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During the past few months we have been posting comments and asking for advice as we shopped for a new grand piano. Now that we know the ending of this story, we, my husband and I, want to share our quest with you. Bare with me as I give you some background information.

Please note, that as when we wrote this article I and We used the name of Jordang but I am now using the name of Barbara G. This came about as my husband signed up first. When we started this thread he thought it was funny that people thought he was a woman and it was really US writing this together.

It is kind of fun hiding behind screen names. We even used Barbara and Jordan for a while after we finished this article. So read this thread now without confusion;. Jordang and Barbara G are the same.

Thanks for posting part 1 of your story. The suspense is killing me! What'd you buy? Pictures!

No matter what you bought, congratulations on your new piano!

I am CERTAIN that I've been in that same exact store about 3 weeks ago, while visting a friend in TX, and looked at that very same Bosendorfer... a stunningly nice instrument!!

I ended up spending most of my time in that shop playing a nice used Yamaha in the back, and wondering why the concert Baldwin they have back there is so (all things considered) cheap...

Looking forward to the rest of this story.

Ah Come on!

Patience is NOT one of my virtues.

Chapter 2:

Not long when my husband was looking for a wonderful grand piano, he was checking all of the classified newspapers in Texas. Then, what's this? Behold! There was an ad for a 22 year old 6' 4" August Foester grand owned by a church in Dallas that wanted it off of their stage so that they had room for dramas. They were, also, planning to buy an electric keyboard to use in place of their piano. We had read in Fines book that AF were dream pianos and this was selling for only $6000.00! The pastor, who was also the church pianist, said that it played and sounded better than a Bosendorfer. Wow! Well, my husband was thinking he was almost home free for only $6,000. We hurried off to Dallas the next weekend to play the August Foester. True to the pastor's comments, it played and sounded wonderful. Boy did I have my appetite increased for a wonderful German piano.


The problem with this piano was that it was made 25 years ago in East Germany and they must have used inferior glue on the veneers. The veneer was developing deep waves in the finish all over the piano and the plastic polyester finish was holding the veneer on but it was starting to look bad. It was also plain black. My researcher husband researched refinishing pianos and talked to several people about this. He learned that it was impractical to fix this piano.

Next we considered a 100 year old Bechstein at Encore Pianos in Dallas. Mr. Kahn owns the store.
The Bechstein was a very interesting piano to look at and it played fairly well, but to us it had that old piano sound which we weren't interested in.



It needed to be rebuilt, which would take many months to complete. So this one was out. Later we played a similar piano at Atlantic Music in Florida. It WAS completely refinished and rebuilt... but more about that later.

Next my husband begin to research Charles Walters. (See our thread about them here on Piano World.) They make a 6'4" grand in cherry or walnut Chippendale which sells for maybe $30,000+. So he upped the price range for us and we went in search of a Charles Walters to play. It turns out that they are sold by Steinway dealers in DFW and Houston. We were really wanting to love them. We first made a trip to Ft. Worth one weekend and then to Houston a couple of weeks later. At the Steinway dealers I discovered that I liked the action of the Charles Walters better than Steinways. The sound was good, but alas, they did not sound as rich and interesting as the Schimmels, Mason and Hamlins, Bosendorfers or August Foester. Such nice prices and such nice people - the Walters family, and such nice German Renner actions, too. But now I knew the sound, the action, and the case of my dream piano and wanted to find one that had all of these desired qualities. I kept telling my husband that "you can't give the baby a taste of the candy then take it away from her!" --- And I sure liked that $50,000 Nicholas Schimmel with the beautiful sound, with a veneer fallboard and inside lid and with such beautiful trims. Dallas Piano Warehouse wanted to sell us one. But it was mostly black and even with a better price, after sales tax, it would be $50,000. So we hoped that the dealer in Houston would have a better selection and better prices for Schimmel. Next my husband called all the dealers in Houston to see what brands they had for sell and we planed a trip there.

