Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner I'm giving Baldwin a serious look

I've just been watching several videos about pianos and piano playing. Really interesting and great to hear the sounds of many brands of grand pianos.

www.livingpianos.com

Robert has 154 of these videos, on YouTube and I plan to watch and listen to them all. I'm at about #14. I don't know this guy so I'm not advertising for him. His dad was a concert pianist--Baldwin artist. He gives a lot of very good information about pianos and how to play them in these videos.

Seemed to me like that 7 ft. Baldwin grand he played would be hard to beat. Maybe Liberace was right!

Came back here to mention Robert's store is in Santa Ana, CA. Wow, not far from me. I'll be visiting that store!

Back again with this link of Robert doing his part to share his love for the piano and classical music. You can find his dad Morton Estrin performing on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC0JRhe6Uk0&feature=related

Bech

As some here may recall, we just bought a 17 year old, 7 foot Baldwin SF-10 (with a Renner Action) for our church - and after a complete regulation, it is proving to be a wonderful instrument !!! It has a much different feel and sound than my personal 8 year old, 7 foot Mason and Hamlin BB - but both pianos are a pleasure to play.

It's really a shame that the 7 foot Baldwin's are no longer being built.

Baldwins are great. I took a few lessons on a SF-10 and I liked it a lot. I also spent a year or so practicing on an SD-10. Nice instruments all around, especially tonally.

I also am a big fan of Robert Estrin's videos and think he makes a great case for the older Baldwins. From everything I have seen, they seem underpriced and a great value, although most are older and would need careful checking by a tech before purchase. I am not in his area at all or I would have gone to see the store, too. I am very happy with my newly-purchased Mason-Hamlin BB, but would have given a Baldwin a try, too.

I know I've seen his face somewhere before? I wondered if he was an actor in his younger days?

I don't think there're any Baldwin 'artists'/concert pianists around any more. Jorge Bolet used to play Baldwin in USA (and C. Bechstein in Europe), and Earl Wild also preferred Baldwin until he switched to S. Kawai in his twilight years (when Baldwin ran into trouble). Garrick Ohlsson played Mason & Hamlin, but I don't recall him playing on Baldwin though to my mind there're many similarities in their sounds.

Here's link to his bio........

http://www.livingpiano.com/robertestrin.htm

Been looking at used Baldwin's on E-Bay. Price ranging from about 18-35,000 for an SD10.

Read that Earl Wild played an SD6 which preceded the SD10 and also a 9 footer.

Read that the SF10, 7 footer is considered special by many.

See where the new Baldwin SD10s are going for about 105,000. There's another model--forget number--that's a little more expensive. Believe it's a recent Baldwin model.

Lots of talk about the poor quality of Baldwin's made in recent years.

Bech

That would be an outrageous price for an SD10. As far as I know they are not being presently made and are not listed in the Piano Buyer. On Craigslist a 2006 SD10 is priced at around half of your figure.

Here's the 7 foot SF10 I mentioned in my first, above post.

Especially like the first piece Robert plays on this piano or rather how IT sounds on this piano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nDHGL1is_U&feature=channel&list=UL

Here's another or the same SF10:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knJfCUYiSSQ&list=UL1tA87pjEKec&index=19

Bech

That is not an SF10, it is an F, with scale SF.