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My instructor recently went on vacation for a month, and since I am the only student of his that is a "cat-person" he asked if I could watch his house and cats, and keep the piano company. I have been playing his wonderful concert grand for 3-4 hours every day, and now I find that I don't love my own piano like I did before. I have actually starting scheming to buying a used concert grand... I wonder if I will adjust back to my piano once I don't have unlimited access to a concert grand, or will I just have concert-grand envy until I get one for my own?

Funny! That's what this guy says...

I don't often play piano, but when I do,



I prefer a nine footer!

Now that I've played the Rubenstein 12-footer (although it's been a few years now), a baby 9- or 10-footer isn't good enough anymore. I know of an 18-footer-plus that's been built, but it only has 85 keys (the Rubenstein has 97).

OMG!!! Now I can't even live with just playing a 9-footer... how will I ever go back to my 6'4"..... oh such a cruel fate!!

But seriously, I loved my piano, but now that I get to play a concert grand every day, for hours on end, I wonder how I will get myself out of the obsession with having a huge piano.... (of course, I know that the pricetag might actually cure me of wanting a concert grand... LOL)

Your tinnitus will cure you too

Maybe..... BUT... just listen to that incredible clarity in the low bass on those big pianos!
Often when I check out a piano for the first time, the very first note I play is A0 (or whatever is the lowest note if it's lower), then a major chord around the middle of the piano for which that low note is the chord's base.

Haha. I don't know how many times you've cracked me up on these forums but keep 'em coming:)

Heck he can probably play the whole repertoire just by looking at the instrument.

Used concert grands are fairly inexpensive. What is expensive is the place to put them.

BDB, unless you're in a place like L.A., Bay Area or NYC, do you think it's possible that in the floor plan picture below, the piano would be more expensive than the house?



BTW... that pic is pretty much supposed to be the ENTIRE house... although I may need to lengthen it a little to make room for Adrian Mann's 5.7 meter piano.

Hey, did someone sneak into my house and draw up blueprints?

By the looks of him, I think he also prefers a nine incher ;-)

Just clarifying... My original statement of preference was for a 9-footer, not a 9-incher.... LOL.

Understood. Of course I only meant the character in the picture posted by eweiss. LOL!!!

Sorry, but I have read that piano "obsession" is incurable and that the only treatment possible if having the object of your madness siiting in you house....so... I am eagerly anticipating a new thread about "My Quest for the Perfect Concert Grand".



Uncle George

I actually play a ninefooter (Ohh Keeh.. 8 ft.9").

Plans were yet made to have a nineteenfooter - vertically installed. (Looking for suitable material to bear the expected 120-140 tons strings stress..)

There is always a cure for this. It is like the cubic inch question for muscle cars: nothing else can compete with cubic inches - only a lot more cubic inches.

Plans were made to put a tuned german MAN truck engine (23 litres) taken from an airport fire brigade (1600 HP) under the body of a 1966 Volkswagen Bus double cabin, garden keepers car, grey, rusty. For a topspeed >>200 mph. Frame, gearbox and brakes problems solved. Looking for tyres according to 3 tons weight @200 mph....

Imagine: German highway. Speed unlimited. Francfort - Darmstadt. South of Francfort airport. Straight north-south. No wind, no turbulences.. (hopefully..) Reference highway. 6 o'clock on saturday morning. Everybody else sleeping. Hunting, then passing a Porsche Turbo and an AMG 55 SLR with the shovel and other garden tools fittet at the rear H beam..

Express service for your garden!

Aren't steinway Ds like 8'10?

Anyways....

The first piano that I ever remember playing is a Yamaha concert grand.

Oh my lord what a piano! One of the best concert grands I have ever played!

Man it makes my baldy look like an itty bitty baby. I hate going and playing longer and better pianos then having to go home to my old grand and upright that have their little issues. :P

Oh well. :P

No offense taken... I just couldn't resist getting a line of my own in on that little tangent.

There are two general types of D grands.. The D's of today type were introduced 1884. They contain the new invented „Rim“ structure: wooden „veneer“ leafs glued together, which resulted in a case length of 274cm long = 8 ft. 10"

But the D name once was introduced some years earlier, 1878, as a new naming system for all Steinway grand types (A, B, C, D) renaming the former "style" numbers.

When the A grand was introduced 1880 it was the first with the new RIM patent. The name "D" was given first for the yet existing concert grands which had no glued rim and (1875 to 1884) a length of 270cm, 8ft. 9“ (me owning one)..

But the A to D names were introduced in 1878. My grand is from 1877, so my piano is still a "concert grand style 5“ or „centennial grand“, and not yet a D type, because my piano is „one year too old“.. OK, picking nuts..

So, Steinway timeline is:
...
1872 – pre centennial grands, 267 cm, new hammer action, yet no „Cupola“ cast plate, open pinblock
1875 – „Centennial Grand“ – 270cm, Cupola Plate, covererd pinblock – this type won the gold medal
1878 – names changed from „styles“ to A, B, C, D
(B and C were „reserved“ letters for grand types later to be designed)
1880 – first „Rim“ Grand: Model A-188
1884 – another „Rim“ Grand – Model D-274
...


So there are two D types:

1- D-270, built 1878 to 1884, a sample of maybe 370 of the 424 ever built „centennial grands“
2- D-274, built 1884 to nowadays, maybe several tens thousands


You can distinguish them by counting the bass keys:
D-274 type = 20 keys, D-270 = 17 keys

BTW The Wikipedia article does not reflect this detailed knowledge..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinway_D-274

Since you have an older Knabe.... One of the rebuilders that we use and really believe in has recently finished rebuilding a 9' Knabe grand that had been in a university concert hall. So maybe you should plan a weekend to try it and compare it with a 9' Petrof that we also have. Then I also know two dealers who have used 9' Baldwins which you can get for a good price. All of these are $35,000 or less.

So If you have the space you should at least get a great 7' piano. By the way many people love 7' to 8' pianos better than 9' pianos. In my openion you get all of the great sound and a faster action in a 7' to 7' 4" piano. The actions are faster because you have shorter key sticks with less mass to push up and down.