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I took my kid piano shopping again. His favorite in this store was an early 1970s Schimmel grand (closely followed by a similar vintage Yamaha G3 and with a new Kawai GX6 in a distant third).

Was this a good period for Schimmels? What internet info I can find is sparse for this era. It does sound very nice.

Thanks!

I don't know very much about the 1970's Schimmel grand pianos. I do know that they made a 5'10" model in the early to mid 1980's that was a very nice piano.

Since you are considering a piano nearing 50 years old, I would encourage you to find out what kind of work was performed by the store offering the piano and what type of warranty the piano will have. Most importantly, have the piano examined by an independent technician for a condition report before jumping in.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Thanks for the info!

I believe this piano was in well-maintained but otherwise original condition, but I'll be sure to get details if we consider it seriously (as well as involve our tech).

I'm hoping pianos age better on the west coast since my kid seems to like the old ones as much as the new ones. There were some rebuilt uprights from the teens at the shop that he liked quite a bit. Yes...we'll probably be needing to bring in our piano technician for anything this kid picks out.

Schimmels have always been great pianos. One of the churches I played at had a similar vintage Schimmel that was great.

We had a Schimmel CC208T from ~1977 here for sale a couple of years ago. That's ~6'10" size. We freshened it up quite a bit, replaced key bushings and gave the action a lot of attention, but it was in largely original condition, and it still played well and had a lovely tone. It did show signs of aging in the touch and tone, but this 208 design was continued until ~2000 and was even brought back in the first generation of Schimmel "Classic" series grands.

Musically, it was sweet and lyrical but lacked punch and presence compared to other ~7' pianos. There is certainly a place for that....

I also noticed the styling of the legs and lyre of the 1970's Schimmel grands...it's conspicuously similar to style of the current Cx-series grands from Yamaha. What was once old is new again.

I do like the smaller Schimmel SP174 design as well. I haven't seen examples from the 1970's but I've seen a few from the 1980s and many from the early 1990's. I could spy clear improvements and refinements in the production over that period that lead to model changes and overall improvements. I believe the older ones were good, very good in their core construction, but I do strongly believe that the newer ones are better.

Thank you!