Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Schulze Pollmann vs August Forster

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be evaluating a Schulze Pollman 190, and an August Forster 170, about 25 and 15 years old respectively. While I'm pretty confident tomorrow's real world comparison will be revealing, I could use some help comparing these two on paper. Are they in the same tier of quality and desirability? They're of negligible cost difference. This is private sale and likely not a forever piano.

Obviously the Forster is shorter than the Pollman, but it's a wide design. I've listened to recordings of both and they each have their qualities I'll be hearing tomorrow. A technician will be employed either way. Really just want to know how these two stack up in theory.

Cheers

Tough call. Both potentially great pianos. August Forester probably is considered more highly rated but the Schulze Pollman is also very good. I would just go with whichever one you enjoy playing the best. It would be hard to go wrong either.

Rich

In a perfect world, the Forster will be quite a bit better than the Pollman, but in reality it is likely to be very close.

This one will boil down to your own impressions and those of your tech.

Alrighty, thanks guys. I'm looking forward to these two pianos tomorrow.

With Schultz Pollmann it depends on the brand ., However I agree August Forster ( the German made one), should be the best. ( it depends of the condition of both as well)



https://www.pianobuyer.com/brand/schulze-pollmann/

Thanks lady bird. The SP is from the masterpiece series, although not listed as a current model on the SP website. I suppose all will be told tomorrow.

Not on the brand, since Schultz Pollmann is the brand. It depends on which sub line of the brand.

On the post directly above yours, the OP stated it is the Masterpiece Series.

To join the nitpicking fest a sub-brand is a brand with a brand so LB and PLV are both correct and the MP series is listed on the SP site http://www.schulzepollmann.com/?IDC=4

It will be interesting to hear the OP's assesement.

I obviously meant the model. Yes the Masterpiece model is what I meant

Holy cow the August Forster was super. The Schulz Pollmann did not get much attention today. I've got a RPT lined up for inspection tomorrow.

The Forster has a really nice bell quality to its tone, much like a recent schimmel interest, but warmer and darker. My son (the pianist) likes the action very much on the Forster, saying it's of medium weight, but very fast. Dare I say this is the one.

Whited
YES, you can say ‘this is the one’ 😊. Congrats !

Nice! And I am not shocked by this one bit, either.

I was going to say that Förster is better than Pollmann..... Förster is an exceptional piano, my only criticism of them is that they can have a rather bright tone which doesn't suit me, but it does really suit others. Also they can take a voicing down.

Försters are quite bright. I've had mine voiced down, but I like a bright piano. Bright, not harsh. And yes, not everyone likes bright pianos. That aside, what I really like about my Förster is its long sustain, even in the upper treble, and its wonderful action, which allows playing from ppp to fff effortlessly. Congrats, "whited".

Yes! Thank you everyone for the positive words. I'm feeling pretty good about this now that the technician has given a thumbs-up. He added mention the piano is "fantastic" which only fuels the anticipation.

Here is picture of her AF 170

Edit: and that would be the Schulz Pollmann behind it

Yes definitely much brighter than many of the american pianos we tried. As were some of the older and smaller yamahas. The brightness on this Forster is sweet with warm undertones. I nearly passed it over being only 170cm but the bass and tone are really there with the 6+' instruments we tried. I'm so curious what the larger AFs sound like

GORGEOUS piano —— tell me it’s yours!!’

Ha ha pending me showing up with the delivery people and a check, yes I say it's indeed about to be mine

How is the tone compared to the Schultz Pollmann ? My teacher had a very nice August Forster grand years ago and I once played a beautiful sounding Schultz Pollmann.
So it would be interesting to hear how you think they compare.