We spent two days playing in Houston and had a great time. The 225 Bosendorfers were very nice, as we already knew, but costs too much money for us to buy. Piano Forte had a great selection of large grands including several Schimmels, a Sauter, August Foester, Charles Walter, Baldwin SF10, Kawai 7', and a very nice black Petrof Passat 7' grand. (Too bad they only come in concert black.)

Here is the lovely Sauter Delta Intarsia which they would very much like to sell since they have had it a long time.


This piano had a beautiful action, very clear bell like voice which really sings. Almost the best piano there. However it did not have the rich complex sound of the Schimmels which I liked better. And the case was a light veneer instead of the dark veneer that would go with our living room furniture.

So the question was would they make us a great price on their beautiful Schimmels?? A few days later we learned that the store owner wanted us to buy from the Dallas Schimmel dealer, which did not have what we wanted. He would not offer us any great prices.

Then there was also in Houston a 240 cm Seiler concert piano. WHAT A PIANO! :p My husband reminded me we were not looking for a concert stage grand in black --- but it sure was fun to play.



Well, at least we had a fun trip to Houston and we left thinking we really liked some Seilers and Schimmels. We discussed and reminded ourselves that we had not yet found several other German brands I wanted to play, and besides that, we were getting in deeper and deeper money wise-- the prices of the pianos I really liked were going up higher and higher.

Phuh, I would have taken the Förster. You say you liked it, and that price is really incredible. If you have the money for new pianos, refinishing the piano wouldn't have costed you so much.

Anyway, in the end I'm sure you have made a good decision!

And that Bösendorfer is a really beautiful piano! Did it have a vienna action or a roller?

It had been updated to have a roller action. The Bosendorfer store in Las Vegas has done the same with a very similar piano. I'm told that SAP in Poland takes old plain Bosendorfers and transforms them. This one had an old and cheaply shimmed soundboard. It looked like plastic wood filler had been put in a lot of cracks. However it currently played and sounded nice. With the prices that they are asking for this piano, a modern piano makes much more sense. Woods Piano in Denver has a 10 year old 200cm much like this for a very good price.

A word of caution on the Polish restorations

Look at the soundboards from underneath Whoa!
New pinblock, pins leaning already ? "what"
Converted Viennese action " How come it plays kinda strange"

Beautiful furniture! Reveneer Wow!

Chapter 3:

I'm leaving a lot out of this story but will add some of that here... Very early in the quest for a new grand piano, my husband discovered, by way of Google, that some universities are using keyboards of reduced sizes which help people with small hands play wider span chords easier and with less hand fatigue. He came home one day very excited because he had heard me lament over the years how my small hands made it harder for me to play some music. He had discovered that David Steinbuhler has perfected his work to update any grand piano or upright piano to his custom designed and built smaller keyboards.
http://www.steinbuhler.com/

These custom keyboards cost seven to ten thousand dollars plus the cost of regulation and voicing. This sounded very interesting and exciting to me. I went to Southern Methodist University and played one of Steinbuhler's reduced keyboards and learned more about them from a piano professor there. North Texas University and Texas Tech are also using these now. So we decided to add this to the cost of buying a new grand - the cost to upgrade the keyboard. Now I will be able to play music on my new Grand without rolling chords.

I mentioned earlier that he decided to give me this Grand Piano while sitting in church. I told my grown children that I was looking forward to him going back to church and seeing what he would decide next!!

Well, he went to a national conferance for Christian Financial Professionals. At the conferance a preacher talked about how most people spend their lives working for sucess. Then some people decide that working for significance is more important. He defined "sucess" as accomplishing personal goals and "significance" as being important in people's lives. My husband bought the preacher's book about this and began to really think about it. He decided one of the most significant things that he could do is to bless me with a very fine piano -- so that I would be truly blessed. Isn't that awesome?

