Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Sonatainfsharp’s Dramatic Piano Search: 2021 Edition!

The only Walter I've ever played was a 90's vintage. Frankly, it really sort of blew me away, at least based on my expectations. Excellent tone. Responsive Langer action. As I mentioned above, I regret passing on it. My decision at the time was sound: it wasn't what I was looking for. But...

Perhaps the OP could trade his late model Walter for an older one. Maybe even get some money back.

I even wonder if his piano might be covered under some sort of lemon laws (if he's had ongoing issues with it). You'd think a 3 year old piano would hold tune.

I like you think holding a tuning is absolutely basic. To me it is the worst thing that can happen., yet the OP loves his piano because somehow he can feel the inherent musicality of it.
A flawed beauty can perhaps be even more painful.

No worries, Lady Bird. There's a lot to keep track of in this thread!

I agree that the warranty work should get done. But the OP has to arrange that in some way that works for him and his family (I like K8KT's Spring Break/day off compromise, but it would have to work for the OP).

Oh, I come back to a lot to clear up.

Two things going on with my piano:

1) Warranty work. Just needs a partial re-pinning. Could be done at my house, but logistics are tough. This isn't even the issue regarding trading-up my piano. It's moot. I shouldn't have even brought it up. The dealer will take care of it after I trade, or I could have it done now, then go anywhere I want to trade it in, but my dealer is giving me a value for my trade that no other dealer nor private party sale can come close to touching.

2) I haven't liked the sound of my Walter from day 1. THAT is why I want to trade the piano. I've been thinking there is "something wrong" for four years. I have had multiple techs look at it, and other than the re-pinning so that it stays in tune for longer than 5 minutes, the stuff I don't like is just the way it is, take it or leave it. I don't want it. The overall sound is too "hard" for my liking. Not bright. Hard. Then there are two registers (C3-B3 and F5-C6) with really, really weird sounding notes that no tech has been able to re-voice or fix. I "test drove" Walters from the 90s but bought this new one sight-unseen because the dealer had already sold the used 90s ones. I couldn't refuse the deal on the new one. But a 2017 Walter is not a 1990 Walter (to my ears). [drama]

So, I just want to trade it in for something else, but at the same time we now have more space in the current house and some money we can use, neither that we had when we bought the Walter four years ago. [drama]

My dealer is a very high-end dealer...Bosie, Seiler (SE and ED), and rebuilt S&S, so it's not like I can "trade-up" to a Kawai GL or anything. I had my name on a Seiler ED186, but then a "nice to do" house project became "must do asap" once we started it. That cut ten grand from my budget, because of course that would happen to me. [drama]

I don't simply want to trade my Walter for another one because I have played other new ones, and they all have a "hard" sound that I don't like (though minus the goofy two ranges of notes that mine has). [drama]

So, it's a mix between "warranty" and "I don't like how my piano sounds". And, as I mentioned in a previous post, I have realized that if I don't like it, then I don't have to live with it. It's that simple. The complexity is that I can only get my inflated trade value at my dealer who doesn't really cater to my lower budget. [drama]

I am just waiting around for either the SE116 uprights to try in a few months, or very-used-but-not-worn-out grands to try, but they come through and go so fast that I might literally have to hang out at the dealer after work each day, which sounds exhausting and kind of a dumb way to spend my time (I am only partially serious, but I really don't know how to snag a nice, used grand from him in my price range). Or, perhaps, our house project will come in waaaay under budget and I can just get the ED186 after all. Like that would ever happen. House project under budget? Hahaha, ya, sure.

After I wrote the above, Lady Bird mentioned that I still love my piano. The things I "love" about it are that it sounds and feels like a grand piano, not an upright whatsoever, if you close your eyes. But that doesn't make up for the "hard" sound and two registers of weird-timbre notes.

I also "love" that it's a 100-year, heirloom quality piano, but that doesn't make up for the sounds that I have to hear coming out of it.

Hope that clears things up further.

Oh, one more thing then I will stop thread-sitting...

The whole reason this started (since I only mentioned it once, a long time ago) is because we have money set aside for house projects. My wife suggested to me that we should think of me, first, for the first time in my life (and as a thank you for keeping us all grounded amid all the crazyhouse that we deal with day to day), so she had the idea of putting some house projects on hold (1939 house with 1988 remodel that needs some 2021 attention) to instead upgrade my piano to a grand. So, this gave us the budget to give back my Walter and snag a grand piano. It was somewhat out of the blue, but whatever, she talked me into it, and I didn't say no for the first time, ever. (That was a weird feeling.)

