piano yamaha

Posted on March 24th, 2017

piano yamaha

piano yamaha, we at Manila Pianos Inc. have many Yamaha U1, U2,U3 and other Yamaha and Kawai pianos for sale. Watch out for the ones for sale with false serial numbers, there are many, they have been modified to look younger, mostly Yamaha pianos for the 1950s and 1960s that have been furnished with a 5M or 6M serial number and made to look good by respraying the cabinet. We have seen almost 80% of all Yamahas we can trade in liken this.

You can see this by looking at the color of the gold paint closely around the serial number, if you look closely you will see that the gold paint is a slightly different color because the original gold paint was removed and new gold paint was sprayed in that square and then they put a new serial number there. Also, when you cannot find any serial number on all the other places it should be because it was painted over or removed, you know. You can look here to find the serial number(s).

There is nothing wrong with an older piano, you must know that they are mostly better built than the newer ones, parts as well as labor is better in 1980-2000 Yamaha’s but the pianos can often not be sold as is because they need many parts replaced. We always do this work and therefore the pianos cost more than the same pianos where parts are not replaced. (hammers, strings, pins and velts must often be replaced, if not you will see rust and some ‘dead’ string sounds)

On our website you will find more very helpful tips.

Please VISIT OUR SHOWROOM, call us at (02) 801.3431 local 401 or 0917.895.0011 or email us for an appointment or more detailed information.


upright piano price manila philippines

Posted on March 19th, 2017

upright piano price manila philippines

upright piano price manila philippines by www.pianos.ph, nothing beats Pearl River, chosen as BEST PIANO IN THE WORLD FOR PRICE-QUALITY in both 2015 and 2016, imported and sold by Manila Pianos, Model 115 Studio Upright starts at PHP 159,000 (see picture) where Yamaha made in Indonesia starts at PHP 260,000 for a 108 piano, that is a small spinet, a full 8 inches shorter string and piano. Guess what people prefer, of course Pearl River. And this price includes local delivery, free tuning and bench, it’s a used price for a great new piano! Grand Pianos PHP 499.000 also a super bargain versus more money for a Indonesian made Yamaha. DETAIL: Pearl River made Yamaha pianos for the last 12 years!

The Pearl River Story

Did you know that the Pearl River Piano Group owns the largest piano factory in the world? The Pearl River factory shipped approximate 100,000 pianos around the globe in 2015, resulting in the brand becoming the world’s most selected acoustic piano by unit volume. With a capacity to produce over 100,000 pianos a year Pearl River exports to more than 80 countries all over the world. In North America alone, Pearl River started with nothing in 1999 and now has the country’s largest dealer network and is the fastest-growing piano company in the U.S. and Canada. It’s a piano success story that began in 1956 with a tiny piano company producing four upright pianos a month.

Quality Without Compromise
Many factors have contributed to the dramatic growth of Pearl River over the last 50 years: a tradition of manufacturing expertise, a loyal and skilled work force, extremely favorable overall production costs. Pearl River has focused its efforts on improving quality at every step in the production process. More than 250 engineers and technicians are focused on machine design and equipment management with separate divisions dedicated to product design and technology. And the resulting success has been spectacular on every level.

 


Church Organs by CONTENT Philippines Manila Cebu Davao

Posted on March 19th, 2017

Church Organs by CONTENT Philippines Manila Cebu Davao

Church Organs by CONTENT Philippines Manila Cebu Davao are imported by www.pianos.ph in Manila and distributed in the Philippines.

CONTENT organs are the most durable organs in the world because they are produced with all gold contacts sealed by plastic coatings reducing the influence of the weather to a minimum.

CONTENT presents Churches, Institutions, Conservatories, Music schools and private users a wide choice in digital classical organs. Over the decades innovation, quality and excellent craftsmanship with respect to tradition have created a strong brand image.

Many years of experience, a healthy balance sheet and a dedicated worldwide distributor network and trained employees are the backbone of the Content Organ Company.

Our organs meet the needs of the demanding organist on all continents of the globe and bring inspiration to musicians and listeners alike.

Our Invention Technology allows this sounds adequate and quality on a new level. The newly developed reverb allows at any time for the optimal experience from small house to big cathedral reverb.

As the first manufacturer CONTENT organs also allows you can move virtual in the space. A breakthrough! Finally, high-quality digital amplifiers, speaker system and an integrated 3D surround system guarantees an optimal reproduction of the sound.

CONTENT has now also in it’s line up the BAMBOO organ pictured here. This innovative organ is specially made for Asia. Call us at Manila Pianos at 02.801.3431 x 401 to discuss prices, options, pipe additions.


Baguio Piano and Church Organs

Posted on March 19th, 2017

Baguio Piano and Church Organs

Baguio Piano and Church Organs by Manila Pianos Inc. we bring the pianos to your home in Baguio or institution and set it up. We refund you the airline ticket if you purchase a grand piano from us. We also rebuild pianos in our huge rebuilding shop in Paranaque. Call us at 02.801.3431 x 401 any time. We also sell CONTENT  digital pipe and church organs and harpsichords.

ManilaPianos Inc. is Philippine’s largest  piano and organ center with a huge showroom gallery and piano restoration center in Makati. We specialize in the rebuilding of Steinway & Sons, Bosendorfer, Yamaha and other grand pianos and the sale of new and used Fazioli, Pearl River, Schimmel, Yamaha, Kawai, Bechstein, Bosendorfer and other pianos. We provide high quality piano tuning, voicing and complete rebuilding services. Our website is www.pianos.ph

The story of the piano begins in Padua, Italy in 1709, in the shop of a harpsichord maker named Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori (1655-1731). Many other stringed and keyboard instruments preceded the piano and led to the development of the instrument as we know it today.

Mankind’s knowledge that a taut, vibrating string can produce sound goes back to prehistoric times. In the ancient world, strings were attached and stretched over bows, gourds, and boxes to amplify the sound; they were fastened by ties, pegs and pins; and they were plucked, bowed or struck to produce sounds. :Picture is early Clavichord.