So now he became like who Vippo talks about in his Thread -- compulsive with researching and shopping for a great piano. He began to research Bluthners, Bosendorfers, Steingraebers, Bechsteins, Feurichs, and many more. He came home after talking to Orie, with CDs of music played on Bluthners. He announced that he wanted to locate a Bluthner that we could afford. I protested that I havn't played a Bluthner, Bechstein, Grotrian, Feurich, or Steingraber, yet, and their cost was TOO MUCH for us. I think he liked the TOO MUCH comment. So he began to tell me many people like Seilers and Schimmels best, and he had decided that we could afford one of them or a new M&H BB in mahogony. The next day he found an almost new Steinway B in Rosewood that someone had in Austin. It truly was beautiful in the pictures. Almost new and only $40,000.
http://austin.craigslist.org/msg/318709830.html
Okay, I could love that piano. It is a beautiful Rosewood. However it looks much like that M&H in Mahogony or Rosewood which I already loved and I like the sound and touch of a M&H or Schimmel better than Steinway. One draw back is that they don't have the fancy music desks and legs that I really wanted. (My husband told me that he thought about this being like a man wanting a sports car and getting a 1990 Lincoln Town Car with 500 HP instead.)


Playing a lovely Schimmel in Houston.

What a great story, Jordang, and you haven't even gotten to the grand conclusion! [pun intended ]

Of course, I'm rooting for the M&H.

And your husband is hereby nominated for the Spouse of the Decade award.

Chapter 4? Come on.

Or maybe an Estonia in Bubinga or Pyramid Mahogany. Maybe we could start guessing...

This is the last week of school. My little kids and my classroom will be most demanding this week. So please be patient with me, I'm working on the next chapter in my head.

The story is fascinating so far! Tho, I gotta admit, your husband sounds like mine- obsessive about the research! If we ever get to the point of buying a nice grand, can I have yours send a concise, condensed version to mine? Would save me a lot of time...

This is relly getting good!...Ok Paul Harvey..give us "The Rest Of The Story"

EASTERN EUROPEAN GRANDS
Early in our search for a new grand piano we read about several brands from Eastern Europe. Since many people here on Piano World really like Estonia and Petrof, we were eager to see and play them. The first time that we took a trip to Dallas, there was a classified ad for a Petrof 6'4". A retired doctor had bought a pretty Petrof and had planned to learn how to play it during his retirement. Now ten years later he and his wife were down sizing houses and were willing to sell it for only $12,000. It had a bright sound and played very nicely.

We looked at other Petrofs at a local dealer later. They, too, were nice, but the sound was similar to a Yamaha and didn't have the warm, rich sound I was looking for. Some time later I played a new 7' Petrof Passat at Forshey Piano in Houston. It had a big rich bass, but this particular size comes only in concert black.

Next I played Estonia. Peter Collora in Denton has several next to his M&H and Bosendorfers. They often have very pretty cases such as this one I tried.

(This is a corrected picture.)
The action was fine and the cases were beautiful, but the Estonias were against stiff competition and my heart was attracted to those Bosendorfers and my ears to the M&H. I tried them again in Houston at the Piano Store. I even got to try a 9' custom concert Estonia. (We thought that the owner was not truthful about his pianos so I caution anyone who talks with him about buying a piano. He told us one piano was new with new factory warranty. The next day his store manager told us the same piano was used and had been in a local condo. You may want to check the PW thread about Scott Covington/the Piano Store.)


The Estonia pianos had very long sustained tones which might be nice. However the bass notes seemed to have a growing, lingering sound and sort of reminded me of fireworks bursting close to each other and the colors overlapping. That is how the sound did in my opinion. I don't think I would enjoy this brand.

We had read about other brands that are built in Poland or the Czech Republic, but we found only Bohemia and I played them briefly. My sights had risen to bigger heights by that time so I had no interest in Bohemias.

Yeah, that's one of the risks of careful, extensive shopping.

That fancy music desk on the Estonia was gorgeous.

Hmmm.... sounds like the M&H is still very much in the running. Looking forward to hearing the next chapter.