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I'm starting a new section on the PianoBuyer.com website: Piano Buying Stories. These stories about the experience of buying a piano can be anywhere from a couple of paragraphs to a few thousand words in length, and can be authored by both consumers and salespeople. I'm looking for stories that reflect something surprising, touching, or unusual, and demonstrate how shopping for a piano is unlike shopping for most other consumer goods.

Here are the rules:

1) Stories must be true, though names of characters may be camouflaged to protect privacy.
2) The author must use his or her real name on the submission, though where there is good reason, I may be willing to omit the name when published.
3) Authors involved in the piano industry must reveal their professional affiliations.
4) Stories are published at my discretion, and may be edited for length, style, and grammar.
5) Generally, compensation will not be provided for the stories, but where an unusually long story is submitted by an established writer, some compensation may be possible.
6) Authors may be required to sign an editorial contract with a hold-harmless agreement.

Please send submissions or queries to me at larry@pianobuyer.com .

Larry Fine

Well, I've got some good piano stories to tell, but they pretain to pre-owned pianos and not new ones, if that makes a difference (and I think it does).

Rick

Yeah, sure I'll give you my story, if I have time. It will be very interesting to read when it's out, surely. Looiong forward to it!

Sounds interesting! Somehow, buying a piano seems so much more interesting that buying a car, boat, house etc.

I harbor a lot of jealousy for these piano stories, especially when the prospective buyer pays a visit to a first-class piano manufacture (or workshop, factory, etc.), compare incredible instruments side by side, and choose which one that speaks to them. The piano will then probably (I'm not sure what happens exactly) be prepped and regulated to the customer's taste and eventually be shipped. I'm pretty sure the customer also gets a full tour, meets up with some key people (usually family of the founder who manage the business), and the works. It's just amazing. I don't think there is an experience quite like it.

Yeah, you can take a tour to Patek Philippe or Audemars Piguet and be astonished with the craftsmanship, history, and beauty of their timepieces, but choosing an musical instrument that truly speaks to you, an instrument that soon becomes your own voice, well, is an experience that transcends (I know everyone here hates that word) acquiring a beautiful object.

It's an emotional and spiritual undertaking for a serious artist, and quite a privileged one at that.

Of course, we don't have to traverse the skies to find an instrument we love, but it is something most musicians don't get to experience.

The piano stories section is a great idea, Mr. Fine. I do hope to see a lot of well written soul searches. It's a wonderful way to make Piano Buyer more entertaining that it already is.

This is going back about 25 years but I bought a Yamaha C3 from Orange County Piano & Organ (or Organ & Piano) in Middletown, NY over the phone.

I'm pretty sure the entire transaction was over the phone. We agreed on a price, I sent a check and they delivered a new C3 to my house. They called me when it arrived at the store wanting to know if I wanted to witness it being uncrated and I said no.

No fuss, no muss. [sent to LF]

Dave,

Your testimonial is in fact the excact opposite of the OP's thesis, being:



Does what you say means you consider buying a piano just a buying any other commodity?

schwammerl.

Only with Yamaha could that be rational. Such is their uniformity, piano-to-piano.

Fact is there are several others involving a number of different makes right here on the board.

Anticipating that other submissions to Mr Fine will prove same point.

Norbert

I still do not know if these piano stories should pretain to used pianos or new, or either...

Let me tell you about the time....

Rick

Hi Larry,

Just wanted to say thanks for creating such a great book, and putting it online! It's a valuable resource. I recently bought a new piano, and although I have some experience w/the process, your price guidelines and brand info were extremely helpful!

You gotta put in Franks story.

I second that motion!

Rick