Eventually, a family of stringed instruments with a keyboard evolved in Europe in the 14th century. The earliest of these was a dulcimer, a closed, shallow box over which stretched wires were struck with two wooden hammers. The dulcimer led to the development of the clavichord, which also appeared in the 14th century. These were followed by the spinet, virginal, clavecin, gravicembalo, and finally, the harpsichord in the 15th century.

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano’s versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the world’s most familiar musical instruments.

Pressing a key on the piano’s keyboard causes a felt-covered hammer to strike steel strings. The hammers rebound, allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a sounding board that more efficiently couples the acoustic energy to the air. The sound would otherwise be no louder than that directly produced by the strings. When the key is released, a damper stops the string’s vibration. See the article on Piano key frequencies for a picture of the piano keyboard and the location of middle-C. In the Hornbostel-Sachs system of instrument classification, pianos are considered chordophones.

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano’s versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the world’s most familiar musical instruments.

The word piano is a shortened form of pianoforte, the Italian word for the instrument (which in turn derives from the previous terms “gravicembalo col piano e forte” and fortepiano). The musical terms “piano” and “forte” mean “quiet” and “loud,” and in this context refers to the variations in volume of sound the instrument produces in response to a pianist’s touch on the keys: the greater a key press’s velocity, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the string(s), and the louder the note.

The piano is founded on earlier technological innovations. The first string instruments with struck strings were the hammered dulcimers. During the Middle Ages, there were several attempts at creating stringed keyboard instruments with struck strings.By the 17th century, the mechanisms of keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and the harpsichord were well known. In a clavichord the strings are struck by tangents, while in a harpsichord they are plucked by quills. Centuries of work on the mechanism of the harpsichord in particular had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and keyboard.

The invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, as the Keeper of the Instruments. He was an expert harpsichord maker, and was well acquainted with the body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698. A friend of the family by the name of Sebastian LeBlanc suggested the idea to switch the black and white keys. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.

While the clavichord allowed expressive control of volume and sustain, it was too quiet for large performances. The harpsichord produced a sufficiently loud sound, but had little expressive control over each note. The piano was likely formed as an attempt to combine loudness with control, avoiding the trade-offs of available instruments.

Cristofori’s great success was solving, with no prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammer must strike the string, but not remain in contact with it (as a tangent remains in contact with a clavichord string) because this would dampen the sound. Moreover, the hammer must return to its rest position without bouncing violently, and it must be possible to repeat a note rapidly. Cristofori’s piano action was a model for the many different approaches to piano actions that followed. Cristofori’s early instruments were made with thin strings, and were much quieter than the modern piano—but compared to the clavichord (the only previous keyboard instrument capable of dynamic nuance via the keyboard) they were much louder and had more sustain.

Cristofori’s new instrument remained relatively unknown until an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei, wrote an enthusiastic article about it (1711), including a diagram of the mechanism. This article was widely distributed, and most of the next generation of piano builders started their work due to reading it. One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Silbermann’s pianos were virtually direct copies of Cristofori’s, with one important addition: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper pedal, which lifts all the dampers from the strings simultaneously.

Silbermann showed Johann Sebastian Bach one of his early instruments in the 1730s, but Bach did not like it at that time, claiming that the higher notes were too soft to allow a full dynamic range. Although this earned him some animosity from Silbermann, the criticism was apparently heeded. Bach did approve of a later instrument he saw in 1747, and even served as an agent in selling Silbermann’s pianos.

Piano-making flourished during the late 18th century in the Viennese school, which included Johann Andreas Stein (who worked in Augsburg, Germany) and the Viennese makers Nannette Streicher (daughter of Stein) and Anton Walter. Viennese-style pianos were built with wood frames, two strings per note, and had leather-covered hammers. Some of these Viennese pianos had the opposite coloring of modern-day pianos; the natural keys were black and the accidental keys white.[7] It was for such instruments that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his concertos and sonatas, and replicas of them are built today for use in authentic-instrument performance of his music. The pianos of Mozart’s day had a softer, more ethereal tone than today’s pianos or English pianos, with less sustaining power. The term fortepiano is nowadays often used to distinguish the 18th-century instrument from later pianos.

In the period lasting from about 1790 to 1860, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes that led to the modern form of the instrument. This revolution was in response to a preference by composers and pianists for a more powerful, sustained piano sound, and made possible by the ongoing Industrial Revolution with resources such as high-quality piano wire for strings, and precision casting for the production of iron frames. Over time, the tonal range of the piano was also increased from the five octaves of Mozart’s day to the 7¼ or more octaves found on modern pianos.

Broadwood square action. (see picture) Early technological progress owed much to the firm of Broadwood. John Broadwood joined with another Scot, Robert Stodart, and a Dutchman, Americus Backers, to design a piano in the harpsichord case—the origin of the “grand”. They achieved this in about 1777. They quickly gained a reputation for the splendour and powerful tone of their instruments, with Broadwood constructing ones that were progressively larger, louder, and more robustly constructed. They sent pianos to both Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, and were the first firm to build pianos with a range of more than five octaves: five octaves and a fifth during the 1790s, six octaves by 1810 (Beethoven used the extra notes in his later works), and seven octaves by 1820. The Viennese makers similarly followed these trends, however the two schools used different piano actions: Broadwoods were more robust, Viennese instruments were more sensitive.

Erard square action. By the 1820s, the center of innovation had shifted to Paris, where the Pleyel firm manufactured pianos used by Frédéric Chopin and the Érard firm manufactured those used by Franz Liszt. In 1821, Sébastien Érard invented the double escapement action, which incorporated a repetition lever (also called the balancier) that permitted a note to be repeated even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position. This facilitated rapid playing of repeated notes, and this musical device was pioneered by Liszt. When the invention became public, as revised by Henri Herz, the double escapement action gradually became standard in grand pianos, and is still incorporated into all grand pianos currently produced.

Other improvements of the mechanism included the use of felt hammer coverings instead of layered leather or cotton. Felt, which was first introduced by Henri Pape in 1826, was a more consistent material, permitting wider dynamic ranges as hammer weights and string tension increased. The sostenuto pedal (see below), invented in 1844 by Jean Louis Boisselot and improved by the Steinway firm in 1874, allowed a wider range of effects.

