Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum What do you like and dislike about YOUR piano?

One of the funniest things I have read in a long time. Well done.

Okay, I'll take a whack at it.
I have a 5'2" Knabe made in 1927.

Pros:
-One of the most beautiful piano's on the planet. Fantastic figured walnut in a Louis XV style.
-Stays in tune very, very well.
-Sweet tone, although shy in the bass department due to its size.
-Phenominal workmanship on both the cabinet and musical parts of the piano.
-It doesn't need rebuilding which is great for an 80 year old piano.
-Sounds best when playing music from the era that it was made. Perfect piano for classic American songs from the 20's to the 40's. You should hear it on "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" and "Button Up Your Overcoat".
-Real ivory keytops in great condition.
-Made in the USA in Baltimore where I lived for 13 years.

Cons:
-Too small - however, not too soft. The sound volume dominates the room and it's not in a small room.
-My wife loves the look of it so much she won't let me trade it in on an "ugly old Steinway"
-Bench is a little too tall for the keyboard. I thought about cutting it down but the Louis XV leg style would make that impossible.

Next.

My Shigeru Kawai SK6

Pros:

- Has one of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard
- Incredibly powerful bass
- Enormous range of colours
- Perfectly handcrafted
- 7' Piano
- Superb touch, a little bit heavy (just the way I like it)

Cons:

- Oh, well... It could be a Fazioli...
- I used to own a Steinway B, so I guess I miss it with all my heart (Some day I'll own my dream piano, who knows?)

One more pro for my little Kurtzmann: - obligingly came without a bench so I could justify buying an nice adjustable (ebay Chinese) leather artist's bench - cat loves it

Great thread. Helps put things in perspective.

My Piano -- 2008 Estonia 168

Pros:

- Really pretty sound
- Nice even action (after a full regulation)
- Takes voicing well
- Holds tuning well
- No workmanship issue whatsoever
- A lot of bang for the buck

Cons:

- My blood does not boil when I play it

I'm not sure what you mean by putting things in perspective.

I don't think quite a few of the posters are being particulary objective about the pros and cons of their pianos. IMO the majority of posts where people talk about their own piano are somewhat self congratulatory on this thread and other threads. It's fine to love your piano and probably only natural for most to talk this way, but when I can predict what kind of piano the poster has 9 out of 10 times...

For example, there are posters who bought piano X. Not only do they rave(not just recommend) about the piano on every thread dealing with this make, they manage to rave about it on threads not really related to piano X. Something like "You're narrowed your choice down to Pianos P,Q,R but you really should look at Piano X".

Pianoloverus, you make some good points, but one of the reasons that many of us are hear is that we love our pianos and want to be in a forum with others who share our passion. Of course I cannot prove that the pianos I chose are objectively better than other pianos. Maybe our pianos are like our kids. Mine turned 8 today (a 9-11 baby). and I know objectively she's 10 pounds overweight, she lies too much and is of average intelligence and drives people crazy sometimes. But to me she's the best kid in the world!

I am in agreement with you here.
I think another title for this thread could have been. How well do you know your piano?
A lot of the responses (not all) have not demonstrated much insight, especially (albeit funny) the tongue in cheek answers.

Anyone who says PROs: "I love everything about the instrument" Cons:"none" I'm sorry to say is not being honest (or at least does not know their intrument very well and by effect probably doesn't even know half of what their own instrument is capable of)and in my estimation thinks of the piano more as a possession rather than a vehicle for self expression, which in all fairness is just another perspective. Nothing wrong with that, just doesn't make for very interesting converstation.

For me this thread was an opportunity for all the PIANO X freaks to be a little honest and try to be a little subjective toward their own instrument. We're all capable (well at least I know I certainly am) of getting a little caught up in being our own instrument's cheering section. Which means there are a lot of really happy piano owners out there. But it also means that a lot of the conversations we have here can become, IMO, a little bit juvenile and unintelligent. I love my Shigeru and it's definately the piano for me but i'd be pretty foolish to think that there aren't other instruments out there that have attributes that are lacking in my own piano. It's a fact of life and if you don't see it well.....as my dad used to say "Denial ain't just a river"

Quite amusing with a lot of truth behind it!

