What is your favorite piano brand?

ROBERTA SWEDIEN hi Roberta so funny to see your name pop up!! Remember me? I was your student in Gainesville way back when! ☺️

Alexander Shapiro Hi Alex!! Of course I remember you. Long time! I am in touch with Gila Goldstein and she has mentioned you. Are you playing? Say hi to your parents.

Here is a related question for this group. If you won the lottery and you could purchase a great 9' concert grand for your modest size living room, would you?  Or would you choose a somewhat shorter model because your living room is not a concert stage and it might be overwhelming?

Jenny Hi Jenny.. First i would buy the best courses and pay the best academies with the best teachers and artist. to learn as much as possible. Then I would  go to the best universities and learn as much as possible with the instruments  I have.  "It´s not the gear, it´s the ear". Then,  if I still had some more money left....I would buy a new bigger house, with an interior theater,  and also a nice living room with sea views, and a grand concert piano. Actually, now that you mentioned it, this is what i am going to do without winning the lottery. By hard work. and "the three P's" Passion , persistence and patience.

Andreu What a beautiful photo! I hope you get something as wonderful as this. By a concert grand, do you mean around 9'?

Jenny Harrison Haven´t thougth about that.. First i need to learn to play the piano. ;-)

ROBERTA SWEDIEN I need to reach out to Gila, it’s been a long time! I am still playing! My dad sends his best :))

Alexander Shapiro Oh yes!

Andreu No worries, Andreu, I had my Steingraeber outfitted with Adsilent, adding to a superb acoustic piano all of the functionalities of an electric piano. 

Adena Which Steingraeber do you have? Tell me why you love it.

Jenny Harrison I read that you lucked out on an upright Steingraeber. What a phenomenal gift! I found the A-170 in a music shop and, after doing my research, found the money to buy it. It’s due to the sound, especially in the lower range. They’ve created one of the world’s smallest grand, NOT baby grand, because they designed it to be unusually wide, which allows room for the use of very long bass strings. The upper range is neither thin nor metallic, but issues a delightful singing tone.

My friend has a Steinway and when I compared the sound and touch of each, it was a no-brainer. I tried the concert Yamaha as well. Again, no contest.

All that and for more technical reasons, is why I own it. It also fits into my house. (It’s as long as I am tall, haha.)

Steingraeber only crafts 100 pianos a year and are, as you say rare in North America. 

Adena Sound great.. I need to learn more about adsilent... never heard of that.

Andreu Adsilent was created specifically for the Steingraeber, however, it’s fiendishly complicated to install. It’s better to find a Steingraeber with a factory-fitted silent system. My technician thought it would take 2 days to install - it took twice that and he used every tool he carted into the house as well as being on the phone with the creator of the system in Germany.

And now, because the Adsilent system is so exact in its fitting, my technician is the only person in my area who can do the maintenance because removing and re-inserting the action must be done “just so.” It’s a matter of millimeters.

He’s training others to be able to the maintenance as it’s simply not a good idea to be dependent on one person.

Had I known all this before…

Nevertheless, I use the system daily and adore my Steingraeber.

My next trip is to accept an invitation from the German manufacturer to visit their site. Martha Argerich has played the Steingraeber there at their annual Wagner festival. 

Adena thanks a lot for the info

Adena Such a great info Jenny. I am very happy with my two Roland Pianos .. At this moment I do not need such devices, beacause I am not planing to buy an accoustic piano,  but is good info to know for the future.. Let me know if you ever come  close to Barcelona, Spain. 

cheryl jack  Was the Yamaha hand built? There is a big difference in quality between the factory built and hand built. 

Jenny Harrison my first Yamaha was over 60 years ago and yes, the quality was phenomenal and appeared to be hand built. But most Yamaha's now are not. SK's are hand built but I found the sound more than a bit thin in higher ranges and lacked fullness in lower ranges.