One of the major technical innovations that helped to create the sound of the modern piano was the use of a strong iron frame. Also called the “plate”, the iron frame sits atop the soundboard, and serves as the primary bulwark against the force of string tension. The increased structural integrity of the iron frame allowed the use of thicker, tenser, and more numerous strings. In a modern grand the total string tension can exceed 20 tons. The single piece cast iron frame was patented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus Babcock, combining the metal hitch pin plate (1821, claimed by Broadwood on behalf of Samuel Hervé) and resisting bars (Thom and Allen, 1820, but also claimed by Broadwood and Érard). Babcock later worked for the Chickering & Mackays firm who patented the first full iron frame for grand pianos in 1843. Composite forged metal frames were preferred by many European makers until the American system was fully adopted by the early 20th century.

Other important advances included changes to the way the piano was strung, such as the use of a “choir” of three strings rather than two for all but the lowest notes, and the implementation of an over-strung scale in which the strings are placed in two separate planes, each with its own bridge height. (This is also called “cross-stringing”. Whereas earlier instruments’ bass strings were a mere continuation of a single string plane, over-stringing placed the bass bridge behind and to the treble side of the tenor bridge area. This crossed the strings, with the bass strings in the higher plane.) This permitted a much narrower cabinet at the “nose” end of the piano, and optimized the transition from unwound tenor strings to the iron or copper-wrapped bass strings. Over-stringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s, and first patented for use in grand pianos in the United States by Henry Steinway, Jr. in 1859.

Duplex scaling of an 1883 Steinway Model ‘A’. From lower left to upper right: main sounding length of strings, treble bridge, duplex string length, duplex bar (nickel-plated bar parallel to bridge), hitchpins, plate strut with bearing bolt, plate hole.Duplex scaling, patented in 1872 by Theodore Steinway, enhanced the voice of each note by using sympathetic vibration. Short lengths of non-speaking wire were bridged by the aliquot throughout much of upper range of the piano, always in locations that caused them to vibrate in conformity with their respective overtones—typically in doubled octaves and twelfths. Somewhat similar systems were developed by Blüthner (Aliquot stringing, 1873), as well as Taskin (1788), and Collard (1821). Each used more distinctly ringing, undamped vibrations to modify tone. Picture is Steinway in The White House in Washington.

Some early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The square piano (not truly square, but rectangular) was cross strung at an extremely acute angle above the hammers, with the keyboard set along the long side. This design is attributed to Gottfried Silbermann or Christian Ernst Friderici on the continent, and Johannes Zumpe or Harman Vietor in England, and it was improved by changes first introduced by Guillaume-Lebrecht Petzold in France and Alpheus Babcock in the United States. Square pianos were built in great numbers through the 1840s in Europe and the 1890s in America, and saw the most visible change of any type of piano: the iron-framed, over-strung squares manufactured by Steinway & Sons were more than two-and-a-half times the size of Zumpe’s wood-framed instruments from a century before. Their overwhelming popularity was due to inexpensive construction and price, although their tone and performance were limited by narrow soundboards, simple actions and string spacing that made proper hammer alignment difficult.

The mechanism in upright pianos is perpendicular to the keys.The tall, vertically strung upright grand was arranged like a grand set on end, with the soundboard and bridges above the keys, and tuning pins below them. The term was later revived by many manufacturers for advertising purposes. Giraffe, pyramid and lyre pianos were arranged in a somewhat similar fashion in evocatively shaped cases.

The very tall cabinet piano was introduced about 1805 and was built through the 1840s. It had strings arranged vertically on a continuous frame with bridges extended nearly to the floor, behind the keyboard and very large sticker action. The short cottage upright or pianino with vertical stringing, made popular by Robert Wornum around 1815, was built into the 20th century. They are informally called birdcage pianos because of their prominent damper mechanism. Pianinos were distinguished from the oblique, or diagonally strung upright made popular in France by Roller & Blanchet during the late 1820s. The tiny spinet upright was manufactured from the mid-1930s until recent times. The low position of the hammers required the use of a “drop action” to preserve a reasonable keyboard height.

Modern upright and grand pianos attained their present forms by the end of the 19th century. Improvements have been made in manufacturing processes, and many individual details of the instrument continue to receive attention.

Much of the most widely admired piano repertoire, for example, that of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, was composed for a type of instrument (the pianoforte) that is rather different from the modern instruments on which this music is normally performed today. Even the music of the Romantics, including Liszt, Chopin, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms, was written for pianos substantially different from modern pianos.

In grand pianos, the frame and strings are horizontal, with the strings extending away from the keyboard. The action lies beneath the strings, and uses gravity as its means of return to a state of rest.

There are many sizes of grand piano. A rough generalization distinguishes the concert grand (between about 2.2 m and 3 m/9.84 feet long) from the parlor grand or boudoir grand (about 1.7 m to 2.2 m) and the smaller baby grand (around 1.5 m).

All else being equal, longer pianos with longer strings have larger, richer sound and lower inharmonicity of the strings. Inharmonicity is the degree to which the frequencies of overtones (known as partials or harmonics) sound sharp relative to whole multiples of the fundamental frequency. This results from the piano’s considerable string stiffness; as a struck string decays its harmonics vibrate, not from their termination, but from a point very slightly toward the center (or more flexible part) of the string. The higher the partial, the further sharp it runs. Pianos with shorter and thicker strings, i.e. small pianos with short string scales, have more inharmonicity. The greater the inharmonicity, the more the ear perceives it as harshness of tone.

Inharmonicity requires octaves to be “stretched”, or tuned to a lower octave’s corresponding sharp overtone rather than to a theoretically correct octave. If octaves are not stretched, single octaves sound in tune, but double—and notably triple—octaves are unacceptably narrow. Stretching a small piano’s octaves to match its inherent inharmonicity level creates an imbalance among all the instrument’s intervallic relationships, not just its octaves. In a concert grand, however, the octave “stretch” retains harmonic balance, even when aligning treble notes to a harmonic produced from three octaves below. This lets close and widespread octaves sound pure, and produces virtually beatless perfect fifths. This gives the concert grand a brilliant, singing and sustaining tone quality—one of the principal reasons that full-size grands are used in the concert hall. Smaller grands satisfy the space and cost needs of domestic use.

