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Unfortunately my tummy would change that order.

My current piano:

1987 Hamburg Steinway C-227

My ultimate dream piano: Bösendorfer Imperial Enspire Disklavier in 2 tones wood finish: polished Brazilian Rosewood for exterior, and polished Sycamore Maple for interior!

Could you get annual production figures from the tables which give dates for serial numbers?

Wonderful!

Do You have the C-212 or the D-232

If We’re talking about Dreams - I’d Love to have the space, to add a Steingraeber D-232, to My Music room


~Lucubrate

My piano was delivered two months today! I'll celebrate by answering before cracking open the champagne:

I hope this is my final piano - I could not afford to replace it if something happened to it - and YES, it is my dream piano. So much so that I live in terror that I'm going to wake up at some point.

This is a very happy dream.

If you are serious about your piano, get your Final Piano as early as you can so you can enjoy it as many years as possible. Don't wait until you are 60 years old to get what you need.

That's what I did!

I love my little Estonia, but sometimes I wonder about a bit bigger.

This was my thinking! I got my dream grand piano (German 7 foot Seiler) in my early 30’s so I could enjoy it for as long as I can. I financed with very very low rate. (1.5%). I thought this is the better choice than to save for 10 years. That’s 10 years of my life I won’t be enjoying this piano!

Yamaha P-115 > Yamaha NU1X -> Yamaha N1 -> Yamaha YUS5 -> Estonia L168: that's a 4-year piano journey:

Prologue: My parents bought a $100 upright back in the early 1960s so I could take piano lessons. Our house had a street-level garage that led to the basement: concrete floors, ceiling joists above, bare light bulbs, shelves my dad made out of 1/2-inch plywood for my mom's canning jars and the camping gear ... can you see it? That's as far as my dad was willing to drag that piano, so that is where I practiced for two years while taking weekly lessons with the neighbor lady. Perhaps no wonder that as I neared my teen years, somewhere in the middle of John Thompson's Third Grade book, I gave up on piano.

Fast forward to 2017 and I suddenly realized I still wanted to play. Started with a $600 Yamaha P-115 digital piano package from Guitar Center. Frustration with adjusting to my then-teacher's grand piano, plus a bit of impulse buying at a Costco Yamaha sale, led me to upgrade to an NU1X digital with upright action, but I didn't keep it long. I soon traded up again (thank you Classic Pianos for your generous trade-in policies!) to a Yamaha N1 with grand piano action.

After six or 8 months with these high-end digitals, I began to feel that I had heard every sound they would ever make. I began to try out acoustic uprights, since I figured that's all I had room for. I brought home Mister Upright, a Yamaha YUS-5 that had been used for a year then returned to the store. Great piano, and I have nothing to say against it. Except that ... it was not a grand piano.

My daydream developed: I wanted a house with room for a good grand piano, so I could host house concerts with guest pianists. Whether realistic or not, that dream was decisively stalled by the pandemic. I decided I'm quite happy where I live; if I have to be stuck somewhere, it's a very comfortable and secure place to be. My daydream evolved: I got a paper template, trimmed it to a mid-size grand, began to rearrange furniture.

I had decided that, just as OldMH said above, "get your Final Piano as early as you can so you can enjoy it as many years as possible."

Our region began to open up a bit again as hospitalization rates stabilized, so I ventured out to play some grand pianos. I tested new and used pianos at 3 or 4 different showrooms. One day last October, as I tried out small to medium grands (Yamaha CX series, Shimmel, a used Steinway); this sweet-voiced Estonia L168 just kept calling me back. There might as well have been a golden spotlight shining on it! And now it's in my living room.

