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Common Myths About Pianos 1. Pianos Should be kept on inside walls. This probably dates back to a time when homes didn't have central heating systems. Pianos are much more sensitive to humidity than temperature. It is not advisable to place pianos on top of heating vents where the soundboard would be exposed to hot, dry air. Direct sunlight will fade wood finishes. If the piano must be placed in direct sunlight an ebony or white polyester finish is preferable. 2. Pianos must be tuned when they are moved. There are only three reasons a good piano will go out of tune:
Strings stretch. Strings stretch throughout the life of the piano. The older the strings, the less flexible they become. When piano wire is new it has irregularities in its diameter. As it stretches, the diameter becomes more uniform, producing better tone because the overtones rings more precisely. Therefore, a new piano requires more tuning. Experts recommend four tunings the first year and twice a year thereafter. Not tuning a piano this often will not damage the piano, it will just delay the time until the piano reaches its tonal potential.
Soundboards move. Even good spruce soundboards have cellular matter between the grains. These areas take on humidity in the summer, causing the board to swell. Because the board is crowned, additional tension is forced on the strings causing them to go "sharp," or up in pitch. Additionally, the increased tension may cause the tuning pins to slip or the string to sit on a new spot at the bridge pins. In the winter, when the humidity is reduced, the board shrinks, resulting in an out-of-tune piano. If you live in a tropical area that is always humid, or a desert that is always dry, your piano will be more stable with regard to its tuning. The tighter the grain of the soundboard, the less susceptible it will be to changes in humidity. Air conditioning and furnace humidifiers will help, but will not completely eliminate the effects of seasonal changes in humidity.
Tuning pins slip. If the wood holding the tuning pins (called the 'pinblock' or 'wrestplank') has dried out and constricted, the tuning pins will not be able to hold the proper tension on the string and the pitch will go flat shortly or immediately after tuning. This problem is only correctable by replacing the pinblock. Moving a piano with loose pins may cause it to go out of tune, but the problem wasn't caused by moving. It was caused by the defect in the piano.
Any piano that can't hold its tuning through a normal move should be avoided.
Note: Defective pianos can have tuning problems related to other causes.
3. Only some pianos are handmade.
All pianos are handmade. There is no other way to build them. Specialists work on different parts of the piano during the manufacturing process. Each factory uses the best, most modern tools and machines available to them. The skills required to cast plates, cure or finish wood, fashion hammers, assemble actions or countless other processes are distinctively different. No one person could be good at all of them. The relevant issues are the amount of labor and skill of the technicians.
A Steinway piano requires about 3,000 hours of labor. Asian pianos require about 1,500 hours. Other pianos use much less. A few manufacturers, like Steinway & Sons, use a rigorous apprentice journeyman system. Factories in the southern U.S. simply assign hourly laborers to do specific jobs.
4. Bigger is better
Quality and quantity are very different things.
For example, because Steinway & Sons only builds excellent pianos, therefore they must produce them in smaller quantities. Large Chinese manufacturers, builds very many pianos at modest prices. Then there are big corporations who rely primarily on name recognition and huge advertising budgets to sell pianos, while only producing mediocre instruments.
Most big companies make a variety of quality levels which allows them to use more of their raw materials. For example, only a small portion of a Sitka spruce log is suitable for use in the sound board of a premium piano. Using any other portion will result in a low-quality soundboard.
Yamaha, Baldwin and Kawai make some very good pianos at the top of their piano range. Because the price of their best pianos approaches the cost of a Steinway, very few are ever sold. Every major concert hall has purchased at least one Steinway while other brands are provided to them on a no-cost basis by their manufacturers in exchange for promotional consideration.
It is easy for the manufacturers to blur the distinction between their best pianos, which are good enough to be used occasionally in concert halls, and their inexpensive models. When comparing pianos made by the big companies, it is critical that you find out how high up the ladder a particular model rests.
These companies only produce premium pianos under their brand name. They use the lower grade materials to build "Private Label" pianos or purchase them from other manufacturers.
You can email Mr. Billings to find our if a particular brand is "private label".
The Sting
If you see a new or late model piano with one of the following names, it is a private label piano. (This is not a comprehensive list, but these are the most common of hundreds of names. Always ask "Who manufactured this piano?" If the name of the manufacturer is not cast on the plate, beware!)
The piano industry has found only two exceptions to this rule: the Boston & Essex pianos designed by Steinway & Sons.
While Boston and Essex pianos are manufactured under contract by Kawai, Young Chang, and Pearl River., Steinway controls the material handling process and owns the designs.