Upright pianos, also called vertical pianos, are more compact because the frame and strings are vertical. The hammers move horizontally, and return to their resting position via springs, which are susceptible to degradation. Upright pianos with unusually tall frames and long strings are sometimes called upright grand pianos. Some authors classify modern pianos according to their height and to modifications of the action that are necessary to accommodate the height.

Studio pianos are around 42 to 45 inches tall. This is the shortest cabinet that can accommodate a full-sized action located above the keyboard.
Console pianos have a compact action (shorter hammers), and are a few inches shorter than studio models.
The top of a spinet model barely rises above the keyboard. The action is located below, operated by vertical wires that are attached to the backs of the keys. Anything taller than a studio piano is called an upright.

In 1863, Henri Fourneaux invented the player piano, which plays itself from a piano roll. A machine perforates a performance recording into rolls of paper, and the player piano replays the performance using pneumatic devices. Modern equivalents of the player piano include the Bösendorfer CEUS and the Yamaha Disklavier, using solenoids and MIDI rather than pneumatics and rolls.

A silent piano is an acoustic piano having an option to silence the strings by means of an interposing hammer bar. They are designed for private silent practice.

Edward Ryley invented the transposing piano in 1801. It has a lever under the keyboard as to move the keyboard relative to the strings so a pianist can play in a familiar key while the music sounds in a different key.

The prepared piano, present in some contemporary art music, is a piano with objects placed inside it to alter its sound, or has had its mechanism changed in some other way. The scores for music for prepared piano specify the modifications, for example instructing the pianist to insert pieces of rubber, paper, metal screws, or washers in between the strings. These either mute the strings or alter their timbre. A harpsichord-like sound can be produced by placing or dangling small metal buttons in front of the hammer.

Electric pianos use electromagnetic pickups to amplify the sound of the strings. Playing a note loudly causes the electric signal to clip, and the player can incorporate the distortion into his or her expressive range.

Digital pianos use digital sampling technology to reproduce the sound of each piano note. Digital pianos can be sophisticated, with features including working pedals, weighted keys, multiple voices, and MIDI interfaces. However, when one depresses the damper pedal (see below) on such an instrument, there are no strings to vibrate sympathetically. The synthesis software of some higher end digital pianos, such as the Yamaha Clavinova series, or the KAWAI MP8 series, incorporates physical models of sympathetic vibration.

With the advent of powerful desktop computers, highly realistic pianos have become available as affordable software modules. Some of these modules, such as the 2004 Synthogy’s Ivory, use multi-gigabyte piano sample sets with as many as 90 recordings, each lasting many seconds, for each of the 88 (some have 81) keys under different conditions. Additional samples emulate sympathetic resonance, key release, the drop of the dampers, and simulations of piano techniques like re-pedaling to augment these conditions. Some other software modules, such as Modartt’s 2006 Pianoteq, use no samples whatsoever and are a pure synthesis of all aspects of the physicalities that go into the creation of a real piano’s sound.

Today, piano manufactures take advantage of innovative pianos that play themselves via a CD or MP3 player. Similar in concept to a player piano, the PianoDisc or iQ systems allow pianos to “play themselves” when the software interprets a certain file format. Such additions are quite expensive, often doubling the cost of a piano. These pianos are available in both upright and grand.

Keyboard of a Steinway grand pianoAlmost every modern piano has 36 black keys and 52 white keys for a total of 88 keys (seven octaves plus a minor third, from A0 to C8). Many older pianos only have 85 keys (seven octaves from A0 to A7), while some manufacturers extend the range further in one or both directions.

Some Bösendorfer pianos, for example, extend the normal range down to F0, with one other model going as far as a bottom C0, making a full eight octave range. These extra keys are sometimes hidden under a small hinged lid that can cover the keys to prevent visual disorientation for pianists unfamiliar with the extra keys. On others, the colors of the extra white keys are reversed (black instead of white).

The extra keys are added primarily for increased resonance from the associated strings; that is, they vibrate sympathetically with other strings whenever the damper pedal is depressed and thus give a fuller tone. Only a very small number of works composed for piano actually use these notes. More recently, the Stuart and Sons company has also manufactured extended-range pianos, with the first 102 key piano. On their instruments, the frequency range extends from C0 to F8, which is the widest practical range for the acoustic piano. The extra keys are the same as the other keys in appearance. See picture of Bosendorfer model 290.

Small studio upright acoustical pianos with only 65 keys have been manufactured for use by roving pianists. Known as gig pianos and still containing a cast iron harp, these are comparatively lightweight and can be easily transported to and from engagements by only two people. As their harp is longer than that of a spinet or console piano, they have a stronger bass sound that to some pianists is well worth the trade-off in range that a reduced key-set offers.

The toy piano manufacturer Schoenhut started manufacturing both grands and uprights with only 44 or 49 keys, and shorter distance between the keyboard and the pedals. These pianos are true pianos with action and strings. The pianos were introduced to their product line in response to numerous requests in favor of it.

Piano pedals from left to right: una corda, sostenuto, and sustain pedalPianos have had pedals, or some close equivalent, since the earliest days. (In the 18th century, some pianos used levers pressed upward by the player’s knee instead of pedals.) Most grand pianos in the US have three pedals: the soft pedal (una corda), sostenuto, and sustain pedal (from left to right, respectively), while in Europe, the standard is two pedals: the soft pedal and the sustain pedal. Most modern upright pianos also have three pedals: soft pedal, practice pedal and sustain pedal, though older or cheaper models may lack the practice pedal. In Europe the standard for upright pianos is two pedals: the soft and the sustain pedals.

The sustain pedal (or, damper pedal) is often simply called “the pedal”, since it is the most frequently used. It is placed as the rightmost pedal in the group. It lifts the dampers from all keys, sustaining all played notes. In addition, it alters the overall tone by allowing all strings, including those not directly played, to reverberate.

