Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Validity of Steinway testimonials

Agree with Keith (and JohnC's interpretation of Keith) above.

Talk about your celeb testimonials and Steinway marketing - - I went to the local Steinway dealer, and the sales guy gave me a bracelet that had "WWJP?" on it - - it stood for What Would Jesus Play?

thecoldeye

My Steinway dealer has been very nice to me. He gave me a tour of the Steinway factory, a jazz CD, and a book worth about $30 about how steinways are made. I think the above artists endorse Steinways because the company provides their best pianos to their concert artists (along with their best techs and tuners.)

Other than a very rare damper "twinge" the Steinway D at Symphony Center sounded great last night. (Josh Bell/Jeremy Denk) But do they need to make the Steinway logo that large?!

I'm with justme. Having practiced on our D yesterday, I found it a real bear to play compared with the B. The treble doesn't balance the bass at all and the action feels as if it has too much inertia. That's probably true of concert grands in general.

Jesus rode an *** and played a Steinway...hmmm...

Not only Steinways, I think many ohter companies also put large logos on the side(s) of their concert grands now.

Investment potential would definitely be hype. However, my personal experience is that when I looked at Ls when I was in college 20 years ago, and at Bs 10 years ago, the selling price new both times was very close to what I would have to pay for the same 20 year old L or 10 year old B today. Of course inflation significantly reduces what that dollar amount purchases today, so this obviously wouldn't be a great "investment" .

However, and this is an honest question not rhetorical since I don't have pricing experience with other makes, for the past 20 years have the other top brands held their value like this also?

Steinway only does it on their D's. Bosendorfer does it on every one of their models.

In a way, I think you could compare the concert stage Steinway with the golf clubs that the PGA Tour pros use. The club may say Titleist or Callaway on it, but there's no way it's the same club as you and I buy off at the golf store.

The pros have the designers and clubmakers fine tune the clubs so much that there's little resemblance to the "off the rack" clubs.

Much the same as the "off the rack" Steinway S, M, and L that you and I buy is not in the same league as the one on stage at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center.

But it can be with the right tech and support from a Steinway dealer.

My S&S L was prepped and voiced by a 40+ year employee of Steinway -- the same man that preps the Ds in NYC for the stage artists. The principal pianist for the Richmond Symphony gave my prepped L a "test drive" and pronounced it better than any B on the floor.

The point echos what ossk8ter said above -- with the right tech you can make it in the same league.

Pretty crass -- the answer is, he would probably play tuppin, tziltzilim, maybe a kahlil or a shofar, and a kinnor or nebel...

You are making me quite envious!!!

I believe some people in these forum have the interest and opportunity to learn, research and compare pianos. Therefore they can probably give a more realistic opinion about pianos in general than a concert pianist.
I'm talking about the many pros in the piano industry.

A concert pianist can play well practically on any functional piano. Perhaps they can tell you which instrument they felt more comfortable playing, that's it.
But definitely by no means they are qualified to make comments about who make the best pianos.

Believe it or not they don't have the resources and because most venues for performance or training are taken by the big names in the industry, rarely a pianist has the opportunity to play some of the many OUTSTANDING pianos built by other manufacturers.

Well, it appears you don't represent Steinway. hmmmm..... curiouser and curiouser.

I find the constant discussion about Steinway here stupifying.

We all know that it's not all gold that shines out there.

Among the 9' concert grands I have played - once and for all - some of the very best actually were Steinways, mostly *Hamburgs*.

Of the other models tried out, many were fine - many nice - a few were VERY nice, with a lot being *not so fine* or at least nothing special as well.

If they would stop claiming to be "like no other", "incomparable to all others" and all the other superlative claims being made - they perhaps wouldn't run into so much antagonism here on the Forum.

I mean, I'd never claim my Steigermans are necessarily the absolute best pianos in the world neither.....

norbert

Come on Norbert. People here don't make those kind of claims. At least not unless they are talking about Estonia.

Norbert, you're a dealer in a very competitive market, and I know the Steinway marketing strategies rub you the wrong way. You've been very vocal in your opinions about this and at times after reading your comments I've bristled quite a bit. However, you have a right to express your feelings as much as I do -- we just happen to be standing opposite of one another on some issues.

I absolutely agree with you that not all Steinways are wonderful. I believe I played about ten of them over a six month period before finding the one that I knew was right for me. And that is what it's all about to the pianist: finding the one that's right for them and their tastes.

Steinway claims may lure someone into the showroom, but if the piano doesn't resonate within their musical spirit and doesn't meld with their conception of what something should sound like or how it should feel under their hands, they ain't gonna buy it, regardless of all the hype they are fed!

My opinion is that people who buy Steinways for the wrong reasons (fallboard snobbery) deserve to own a turkey.

I've played some fabulous Steinways.. and ssome not so, like a lot of brands. But the ones I played that I liked, I loved for both the touch and the tone.

Now why can't a concert pianist be entitled to his opinion on which piano he played that day is best, just like anyone on here is? After all, anyone who has shopped for a grand has had to make that very jusdgement for themselves.

But I can tell you that if Steinway made sure I had a beautifully prepped D for me wherever I went, I'd tell you they were the best piano in the world too. It's only advertising.

Norbert,
Sounds like sour grapes. You have a great product line IMHO, therefroe, sour grapes don't seem necessary.

my 2 cents,

I've enjoyed playing most of the ABCD Steinways I've run across (admittedly, I've come across darned few C's and D's!). What I really would like to play is one of Del's "Killer B's". Anyone know if there is one in the Dallas area?