Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Visit to Bluthner, Steingraeber and Schimmel

Kenny, if you will go back just a few months and read the very long thread on cantileavered bridges, you will find that a few modern pianos have decided to not use them. Some people are rebuilding old pianos without them as well. Del Fondrich wrote at length why he is against them. His pianos do not have them as well as the Charles Walters he designed not having them.
BoseEric, Thanks for this wonderful thread. I know how very much work you are putting into posting your report. Thanks for the effort to post the pictures.

Thanks to all who have said good things about this thread. Perhaps you can tell that I'm passionate about the subject. Glad it's finding kindred spirits out there.

After poking around Bayreuth, including some grave hunting, we hit the road for Braunschweig and Schimmel.

Braunschweig has medieval roots, but now is an important part of Germany's industrial core. I did not find the same kind of connection there like Bach or Wagner, which doesn't take anything from Braunschweig. It's just explaining why I don't have any scenic pictures.


Schimmel has staked a different place in the European piano world than the 2 other makers I visited. While Schimmel shares a long history and family management, Schimmel has committed itself to high volume (relatively speaking) production, making the significant investment in equipment and processes and taking the price advantages and product range advantages that come with that strategy.

They are a true German piano maker with the same commitment to an individual sound and style. But they are also committed to making high quality German pianos available to a wider market, both in price points and a truly huge range of models, styles and features.

Schimmel did not let me take photos and I have an appreciation of why. Many aspects of their approach could be copied by other manufacturers interested in higher volume production. Of course, all the traditional piano making techniques are present in the factory. However, different product lines and price points show different combinations of machine work and handwork. The handwork steps are as well known and as transparent as at other makers. However, some of the ways of easing materials handling, mechanizing certain repetitive steps and processing components in large volume are creative and unique.

Lothar Kiesche, the Director of Sales and Marketing gave us the tour and I really appreciate his taking to time to do so. Schimmel is expanding their focus on the higher end of their model line, the Konzert Collection. One feature of this series, if I understand it correctly, is to use the same action (key length in particular) in a series of different sizes, allowing consistency in touch.

There is another Schimmel innovation that I love and think all makers should adapt. There are a couple of critical dimensions in bass strings, including the distance from the back of the bridge to the hitch pin loop. On notes where there are 2 (sometimes 3) bass strings, the traditional design has the hitch pins staggered, meaning that this "tail length", from the end of the bridge to the hitch pin, is different for the 2 strings of a unison. This is why, when ordering individual replacement bass strings, you have to count tuning pins rather than keys. Schimmel has the hitch pins in a straight line for each note, meaning this tail length is the same for each string, greatly easing production and avoiding mistakes when ordering replacement strings.

I know, this is a small issue that only a piano manufacturing geek like me could get excited about, but I'm stuck with my personality and have chosen to embrace it rather than fight it. I'll post a photo of this feature later.

Norbert said...

Indeed. Well put!

Remember, this thread is first a travelogue with some thematic sideroads. I'm not trying to duplicate websites or marketing material in describing all the features and aspects of each maker. Each maker has lots and lots of individual features they consider important and unique. Trust me, they would LOVE to describe each one in detail (as would I about Bosendorfer). But that is not my purpose here.

Another point about Schimmel is their sophisticated keyboard manufacturing capability. This is a benefit of their volume and ability to selectively vertically integrate.

Making keyboards is surprisingly difficult which explains why most makers don't do it. There is a management technique called "stick to your knitting" that most high end makers adhere to in regards to actions and keyboards. However, Schimmel has been able to surmount the keyboard making issues in house.

BoseEric --

Thanks for the vicarious thrill your posts have provided. You and your son have just lived my dream vacation.