The soft pedal or una corda pedal is placed leftmost in the row of pedals. In grand pianos it shifts the entire action/keyboard assembly to the right (a very few instruments have shifted left) so that the hammers hit two of the three strings for each note. In the earliest pianos whose unisons were bichords rather than trichords, the action shifted so that hammers hit a single string, hence the name una corda, or ‘one string’. The effect is to soften the note as well as change the tone. In uprights this action is not possible; instead the pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings, allowing the hammers to strike with less kinetic energy. This produces a slightly softer sound, but no change in timbre.

On grand pianos, the middle pedal is a sostenuto pedal. This pedal keeps raised any damper already raised at the moment the pedal is depressed. This makes it possible to sustain selected notes (by depressing the sostenuto pedal before those notes are released) while the player’s hands are free to play additional notes (which aren’t sustained). This can be useful for musical passages with pedal points and other otherwise tricky or impossible situations.

On many upright pianos, the middle pedal is called the “practice” or celeste pedal. This drops a piece of felt between the hammers and strings, greatly muting the sounds. Often this pedal can be shifted while depressed, into a “locking” position.

There are also non-standard variants. On some pianos (grands and verticals), the middle pedal can be a bass sustain pedal: that is, when it is depressed, the dampers lift off the strings only in the bass section. Players use this pedal to sustain a single bass note or chord over many measures, while playing the melody in the treble section. On the Stuart and Sons piano as well as the largest Fazioli piano, there is a fourth pedal to the left of the principal three. This fourth pedal works in the same way as the soft pedal of an upright piano, moving the hammers closer to the strings.

The rare transposing piano (such as owned by Irving Berlin) has a middle pedal that functions as a clutch that disengages the keyboard from the mechanism, enabling the keyboard to be moved to the left or right with a lever. The entire action of the piano is thus shifted to allow the pianist to play music written in one key so that it sounds in a different key.

There were three piano companies to include extra pedals other than the standard two or three. Two of these companies offered a piano with four pedals (Crown and Schubert Piano Co.), and Wing and Son of New York offered a five-pedal piano from approximately 1893 through the 1920s. There is no mention of the company past the 1930s. Labeled left to right the pedals are Mandolin, Orchestra, Expression, Soft, and Forte (Sustain). The Mandolin pedal produces a sound similar to a vibrato feel by bouncing a set of small hammers against the strings, enabling the piano to mimic a mandolin, guitar, banjo, zither and harp. The Orchestra (Orch) pedal used a similar approach, lowering a set of metal-tipped felt strips in between the hammers and the strings. This extended the life of the hammers when the Orch pedal was used, a good idea for practicing, and created an echo-like sound that mimicked playing in an orchestral hall.

The pedalier piano, or pedal piano, is a rare type of piano that includes a pedalboard, enabling bass register notes to be played with the feet, as is standard on the organ. There are two types of pedal piano: the pedal board may be an integral part of the instrument, using the same strings and mechanism as the manual keyboard, or, less frequently, it may consist of two independent pianos (each with its separate mechanics and strings), which are placed one above the other, a regular piano played by the hands and a bass-register piano played by the feet. This was developed primarily as a practice instrument for organists, although there is a small repotoire written specifically for the instrument.

Many parts of a piano are made of materials selected for strength and longevity. This is especially true of the outer rim. It is most commonly made of hardwood, typically maple or beech, and its massiveness serves as an essentially immobile object from which the flexible soundboard can best vibrate. According to Harold A. Conklin, the purpose of a sturdy rim is so that “the vibrational energy will stay as much as possible in the soundboard instead of dissipating uselessly in the case parts, which are inefficient radiators of sound.”

Yet Bösendorfer, (now owned by Yamaha)  the Austrian manufacturer of high quality pianos, constructs their rim from spruce, the very same wood that the soundboard is made from. Their idea is to concertedly involve the cabinet in the projection and coloration of sound. The loss of energy into the Bösendorfer case alters the instrument’s tone, giving it perhaps less power but a complex and unusually resonant sound.

View from below of a 182-cm grand piano. In order of distance from viewer: softwood braces, tapered soundboard ribs, soundboard. The metal rod at lower right is a humidity control device.The finest hardwood rims are made by laminating thin (hence flexible) strips of hardwood, bending them to the desired shape immediately after the application of glue. This system was developed by Theodore Steinway in 1880. The thick wooden posts on the underside (grands) or back (uprights) of the piano stabilize the rim structure, and are made of softwood for stability. The requirement of structural strength, fulfilled by stout hardwood and thick metal, makes a piano heavy; even a small upright can weigh 136 kg (300 lb), and the Steinway concert grand (Model D) weighs 480 kg (990 lb). The largest piano built, the Fazioli F308, weighs 691 kg (1520 lb).

The pinblock, which holds the tuning pins in place, is another area where toughness is important. It is made of hardwood, (typically hard maple or beech), and is laminated for strength, stability and longevity. Piano strings (also called piano wire), which must endure years of extreme tension and hard blows, are made of high carbon steel. They are manufactured to vary as little as possible in diameter, since all deviations from uniformity introduce tonal distortion. The bass strings of a piano are made of a steel core wrapped with copper wire, to increase their mass whilst retaining flexibility. If all strings throughout the piano’s compass were individual (monochord), the massive bass strings would overpower the upper ranges. Makers compensate for this with the use of double (bichord) strings in the tenor and triple (trichord) strings throughout the treble.

Cast iron plate of a Steinway grand piano: The plate, or metal frame, of a piano is usually made of cast iron. It is advantageous for the plate to be very massive. Since the strings vibrate from the plate at both ends, vibrations absorbed by the plate result in energy loss to the desired (efficient) sound transmission channel, namely the bridge and the soundboard. While some manufacturers use cast steel in their plates, most prefer cast iron. Cast iron is easy to cast and machine, has flexibility sufficient for piano use, is much more resistant to deformation than steel, and is especially tolerant of compression. Plate casting is an art, since dimensions are crucial and the iron shrinks about one percent during cooling.