Don't ever tell her any of this but that last sentence - the kid, not the piano. The last thing a kid needs is an "objective" parent.

How can one not be tongue in cheek about a 1937 Kurtzmann?
My insight is that as a sole family breadwinner with no outstanding talent to justify going out on a limb, I'm lucky to have reliable and serviceable acoustic instrument at all. I could whine about all my piano lacks until the cows come home but that would be pretentious. I'm not enough of a pianist to have yet lived up to even my little donkey of a piano, much less a thoroughbred. And at the risk of giving offence I don't think I'm alone here in this respect.

Point taken

I am with Frycek on this. And I would add that while a lot of people will pick apart their instrument every day, and memorize all it's flaws, a lot of people just are not built that way. And they are happier for it. Have you read about Maximizers vs. Satisficers? Here's a bit from a blog called 'Between Living and Existing' It borrows heavily from 'The Paradox of Choice' by Barry Schwartz

"What is a maximizer? A maximizer is one who only seeks and accepts the best. They are the people who check out all the options before making any choice. They often take a long time before making a choice and will compare purchase decisions to choices others have made.

Even when they have made a choice, they worry that that was not the right option or may feel less satisfied and less positive with the choice they have made. They may also experience regret after a purchase or choice. Maximizers also don't cope with negative events well, take longer to recover from these events, and will ruminate about their experiences.

Many would think being a maximizer would be a good thing, but it can pay a price. A number of problems can occur with those who are maximizers, including feeling less happy, more regret, being more perfectionistic, and feeling an overload of choices. In the book, Sachwartz outlines a few studies that represented this.

Then there are individuals who are what Schwartz calls Satisificers. They are people who do check out options but settle for good enough or excellent but not necessarily the best. They don't worry about the choice they have made or that there might have been something better.

Compared with maximizers, satisficers take less time comparing and purchasing products. They do not seem to compare their decisions as much to others. They usually feel more positive about their choices and experience less regret than their counterparts.

So, let's not accuse people of being unintellectual or ill informed simply because they are not unsatisfied enough with their choices. Let us maximizers strive to take a note from their playbook and learn to enjoy the good, and not always fixate on the perfect.

I still think that what I like most about my piano is that I plucked up the courage to buy it and it is now MINE! Sorry if that didn't fit your expectations when you started the thread, but if you wanted a technical thread, maybe start it again asking a question with narrower parameters related to the sound quality, etc.

Thanks for the great post ivp. I'm certainly a maximizer alot of the time. In all fairness however, I think there is a difference between calling a person unintellectual vs. the content of a conversation unintellectual. I wouldn't presume to call anyone unintelligent. I would though presume to call a conversation unintelligent. And I think you are right in saying that perhaps a thread with different parameters might stimulate a different kind of conversation. Although the idea of maximizers and satisficers is an interesting one, there seems to be an idea there that there has to be a strong sense of 'feeling' associated with the processes you describe. I think there are also people who have a well centered sense of themselves that don't necessarily have a strong emotional attachment/ response to certain things because they 'choose' not to. These individuals IMO would have the added benefit of being able to be frank and honest about their peception of things without the disempowering emotional response that maximizers experience or the more limited perspective of a satisficer.
I'm not asking people to talk about the negative aspects of their own instruments to 'make them feel bad' but simply to get yet another perspective on how people see things. A little objective honesty. That's all.

I think you're right that there is an emotional component to this, but emotions are legit...meaning that an emotional response to a piano is just as real as any other reaction to something. So, if you lovelovelove your piano, your feeling and opinion are totally real to you, and you will think you are being objective when you say that it has no 'cons'. That's love, right?