I do have one questgion about your itinerary. I didn't know Schimmel's factory was in Braunschweig, but I'm well acquainted with the town's name because I owned a Grotrian 189 for 18 years and that's where their factory is located (or was the last time I checked). Why would you go right next door to Grotrian's plant without dropping in to visit them too? (I may have read this thread too quickly and missed the explanation. If so, I'm sorry; if not, I'm just puzzled.)

No reason except for time constraints and because of the informal relationship between Bosendorfer and Schimmel I felt I should visit them first.

Grotrian is definitly on my future list.

eric,
i am really enjoying your travelogue, and reliving my own visit to steingraeber through yours.

i would love it if you could please elaborate on the statement i quoted from you. this is something i intuited during my visit to the region, but could not quite put my finger on, being new to that part of the world. can you give some tangible examples?

how is a bluthner a product of its geographic and cultural environment? can you characterize the geography and the culture, then characterize the traits in the bluthner that you feel mirror them?

also, did you get a chance to visit the heart of braunschweig and see the amazing recreation of its medieval buildings and churches? (all destroyed in the war.)

This has to be one of the best threads in the piano forum. Thanks for sharing!!

BoseEric -- I should have remembered that kids' spring breaks don't last forever. Let us hear about your next trip too.

Perri -- I've been curious about your book and finally decided to check it out at your website. If you play half as well as you write, you could have made a career in music. I was hooked halfway through the first page. Interestingly, it was something non-musical that grabbed my attention. My mother and siblings live in Colorado, and I've often marveled at the beauty of aspen leaves shimmering in a gentle breeze. Your description -- "Quaking aspen lined the banks of the Boulder River; their burnished leaves turned up their bellies to the wind and trembled in unison . . . " perfectly captured one of nature's great beauties. Then I read the rest of the excerpts and bolted for Amazon to order some copies.

Good luck keeping your piano in voice, and let us know when we can expect more writing like this. Congratulations on a creating a wonderful reading experience.

Hello. I visit Blüthner factory last April. Herr Ingbert Blüthner-Haessler let me to take pictures and explained me everything about its pianos. Really a great man and a wonderful visit. Anyway I want to say that I was a little suprised about diferences of tone of the newest pianos against my older one (6'3" grand from 1921, recently I reconditioned). Really I prefer the old sound, with its incredible sustain and unique warm tone. May be Blüthner pianos are like the best wines, growing up with the age??
All the best,

Hi lluis,

I am glad to see a fellow vintage Blüthner owner on this forum. The crispness, clarity, warmth and depth of tone of old Blüthners are hard to beat IMO.

Although I admire other pianos and can be impressed with them only the tones of Blüthners have this far brought tears to my eyes.

Add me to the lovers of the old Bluthner sound - not beating up the new ones - but just a preference.

I have prepared new Blüthners and have played new Blüthners others have prepared that have had the same historic voice as the early 20th century instruments.

I think it is critical to point out that when one hears a new Blüthner that has been modified or not prepared with that historical ideal in mind the pure experience cannot be realized.

I also think that Leipzig being a center for commerce, education and culture was the perfect place for Blüthner to be established. The idiosyncratic nature of the instrument reflects the type of cutting edge innovative thinking that attracted so many such as Goethe, Wagner and Nietzsche.

The reunification of Germany began in Leipzig as did the war of nations, it is historic, beautiful and significant just like the piano that comes from there.

Alex, could you clarify this? I am not clear what you are saying. Are you implying that some special preparation is necessary for new Blüthners to have the same historic voice as the early 20th century instruments? If so, what sort of special preparation is required?

Or are you saying that if a new Blüthner sounds different from the "historic voice", it is probably inadequately regulated and voiced?

I think several of us Blüthner lovers are very interested in this point.

David,

I guess what I am saying is that the Blüthner blood lines run very pure. There is no doubt that there is some differences between the old and new as design changes would ensure, but the basic tonal character remains consistent.

To achieve this historic sound requires familiarity and sensitivity to both the historic sound and modern instrument.

I call it chasing the golden tone, with enough practice you can catch it.