Including an extremely large piece of metal in a piano is potentially an aesthetic handicap. Piano makers overcome this by polishing, painting, and decorating the plate. Plates often include the manufacturer’s ornamental medallion. In an effort to make pianos lighter, Alcoa worked with Winter and Company piano manufacturers to make pianos using an aluminum plate during the 1940s. Aluminum piano plates were not widely accepted, and were discontinued.

The numerous grand parts and upright parts of a piano action are generally hardwood, e.g., maple, beech, or hornbeam. However, since WWII, makers have used some plastics. Early plastics were incorporated into some pianos in the late 1940s and 1950s, but proved disastrous because they lost strength after a few decades of use. The Steinway firm once incorporated Teflon, a synthetic material developed by DuPont, for some grand action parts in place of cloth, but abandoned the experiment due to excessive friction and a “clicking” that developed over time. (Teflon is “humidity stable” whereas the wood adjacent to the Teflon swells and shrinks with humidity changes, causing problems.) More recently, the Kawai firm built pianos with action parts made of more modern materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic, and the piano parts manufacturer Wessell, Nickel and Gross has launched a new line of carefully engineered composite parts. Thus far these parts have performed reasonably, but it will take decades to know if they equal the longevity of wood.

In all but the poorest pianos the soundboard is made of solid spruce (that is, spruce boards glued together along the side grain). Spruce’s high ratio of strength to weight minimizes acoustic impedance while offering strength sufficient to withstand the downward force of the strings. The best piano makers use quarter-sawn, defect-free spruce (eastern white) of close annular grain, carefully seasoning it over a long period before fabricating the soundboards.  There are several qualities of spruce, from good to not so good:

eastern white spruce, (northern Canada only)

alaskan spruce, (Alaska)

sitka spruce, (Russia, middle Canada)

spruce (southern Canada, China, US)

Cheap pianos often have plywood soundboards.

In the early years of piano construction, keys were commonly made from sugar pine. Today they are likely to be made of spruce or basswood. Spruce is typically used in high-quality pianos. The black keys were traditionally made from ebony and the white keys were covered with strips of ivory, but since ivory-yielding species are now endangered and protected by treaty, plastics are now almost exclusively used. Also, ivory tends to chip more easily than plastic. Legal ivory can still be obtained in limited quantity, but it is very expensive.

 

 


Manila Pianos Inc. Newsletter March 2017

Posted on March 15th, 2017

Manila Pianos Inc. Newsletter March 2017

Manila Pianos Inc. Newsletter March 2017, Welcome to our March/April 2017 e-newsletter full of great news!

Our website is www.pianos.ph and we are Philippine’s Piano and Organ Superstore located in Ronac Lifestyle Center Paseo de Magallanes in Makati. Landline 02.801.3431 Local 401, Globe 0917.895.0011

We especially welcome over 700 churches that are now part of our newsletter. We will dedicate this newsletter to your needs!

We sell CONTENT pipe organs and digital organs (see picture) they are very reasonable in price, last a long time because all their components are gold and sealed so no rust or climate can enter, have an automatic pedal, so every pianist can play it and are very reasonable in price! You can see them in our showroom.

And… if your church purchases a CONTENT organ, we will personally give you FREE organ lessons for 1 year so the organist can get familiar with pedal playing and organ stops, even the books are free, and I guarantee good results for any reasonable piano player.

 

Korg/Pearl River digital church pianos…

We are hearing it all the time; we would like an organ and/or good sounding (digital) piano our church, but they are so expensive, they don’t last long, or, we have no organist to play it! We solve these problems for you, look at the Korg here: 

This Korg PRK 80 is the latest technology, this development sound absolutely out of this world and is really really inexpensive at PHP 79,900.00 only and available in black or white and will last long because of its super modern design, no weather can get into it.

Fully equipped with midi in-out-thru, head phone jack, line out etc.

Come and see these beautiful pianos and organs for yourself in our show room. I will gladly demo them for you. For more info or personal appointment call or text to 0917.895.0011 or email us.

 

Get a piano for you or your church, we make it easy!

Manila Piano’s finest at PHP 159,000.00. Where can you find a brand new 115 cm high upright piano that sells at this price? Chosen as best piano in the world 2015.  A cheap Yamaha 108 cm made in Indonesia cost PHP 100,000 more for much less piano!

Young Chang u 131

We are seeing a lot of people make the mistake to go to the internet and just look for a Yamaha. They will find something in the range of PHP 100,000 or more, to find out later that the piano is 60-70 years old and just made to look good and the serial number was changed to pretend it to be a newer model.

We can assure you, a 45 inch Studio Upright piano of the quality of Pearl River is by far the best quality for money in the whole wide world, and you should come and try them out for yourself. A new piano for a used piano’s price. Our prices here in Manila, taxes incl. are less than in the USA! Here’s the USA site. And here’s the USA prices.

 

Want a different grand piano? Look at this.

You really want to have a “different” grand piano? A grand piano that nobody in Asia has? Come to our store now to play this magnificently restored Bechstein 6’4″ that was originally made in 1899, the wood is cured so this piano will not give any trouble. See more here.

We have worked on this magnificent piano for more than a year to restore it to its former glory. We have preserved the original sound board, put in a new open faced pin block and hammers from Steinway/Renner and mad it polished black with slight classy silver accents.

Is your church looking for a grand piano? We have lots of selection and if we don’t have what you want, we can bring it in within reasonable time.

This Bechstein is available for only 1.9M, which is a bargain, a new one, not quite as good, would sell for around 5M.

 

From our rebuilding shop, Steinway & Sons are here!

Special opportunity: Rare STEINWAY & SONS upright piano Model K (52″ see pic). This one sounds and looks better than a new one, with real ivory keys, cost PHP 3.5M when bought new in a cheap cabinet that these days is not even wood any more. This solid wood superb piano is available for PHP 1,695.000.00. Not one like this in the Philippines. More here.

Now is your time to buy a Steinway & Sons. Prices will increase again soon by some 10-15% like every year. We have an awesome selection of slightly used and rebuilt Steinways with all genuine Steinway parts at 50% off, models S, M, O, B and C.