But of course, that's not 'rational'. And I think what you and the op were discussing was a desire for opinions that would be considered both rational and objective (by a someone outside of the piano-owner relationship)

In such a passionate place as this...good luck getting that sort of clarity! I feel like you could get that from all of our techs with more accuracy, maybe we should have them post our pros and cons for us! But they would still go to bat for their favorite makes, because everyone has bias.

Well, when you said you wanted intellectual, I don't think you meant semantics, so I'll stop beating this horse. Good night, thanks for a fun thread- I liked it fine the way it turned out!!

I would call that a plus!

I was perhaps focusing on the positive aspects of my new Shigeru because it is simply too new and I don't want to jump to conclusions yet. I find that it keeps changing slightly. It was just tuned and voiced (not dramatically) a few days ago and I find it is shifting a bit again. There are a few treble notes which bothered me. The technician seemed to fix the problem, now it appears to be coming back. I am trying not to be obsessed about this as I know it needs to stabilize. Was this my first choice for a piano? No, the Fazioli was. But I could not afford it. In comparison to the August Forster upright which I have played and basically beaten to death with repertoire that it was not designed to handle over a period of about thirty years, this Shigeru is a dream come true for me. Perhaps perspectives are different depending on our background and what the piano means in our lives. Clearly everyone here has some "relationship" with their piano. I know I cried like a baby two weeks ago when my old piano was moved out and given to a familly friend. I felt like a little piece of my heart went with it.

Ivp- that Maximizer vs. Satisfier stuff is very interesting and I think it is very relevant to this thread. I could be the Maximizer Poster Boy, but only on the condition that the poster was the best one out there.

Once in a while we maximizers ARE completely satisfied, and my choice of my Baldwin L is an example of that. And, maybe, unfortunately, my satisfaction serves to re-enforce my maximizer tendencies. I shopped for a year, playing many pianos, until I thought I would never find the perfect one for me. But I found the right one, and have never regretted my choice. Now I suppose my future shopping experiences for other things (relationships with women, cars, tools, pens, you name it) will be influenced by the outcome of my piano experience.

During the year I was piano shopping, I found a piano locally that I came very close to buying. I brought my piano teacher along to check it out. At that point I had pretty much decided to buy it. After we both played it, she somehow sensed that if I bought it, I would be settling for "good enough". She told me to wait until I found the one that was perfect for me. Within a week, I learned about a Baldwin L at Rick Jones Pianos in the DC area. I drove out there, played it, and immediately knew it was "the one", and bought it.

I've been similarly satisfied with my lowly Baldwin Hamilton upright. To me the tone is so beautiful that once I wrote a song on it that included 8 consecutive single D notes. When I played them the first time during the composing process, the sound moved me to tears. According to an agreement with my now ex-wife, I was supposed to sell the Hamilton after I bought the L. But I just could not part with it and I still enjoy playing it, even though objectively it is inferior to the L.
Fortunately, my new girlfriend understands my irrational love for pianos, and my passion and appreciation for aesthetic tonal perfection.

Maybe she's the perfect one for me, or maybe there's someone even better out there, perhaps in the DC area.......

I think many and perhaps most people are in a category in between maximizers and satisficers.

I think we somehow missed the entire crux of Barry Schwartz's main thesis: If we have less choices, we will be happier, because myriad choices causes us anxiety and depression. This maximizer vs. satisficer argument is a small part of his overall concept which, in my opinion, is highly flawed. Schwartz spends a whole chapter in the above quoted book bitching about shopping for jeans at the Gap as they have too many choices. If you have a mini-breakdown over jean shopping, you probably have deeper issues to confront besides having too many choices.

People chose to respond to this thread in their own way - humourously, seriously, wistfully or happily. Not sure we need to analyze their responses using the ideas of a psuedo-Zen spouting pop psychologist. Let's just accept their responses at face value.