Then as we were about to get going on a simple house project, it suddenly wasn't going to be as simple as we thought, and that wiped out most of my grand piano budget in an hour. Downside to owning an 82 year old house, I guess.

Sonatainfsharp- at this point I’m just curious. Why did you buy the CW if you hated the hard sound from day 1?

It went to the dealer for a day or two then to my house. I never played it until it came to my house.

I was already feeling guilty about having such a nice piano that I figured the weirdness was simply because it was hand made and needed to break in, and since it was such a high end instrument I convinced myself that I must be the crazy one, and so on. Plus the whole transaction of going to buy a used piano but ending up with a new one was sort of unexpected and flustering.

Then I had some techs look at it, and the consensus was to “just enjoy it for what it is and play it” (well, “shut up and play” is how one of them put it). Then a tech agreed with me. Then techs here heard it and wondered why I still even had it. Then I realized that I wasn’t crazy after all. Not to mention that in my crazy household/life, the piano has been the least of my attention until now.

It’s all my own fault for getting to this point. I wish I had been a squeaky wheel the day it arrived, but the fact I’m doing something about it is actually out of the norm for me, so with that perspective, this is an enormous deal. And posting about it here is how I’m getting support from people who understand what it means to own a piano.

But, I’m also very careful to make sure people understand that this has nothing to do with the Walter brand nor my dealer. Both are very fine, high end organizations and I will continue to recommend both to everyone.

I’m so sorry to hear that. It reminds me of LadyBird’s experience except she could still delight in playing it, but not have use of the sostenuto pedal. It must be heartbreaking in a very expensive upright. That stuff shouldn’t happen but I guess every once in awhile something happens that shouldn’t and thankfully the dealer does stand behind the product. Good thing pianos come with warranties.

Slight thread steal here. I’m saying it now. The warranty that comes with a piano is very important. I never had to have warranty work done with 4 different pianos but sometimes goofy things happen in shipping or something else.

J&J
The Sauter sostenuto was also confusing to me .There were
times when months went by and I like SonatainfSharp decided to just accept the problem. I then began to realise that if the middle was a soft pedal it would actually serve some real use. I never discussed this problem with anyone on PW during this process.

However the manager knew the problem existed as we would phone and send messages to him.He offered a significant credit towards another piano or the swop of a similar model Sauter 130. There was a beautiful one down the road in the local dealer branch and in the Richmond on. These were beautiful pianos which sounded very similar to my piano.
Last year during Covid lockdown we contacted Sauter and Mr Sauter said it was unacceptable that the sostenuto had these problems. We sent him photos and a video.

The dealer offered the full amount we paid towards either ordering a Sauter Competence 130 , or a few of the higher end pianos including the Schimmel K132 and the Steinway K52. These prices were special prices for us. Perhaps I should not mention the prices here, however the Competence 130 was a similar price to the Schimmel K132. With the shipping and tax it made it a bit more especially if we wanted the Polished Ebony finish.( which we did )
So yes it can work out with the dealer. The manager did not need to give us the full price credit.Eventually he did however and is still very gracious about it. I was lucky that Schimmel was there however.By the way the Schimmel is fine, no problems and we could not be happier with the piano.

Yes.Thank heavens for a great company and great dealer.

Sonatainfsharp
Do you think you should have another discussion with your wife or is it too late.( I know family dynamics are always complex. ) Also , is the Walter still under guarantee?
( just a a few thoughts)

Walter is under guarantee for six more years.

Not sure what you mean about discussing with my wife, though.

Nothing, sorry for putting my foot in it. I just hope for a good outcome in your piano and that your health improves.

SF#, it sounds like you've got a lot on your plate. I can relate. In about a 4 year window, I lost my dad to cancer after an 18 month battle, I had cancer, and I lost my wife after a 22 month battle with cancer. My cancer overlapped my dad's and my wife's. Needless to say, it was a difficult time. I ended up postponing and procrastinating a lot of things, and built up a mountain of mundane stuff. Then I thought I had to conquer it all in one fell swoop, which didn't work out too well. After a while I realized that I had to tackle each thing individually, and then things started to fall into place. I say this because you indicate that there's a lot of drama in your life.