We now also have THE LARGEST GRAND PIANO IN THE WORLD a brand new Mason & Hamlin 9’4″ model CC in our store. If you want to play it you can email or call us for an appointment. 1/2 the price of a Steinway D and twice the sound.

Fact: Rebuilt Steinways are much better than new ones because of the high quality woods used in the earlier days. The price is much better, for instance, a new Model S is 5.5M. A rebuilt one with genuine Steinway parts and cured wood looking like new sells for only 2.5M. Call us now for an appointment at 02.801.3431 x 401or 0917.895.0011 or just drop in and try them in our show room! Click our Steinway inventory for more details.

Note: These fine instruments we have are one of a kind only. They will never be available any more when sold unless we rebuild another one. The choice is clear, visit us or call us now.

 


Institutional Pianos and Organs Philippines

Posted on March 15th, 2017

Institutional Pianos and Organs Philippines

SCHOOL & SCHOOL BOARDS

Institutional Pianos and Organs Philippines, the instruments you purchase for your school will provide decades of learning for your students. There are many different instruments to be considered based on type, frequency of use, moving and storage requirements. Also to be considered are maintenance costs including tuning, servicing as well as cosmetic repair. Call us today at 02.801.3431 x 401 to set up a time for a Manila Pianos expert to visit, and advise you regarding the purchase of pianos for your educational institution!

PIANO TEACHING STUDIOS
Teachers are the backbone of the music industry. Manila Pianos is pleased to offer special prices on fine instruments for teaching purposes, with additional discounts available for the purchase of multiple instruments. Call us today and let Manila Pianos staff know if you are inquiring on behalf of a student, so they can be extended every courtesy!
INSTITUTIONS
Many institutions, including hospitals, service clubs or retirement facilities, require pianos that are used extensively. Let Manila Piano’s trained staff assist you in the right purchase for your institution, to ensure an investment in a fine instrument at the right price that will last for decades. Call us today at 02.801.3431 x 401 to make an appointment, our  staff would be pleased to come to you, or you can schedule a personal visit!
CHURCHES
The next time your congregation raises its voice in song, let the accompaniment be an instrument from Manila Pianos. Installation, maintenance, and the right piano or classical organ from the world’s finest manufacturers are found at our store. Please call us to make arrangements for your personal appointment and be confident that your congregation’s investment is
the right one.
Of course, you may also email us at info@pianos.ph


Digital Organs Manila Philippines

Posted on March 12th, 2017

Digital organs Manila Philippines

Digital organs Manila Philippines , we at Manila Pianos Inc. sell new pipe organs and digital church organs by CONTENT, these fantastic organs have been distributed all over the world for a long time, the quality of these instruments is fantastic and now we have the opportunity to purchase these instruments!

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Give this beautiful instrument a new home.

Welcome to our website. We are the official importer for Content Organs into Philippines. Content is a super high quality built classical digital sampled organ built in the Netherlands. As a representative for Content Organs, we specialize in customized church organ installations.

We also offer home and study organs. All church and home organs on the CONTENT website are available.

We are well known for our reputation. We offer excellent prices and the best service. Our foundation is professional service and advice and our business is built on quality, which is the most important stop of the organ. Our goal is 100% customer satisfaction.

CONTENT church organs of the Netherlands is  trying to use many years of experience of digital organs to set out the major factors you should consider when choosing the supplier and instrument, whether this is for home practice, church or concert hall use.

As with any purchase there is probably nothing more important than a recommendation from other happy customers and of course visiting the store’s own premises (or local retailer) to try the instruments.  Any reputable supplier will be happy to put you in touch with past customers, church and private so you can get a good opinion of their product and service.

Tonal quality will never a matter of personal judgment but is absolute, at CONTENT organs we have used the biggest memory chips money can buy, Philips technology.

Sound is personal and taste that can change.  Many instruments today offer the user a variety of sound palettes but CONTENT organs offer the greatest flexibility of individual voice choices without the need to refer back to the manufacturer or time consuming laptop manipulations of samples or physical models with the push of a button.

As well as offering the possibility of playing music on the sound pallet the composer originally intended , whether  French Romantic school on a Symphonic pallet, CONTENT organs provide the flexibility of choosing 4 different organs in 1 so if after time you are not fully happy with the sound you have you can make changes to suit varied repertoire.

You might expect this capability to be limited to more expensive instruments in other brand names, CONTENT has it from the lowest model to the most expensive one.

With church installations nothing can beat the experience of having done it successfully many times before. There is often a compromise to reach between the practical solution, the aesthetically best and the preferred for matters of sound distribution.  CONTENT makes all speaker systems custom to match.

In a financially fragile environment the biggest of businesses have been seen to fail. No one is immune from that risk. It isn’t easy to measure this risk but there has never been a more important time to question the stability of any supplier and future prospects. CONTENT is , unlike other Dutch firms that are pretending to , the most reliable Dutch manufacturer of church organs, it is the only one never to go broke.

CONTENT company, via Manila Pianos in Makati,  will provide you with all information and installation expertise if requested.

Please email us or call for appointment 02.801.3431 x 401 for all your church organ needs.

 


Davao Pianos

Posted on March 11th, 2017

Davao Pianos

Davao Pianos, we bring the pianos to your home in Davao or institution and set it up. We refund you the airline ticket if you purchase a grand piano from us. Call us at 02.801.3431 x 401 for more information.

Davao Pianos by ManilaPianos Inc. is Philippine’s largest  piano center with a huge showroom gallery and piano restoration center in Makati. We specialize in the rebuilding of Steinway & Sons, Bosendorfer, Yamaha and other grand pianos and the sale of new and used Fazioli, Pearl River, Schimmel, Yamaha, Kawai, Bechstein, Bosendorfer and other pianos. We provide high quality piano tuning, voicing and complete rebuilding services. Our website is www.pianos.ph

The story of the piano begins in Padua, Italy in 1709, in the shop of a harpsichord maker named Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori (1655-1731). Many other stringed and keyboard instruments preceded the piano and led to the development of the instrument as we know it today.

