Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Do not buy a new Steingraeber piano

Interesting.
I can't help but wonder what the reaction would have been had this topic come from a Steinway dealer. The words marketing, hype, blah, blah , blah come to mind.

Personally, I enjoyed Keith's post.


fingers

What if NORBERT had posted this? Or Ori? Oh, the humanity!

Welcome to Piano Dealer Farm.

KZ

Keith has posted nothing different from what anybody who has travelled German factories for years knowing their products would have said:

These are and always have been outstanding pianos in a class of their own. Nothing new really..

German piano companies, as do their car makers, fiercely compete among themselves for excellence: we were equally stunned when just receiving our last Sauter grands.

At same time it's impossible to identify "the finest of them all" - other than perhaps on a strictly personal basis.

And alos 'model'...

Any dealer for Steingraeber like Keith should be congratulated for offering such exclusive,truly stunning top quality make.

Problem is that only few people know enough about these pianos or have seen enough of them "not" to be surprised.

I for myself have never been able to establish who "the finest of them all" would be - not that this would matter anyways - coming each time to a slightly different conclusion...

Frankfurt Messe anybody?

Norbert

LOL, I did play a Steingraeber before I played and bought my current Grotrian, so maybe we should also warn everyone not to even try a Grotrian? :p

This was not even close to what I expected this post to be about. It's just full of awesome.

It's nice to see that I'm not the only one who likes to express myself that way. Now I must ask though...

Tell us how you REALLY feel?

Hmmm..... well when i am grade 8 level and working towards a diploma my lady has already agreed to my getting a grand.... certain things will need to happen before i can justify 50000 on one though :-) like 50000.... :'(

Wow ! keith I thought you were going to break out into a song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o8SZng55T0

The point of the post was to be humorous not to reveal something new.

Self promotion.

I don't think the quality of a dealer is determined by the prestige of the makes they offer.

Thanks for the warning, Keith, but rest assured at $90,000 for a 5'7" grand, I'll never afford a Steingraeber.

Now, Field's Pianos in Orange County has a new 2002 dark cherry S&S model M for sale for $49,000. That's a possibility.

edited for atrocious spelling.

Always good to get a second opinion.

I think this is a fun topic and Keith has done a good job with giving us a little humor. If this were an every day occurrence, then maybe things would be looked at differently.

If we can't have fun on here then I will turn in my Piano World Secret Decoder Ring.

P.S. For those wishing to disagree, there's always the "Funeral Home Forum"....

http://www.simefuneralforum.com/

Norbert

Amen!

My motto... pianos are a lot of fun; better yet, Piano World is a lot of fun!

Rick

Keith - Thanks for the fun post. I was a bit worried when I read the subject, but it turned out okay in the end. Always good to hear excitement and praise for finely made pianos. I, too, have had the opportunity to test drive the Steingraeber pianos and found them to be wonderfully responsive with the combination of a very focused tone and a wide tonal palette. Very enjoyable to play.

Keith,

Thank you for your lengthly reply. It's good to see you get a workout at the keyboard (computer keyboard, that is). I'm afraid you missed my point completely though.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with a piano purchase that exceeds logic. I never said there was. What is wrong is someone selling such a piano rattling off names of the composers he played on that piano, each performance better than the last, while giving no clue as to what made the piano special.

You write you were stunned by both pianos. You have written in the past that you personally select your Steingraebers at the factory showroom in Germany. In the course of selecting them, one might assume that you play them. I wonder why opening what you had previously selected would stun you?

You're a piano seller. You may be a player as well, but when Piano Craft crafts a video, it's Shaun, not Keith. I even recall a video you uploaded here with Sam Powell playing some neat stuff on a Steinway your shop had worked on. Yet I find no signs of musical life on the Internet of the guy who rattles off "Bach, Brahms, Mozart, Bartok, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and more and each sounded better than the last" What is it? Shyness?

The challenge in my post was to put your piano keys where you put your computer keys -- on display in a performance video. If you've got the chops, flaunt them. If not, then you're just selling the old illlusion that the better piano in and of itself makes you a better pianist. It may make the same performance sound better, or more palatable at least, but if the piano is the real thing, harnessing its capability will involve a learning curve. Price of ownership gets you nowhere as a player.