Not available under any other brand name, these designs are distributed exclusively by Steinway. For example, all Boston and Essex grand pianos feature Steinway & Sons' "Model 'A' wide tail design, which offers larger soundboard area and longer strings in a more compact case.
The 5'10" (178 cm.) Boston grand piano has the same soundboard area as a typical 6'2" (189 cm.) grand piano. Click for more about...
5. Smaller is better.
Not necessarily true. There are small companies, like Steinway, but it is difficult for the other small companies to survive. It is not economically viable to build anything but premium pianos in small numbers and the majority of people willing to spend top dollar for a piano insist on a Steinway. It is hard to be small and successful in the piano business, but it is even harder to build great pianos in large quantities. Steinway is the singular example of success building a small number of pianos, but they have had over 150 years to figure it out.
6. To get a "Good Deal" you have to wait for a BIG SALE.
Not true. Many dealers and manufacturers conduct big "EVENT" sales at universities, high schools, concert halls, churches, exhibition halls or hotels. The advertising often implies that the school or concert hall is selling their used pianos. The truth is this: There are teams of high-powered salespeople with truckloads of pianos going from town to town conducting these "events." These events cost thousands of dollars to conduct and the costs can only be recovered from the buyers of these mostly new pianos.
One big manufacturer has at least one event going on somewhere every weekend. There is nothing illegal about this practice. But the prices paid by buyers are not lower than the price they could negotiate by walking into the dealer's store and talking to the owner.
No “deal” is ever a good “deal” if you are not happy with the piano over time. The best “deal” will be a purchase of a piano you love, even if you pay more than you expected to pay.
7. The true piano price is somewhere between list price and 70% off.
Most manufacturers do not publish Retail Price Lists. Steinway has a New York Retail Price list, which is the price at which the pianos are sold by Steinway's factory-owned store, Steinway Hall in New York.
Pianos are priced with the expectation that the customer may have a piano to trade in. Therefore, if you do not have a piano to trade, you should expect a discount. Some manufacturers overprice their products in an effort to make them seem more valuable. They know the pianos will be sold at a discount and this inflates the perceived savings. Steinway, conversely, is a very conservative company that is always capable of selling all of their production. Therefore, Steinway pianos are priced fairly and aren't discounted except in special situations, like churches and schools.
It is only possible to sell pianos at 40 percent to 70 percent discounts if they have been drastically overpriced in the first place. When you see an offer like this, look only at the net price and ignore the perceived savings. The net price will probably be just about the lowest price that budget pianos are normally advertised for in your market.
Steinway pianos are usually not discounted. When they are, it is usually from a higher price down to the New York Price. There are only about 2,500 pianos available to the 70 domestic dealers. That's only 35 pianos per dealer. New York and other major markets get substantially more. Therefore, each Steinway dealer will be able to sell all of the pianos they can get and the New York price often creates a glass ceiling on their price.
8. A studio upright is just about as good as a small grand.
Not true. This myth confuses quality and quantity. It is true that the length of the longest 12 strings and the number of square inches of soundboard area may be slightly larger on a big upright than on a small grand. This may result in slightly more 'boom' in the bass notes. However, this small advantage is more than offset by the other benefits of a grand over an upright.
Of the 12,000 components in a piano, the only interchangeable parts are the tuning pins. Every other part is unique to its species. There are three fundamental differences between grand pianos and uprights.
Shape. The grand piano is shaped basically the way it was designed almost 300 years ago. The design of the soundboard is a variation of an obtuse oval (egg-shaped). It is very similar to the shape of a violin or guitar. Upright pianos are square. They are designed to be practical and pretty. There are no other 'square' musical instruments (except electronic instruments where acoustic issues are not of concern). Square soundboards do not work as well for tone production.
Confinement. A grand piano is open on the top and bottom allowing the tone to resonate throughout the room. Upright pianos are confined in wooden boxes and placed close to walls. They are designed to project the sound out the back and reflect it off a wall. Usually, they are set too close to the wall to allow the sound to resonate. If you remove the cabinet pieces from an upright and place it 2 feet from the wall its tone improves considerably, but this is impractical for almost all applications.
Action. The action is everything between the key and hammer inclusive. A grand key is almost 30 percent longer than an upright key giving it considerably better leverage and more dynamic range. Gravity works with a grand action, bringing the hammer and other parts back to their resting positions quickly. Gravity works against an upright action causing them to respond more slowly.
Grands are better. That is why you never see uprights on stages or on CD covers.
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