrian, I liked it a lot initially, but I was irritated by a range of about 2 octaves in the treble. They sounded too subdued and lacked brilliance. I told the sales person (who turned out to be the owner) that I was in love with everything but these 2 octaves. He also tested the piano and agreed with me. He asked me whether I have 30min of time. He took his box of tools and began working on the hammers. First, he made a few tries with a single hammer and asked me a couple of times whether it already has the tone I'm looking for. When I agreed, he worked on all the other hammers and voiced them in the same way. When he finished and I could play again, I knew : This is it.
That's the difference between a sales weasel and a proper piano technician.
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That's great.
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@klaus said in Piano shopping...:
Here's an interesting shopping experience:
When I tried the Grotrian, I liked it a lot initially, but I was irritated by a range of about 2 octaves in the treble. They sounded too subdued and lacked brilliance. I told the sales person (who turned out to be the owner) that I was in love with everything but these 2 octaves. He also tested the piano and agreed with me. He asked me whether I have 30min of time. He took his box of tools and began working on the hammers. First, he made a few tries with a single hammer and asked me a couple of times whether it already has the tone I'm looking for. When I agreed, he worked on all the other hammers and voiced them in the same way. When he finished and I could play again, I knew : This is it.
That's the difference between a sales weasel and a proper piano technician.
Nice..
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@klaus said in Piano shopping...:
Here's an interesting shopping experience:
When I tried the Grotrian, I liked it a lot initially, but I was irritated by a range of about 2 octaves in the treble. They sounded too subdued and lacked brilliance. I told the sales person (who turned out to be the owner) that I was in love with everything but these 2 octaves. He also tested the piano and agreed with me. He asked me whether I have 30min of time. He took his box of tools and began working on the hammers. First, he made a few tries with a single hammer and asked me a couple of times whether it already has the tone I'm looking for. When I agreed, he worked on all the other hammers and voiced them in the same way. When he finished and I could play again, I knew : This is it.
That's the difference between a sales weasel and a proper piano technician.
Buuuut, if he was a musician or an instructor he would have reminded you that every time you practiced on an upright you were damaging your technic as the action would require you to overcompensate for the single escapement which blows your repetition AND your dynamic control, and that you would be better off with a Sejung or Dongbei 4ā8ā grand than the worldās best upright in terms of the touch, which ultimately drives your progressā¦
Sorry, went sales weasel on you!
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If one has the space, there is the consideration to get a grand piano instead, of course. Say, a Yamaha C2X, which is in the same price range. It would have a bigger sound and all the advantages of a grand piano, but it wouldn't sound as clean and delicate.
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@klaus said in Piano shopping...:
If one has the space, there is the consideration to get a grand piano instead, of course. Say, a Yamaha C2X, which is in the same price range. It would have a bigger sound and all the advantages of a grand piano, but it wouldn't sound as clean and delicate.
The balance is tone vs. touch. Kluurs (I think) touched on the trouble the higher end European pianos have against Yamaha and Kawai in the US, but I donāt think thatās quite accurate. I think their problem is competing against the Yamaha and Kawai baby grandsā¦
Heck, I bet Yamaha sold more of their N3X Avant Grand hybrifld piano than all of the Schimmel, Grotrisn, Bechstein, et al uprights combined..,