I've been taking lessons for not-quite-four years. Setting up those new neural pathways is a lot slower than when I was 10 or 12, and sometimes my joints "talk back to me" and remind me that arthritis is a thing. I don't know how long I will be able to enjoy this piano, but I can't imagine regretting the rearrangements made this possible. This piano has given me such a gift of joy. Cost more than any car I have ever owned, but I spend a LOT more time with it! And hope to do so for years to come. Because eventually I want to be able to play this --

WOW - Qwerty53, beautifully written!
Thank you so much for sharing.
Top half of your story was very similar to my experience.

brdwyguy
JDM

It is the C 212 N as the space of my room and wallet did not make it to the D. But I was so wise as not to touch the D 232 when I was in Bayreuth. That made my dream come true without being spoiled by another dream ;-)

Here is my Piano Journey so far:

1963 - 1965 A Lester or Emerson Old Upright Grand we paid $100 from a friend.
I learned to play in 3-4th grade from the nuns - on Sat in the basement of the convent.

1969 - A Horrible Westbrook Spinet my parents purchased from Sherman-Clay
I worked and worked from listening to Broadway musical LP's and knew how to play 'notes'

A Pianist/Teacher heard me and was very impressed of my skill for lack of training
She gave me a classical piano scholarship - I had lessons on her Mason & Hamlin Grand
(she said the M&H's were the best for living rooms) - Had classical lessons for 3 1/2 years.
She also said someday you will sit at a piano and 'know' it's the one.

1991 - Present ---- I find that piano that she said I would 'KNOW' when I sat at it.
Taylor Music on a whim - I find my Schomacker 6'1" Grand.

2009 Had a fire in my garage - acrid smoke filled the house and basically did damage to anything metal.
Rich Galassini/Cunningham piano did major work on refurbishing (including restringing, repainting the harp, cleaning the outside, etc)

2021 moved south to the Carolina's in 2013, I may have out grown the Schomacker but have always eyed a M&H or Steinway.
We had our retirement home built and my music room is slightly smaller and the 6'1" seems to overpower the 12x15 room, even with the lid closed.
My thoughts now at my retirement age are to either have major work done on the Schomacker and see how it sounds and then either Keep or Trade for a Smaller but better Brand (Mason & Hamlin A or Steinway O)

Winning the Lottery: I probably would purchase a Brand New - Parlor Grand Boesendorfer AND M&H or Steinway, a piano for the Music Room and a piano for the living room. LOL

My playing is for my own enjoyment and to accompany my private voice students I teach (on hold right now because of covid!)

So that's my story!

brdwyguy
JDM

I'll add to the mix:

38 year old - professional musician in Houston, TX. Grew up in Hilton Head, SC and started studying on a Baldwin/Acrosonic upright. In 1998 my parents purchased the Baldwin R artist grand that I have now.

All the schools I studied at were Steinway affiliated - so had nice C & D pianos (NY and Hamburg) throughout. The church where I'm music director now has a Shigeru SK7 which is at my disposal.

Not on my final piano. As I am looking to potentially sell the Baldwin R to move likely to a Shigeru SK3/5 - which I could certainly see being a final piano.

Dream piano would be a Fazioli F228. A pianist I studied with (who was anonymously wealthy) had one, and it was buy far the finest instrument I've every played (he purchased it from a concert hall in London).

I am in a similar situation to Dogperson. I likewise own my Final piano - it is an 1881 Bluthner, 180 cm. I have been playing it for 65 years now. It is gorgeous to look at; it has a clear incisive bass; it was a warm sparkly treble. There is something about the "antique tone" that I find immensely attractive, and I never seem to find myself tempted by a modern instrument. In any case, after all this time it would be inconceivable to replace the Bluthner.

My dreams run in rather a different direction. Early fortepianos, both grands and squares, offer endless variety of form and tone. The collector's bug bites deep, and if space were unlimited, I am afraid that temptation would be likewise. I think an 1820s Graf or Brodmann would be perfect...

Absolutely!


~Lucubrate

I'm Very fortunate and blessed to already own it and have a Very nice separate studio space from the house for it.. And Extremely lucky, being in the right place at the right time, to have found it used at 9 months old, and at a once in a lifetime price.

A dream for the house would be a Fazioli 212 or 228.