I get the impression that you're waiting on some sort of bada-bing-bada-boom day on which you'll blink your eyes and have a fabulous piano replacing your CW. Our situations aren't exactly parallel, but I think if you start picking off smaller things to get done, you'll actually feel a real sense of accomplishment.

So, your piano 1) won't stay in tune, 2) has some weird notes, and 3) a hard tone. If you get the warranty work done, then at least it will stay in tune. I get the impression that you're very sensitive. How can you stand a piano that at a bare minimum won't stay in tune for more than 5 minutes? Get that fixed, and then it will "only" have a hard tone and some weird notes. At least it will be in tune. And you'll dislike it less. And, trust me, you'll feel the forward movement.

You can still get a great piano later. But in the short term life can improve too.

[quote=SonatainfSharp]Walter is under guarantee for six more years.


So that's great ! But make use of the guarantee. You bought it with the piano!
This is a real positive ,SonatainfSharp .Just do one thing at a time., Would it not be great to have your piano in tune ?

Just some thoughts, SF#...

I'm sorry you've had so many difficulties recently. You've got a lot on your plate, and a disappointment like loosing the chance to get a grand piano, when it's something that means so much to you, just adds to the mix. I can relate. The last 3 years have been extremely hard for us. We've been caring for my mother who has dementia and fighting with agencies to get her into a facility where she can be cared for properly. At the same time, our son who has autism is finishing up high school. We're in the middle of his transition into adulthood and getting the necessary services in place for him - applying for disability, state services, Medicaid, etc., all in the middle of the pandemic. I have spent hours on the phone with people trying to give advice who mean well, but they really have no clue about all of the legal issues we are dealing with, my mother's personality, our family dynamics, and the way dementia was affecting her mentally. BUT I appreciate every person who took the time to talk or reach out. While they might not have had answers, at least they cared enough to try to help! In the middle of it, I found out the my blood pressure was thru the roof, so the focus had to shift to me to get that under control. Being able to find a little time every week to go in and sit down at my piano and enjoy it for every 5 minutes is what got me thru many, many 20+ hour days.

All this to say, I understand that only you can sort this out. Here's how I got thru. #1-my faith in God. #2-my determination and strong constitution that I will do whatever it takes. #3-priorities and taking it one day at a time. My wife and I sat down and thought things thru. We made a list of priorities - what had to be done 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. and a timeline to accomplish them. We adjusted daily, minute-by-minute. Every day I made a punchdown list of anything I could accomplish that day. But a very important key for me was I realized that I had to let go of the things that I could not change or that did not absolutely have to be taken care of right now. I had to trust that it would work out when it the time came.

So, try determine where your focus should be every day and make that your priority. Put your energy into the things you can change. Sort our your priorities in everything that's going on with your health, the house, etc. Your wife and children need you healthy and strong and a nice home to live in.

Maybe having the warranty work done on the CW is a good idea. At least the piano would hold tune, and it would be a little more enjoyable. I'm curious. What does your dealer say about the harshness you hear in the piano? What would it take to correct it?

Thanks for all the thoughts, stories, perspectives, and brainstorming everyone! I appreciate it!

LB, I am taking advantage of the warranty for the tuning (pinning), yes. The rest of it isn't a warranty issue, though. So even once/if all warranty issues are resolved, I am still trading in the piano for...something else.

GC13, the sound I don't like isn't anything wrong, per se, I just don't like it. (I mean, I think the tenor and upper treble have some "wrong" stuff with it, but only non-musicians and I seem to hear it--or are willing to admit it--but that's neither here nor there at this point.) But, to "correct" it, the dealer/tech tried voicing it to no avail. It's just the way the piano sounds. String/hammer mating is correct, strike points are correct, etc. I guess a lot of people LOVE the sound that the current Walters are making. Production is up. Exports are up. Value has gone up. And so on. So I've been told, anyway. To each their own. But, I am finally getting over the guilt of not liking a high end piano and doing something about it.

Sonatainfsharp
I am ! As one technician used to say of my old U1. It's amazing what a good tuning can do. I think also when it holds its tuning better , other things like voicing become more easy to accomplish successfully.
It also becomes more easy to trade/sell your Walter piano.
Best wishes. LB