A video might also provide a clue as to what makes these two partiulcar Steingraebers stand out. Surely it's not Piano Craft's renowned 'customization' since these babies are fresh from their cartes. What exactly it is would be useful to know since you've provided nothing in that regard with your computer keyboard.

Err........I got your point exactly. Your point was to suck the fun out of this thread. And you have succeeded. You have sucked the fun out of what eveyone else understood instantly to be me goofing around and trying to be entertaining with sincere enthusiasm, and yes, shoot me, a bit of intentionally obvious salesmanship which was pretty much pointed out in just about every response starting with the first . Way to go

FWIW, Shaun Tirrell flew to Bayreuth to choose these instruments, so I hadn't yet played them. I only had reports that they were, well, mind blowing and beyond what I had previously experienced with Steingraebers.

I never said "performance", you added that. I never said anything about the quality of my playing. Each composer sounding better than the last is not a comment on my playing. It is a comment on how the Steingraeber worked great with the music of these different composers. It is a comment on my growing excitement the longer I played.
If I said I tried on several different suits, Armani, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren etc in front of a special mirror, with special lighting, and each looked better than the last, it in no way implies that I think I look like Brad Pitt. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you misunderstood what I wrote, and/or what I wrote was unclear.

As for my putting a video of me playing for all to see, I'd like to do that. If I feel I have something good enough, I'll do just that.
In the mean time, you have nearly 7000 posts here, many alluding to your deep understanding of the relationship or lack thereof between the quality of one's playing and the quality of the piano on which they are playing. I can't remember ever seeing a video of you playing. If you put a video of you playing the piano here for all to see, it just might inspire me to do the same.

That's news to me. I guess you got the post count right although it's usually another member who refers to post counts and estimates how many were of a particular type.

My 'deep' understanding is that the player makes the music and is supported to different degrees by different pianos. I don't feel that's very deep at all. It's fundamental. It's also pretty obvious that a top notch player on a mediocre piano is far more interesting to listen to than a hack on a top grade piano.

Today I went to hear Ben Grosvenor. He has it. He's still a little rough on the edges, but he has it. The piano was an average Steinway D, not a fussed-over C&A, just average. It didn't matter. He has it. He made it work. The piano disappeared into the music. The link was between the pianist and the music. He's an artist, a very young one, but he's an artist.

You sell pianos. Your 'fun' was to promote your new arrivals at your place of business. If your intent is to sell them, do it honestly and at least give some information about what makes them special. If your intent is not to sell them, explain what your intent is.

As for what everyone else thinks, it's irrelevant to my honest opinion. I guess it's not to you.

Tdot, you win. I don't have the time or energy for this and apparently I also lack the common sense to avoid getting provoked into this type of nonsense. After being away from here for quite a while, I was enjoying participating again. There is nothing enjoyable or of any value with this exchange. I didn't remember you as being so humorless.
If I choose to participate here again, I would respectfully request that you just ignore me. I will give you the same courtesy. If you don't respond again in this thread, I will take it that you agree to my request.

Wanting to add something positive and at least as spectacular as Keith's experience with Steingraeber: 'The Ring Project' set up by Dynaudio, the famous Danish loudspeaker manufacturer on the occasion of the Wagner year in Bayreuth.

The 'Ring of the Nibelung' in a transcription for two pinaos by Hermann Behn (1914) is performed on two Steingraeber Liszt concert grands.

For a complete overview of the project, see:
Dynaudio press service site

Should you want to hear some sound samples or by the CD (released January 2013), see:
Dynaudio records

schwammerl.

Steingraeber and Hurstwood Farm Pianos have a very close relationship.
Steingraeber build what is recognised as the World's most technically advanced piano, the Steingraeber-Phoenix under licence from Hurstwood Farm.
The special features of this piano are bridge agraffes that transmit vibration energy from the strings to the soundboard much more efficiently than conventional bridge pins , yet at the same time do this without the ususal major stress load downbearing on the soundboard suffered by traditional build pianos.