Mankind’s knowledge that a taut, vibrating string can produce sound goes back to prehistoric times. In the ancient world, strings were attached and stretched over bows, gourds, and boxes to amplify the sound; they were fastened by ties, pegs and pins; and they were plucked, bowed or struck to produce sounds. :Picture is early Clavichord.

Eventually, a family of stringed instruments with a keyboard evolved in Europe in the 14th century. The earliest of these was a dulcimer, a closed, shallow box over which stretched wires were struck with two wooden hammers. The dulcimer led to the development of the clavichord, which also appeared in the 14th century. These were followed by the spinet, virginal, clavecin, gravicembalo, and finally, the harpsichord in the 15th century.

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano’s versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the world’s most familiar musical instruments.

Pressing a key on the piano’s keyboard causes a felt-covered hammer to strike steel strings. The hammers rebound, allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a sounding board that more efficiently couples the acoustic energy to the air. The sound would otherwise be no louder than that directly produced by the strings. When the key is released, a damper stops the string’s vibration. See the article on Piano key frequencies for a picture of the piano keyboard and the location of middle-C. In the Hornbostel-Sachs system of instrument classification, pianos are considered chordophones.

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano’s versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the world’s most familiar musical instruments.

The word piano is a shortened form of pianoforte, the Italian word for the instrument (which in turn derives from the previous terms “gravicembalo col piano e forte” and fortepiano). The musical terms “piano” and “forte” mean “quiet” and “loud,” and in this context refers to the variations in volume of sound the instrument produces in response to a pianist’s touch on the keys: the greater a key press’s velocity, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the string(s), and the louder the note.

The piano is founded on earlier technological innovations. The first string instruments with struck strings were the hammered dulcimers. During the Middle Ages, there were several attempts at creating stringed keyboard instruments with struck strings.By the 17th century, the mechanisms of keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and the harpsichord were well known. In a clavichord the strings are struck by tangents, while in a harpsichord they are plucked by quills. Centuries of work on the mechanism of the harpsichord in particular had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and keyboard.

The invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, as the Keeper of the Instruments. He was an expert harpsichord maker, and was well acquainted with the body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698. A friend of the family by the name of Sebastian LeBlanc suggested the idea to switch the black and white keys. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.

While the clavichord allowed expressive control of volume and sustain, it was too quiet for large performances. The harpsichord produced a sufficiently loud sound, but had little expressive control over each note. The piano was likely formed as an attempt to combine loudness with control, avoiding the trade-offs of available instruments.

Cristofori’s great success was solving, with no prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammer must strike the string, but not remain in contact with it (as a tangent remains in contact with a clavichord string) because this would dampen the sound. Moreover, the hammer must return to its rest position without bouncing violently, and it must be possible to repeat a note rapidly. Cristofori’s piano action was a model for the many different approaches to piano actions that followed. Cristofori’s early instruments were made with thin strings, and were much quieter than the modern piano—but compared to the clavichord (the only previous keyboard instrument capable of dynamic nuance via the keyboard) they were much louder and had more sustain.

Cristofori’s new instrument remained relatively unknown until an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei, wrote an enthusiastic article about it (1711), including a diagram of the mechanism. This article was widely distributed, and most of the next generation of piano builders started their work due to reading it. One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Silbermann’s pianos were virtually direct copies of Cristofori’s, with one important addition: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper pedal, which lifts all the dampers from the strings simultaneously.

Silbermann showed Johann Sebastian Bach one of his early instruments in the 1730s, but Bach did not like it at that time, claiming that the higher notes were too soft to allow a full dynamic range. Although this earned him some animosity from Silbermann, the criticism was apparently heeded. Bach did approve of a later instrument he saw in 1747, and even served as an agent in selling Silbermann’s pianos.

Piano-making flourished during the late 18th century in the Viennese school, which included Johann Andreas Stein (who worked in Augsburg, Germany) and the Viennese makers Nannette Streicher (daughter of Stein) and Anton Walter. Viennese-style pianos were built with wood frames, two strings per note, and had leather-covered hammers. Some of these Viennese pianos had the opposite coloring of modern-day pianos; the natural keys were black and the accidental keys white.[7] It was for such instruments that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his concertos and sonatas, and replicas of them are built today for use in authentic-instrument performance of his music. The pianos of Mozart’s day had a softer, more ethereal tone than today’s pianos or English pianos, with less sustaining power. The term fortepiano is nowadays often used to distinguish the 18th-century instrument from later pianos.

In the period lasting from about 1790 to 1860, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes that led to the modern form of the instrument. This revolution was in response to a preference by composers and pianists for a more powerful, sustained piano sound, and made possible by the ongoing Industrial Revolution with resources such as high-quality piano wire for strings, and precision casting for the production of iron frames. Over time, the tonal range of the piano was also increased from the five octaves of Mozart’s day to the 7¼ or more octaves found on modern pianos.

Broadwood square action. (see picture) Early technological progress owed much to the firm of Broadwood. John Broadwood joined with another Scot, Robert Stodart, and a Dutchman, Americus Backers, to design a piano in the harpsichord case—the origin of the “grand”. They achieved this in about 1777. They quickly gained a reputation for the splendour and powerful tone of their instruments, with Broadwood constructing ones that were progressively larger, louder, and more robustly constructed. They sent pianos to both Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, and were the first firm to build pianos with a range of more than five octaves: five octaves and a fifth during the 1790s, six octaves by 1810 (Beethoven used the extra notes in his later works), and seven octaves by 1820. The Viennese makers similarly followed these trends, however the two schools used different piano actions: Broadwoods were more robust, Viennese instruments were more sensitive.

Erard square action. By the 1820s, the center of innovation had shifted to Paris, where the Pleyel firm manufactured pianos used by Frédéric Chopin and the Érard firm manufactured those used by Franz Liszt. In 1821, Sébastien Érard invented the double escapement action, which incorporated a repetition lever (also called the balancier) that permitted a note to be repeated even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position. This facilitated rapid playing of repeated notes, and this musical device was pioneered by Liszt. When the invention became public, as revised by Henri Herz, the double escapement action gradually became standard in grand pianos, and is still incorporated into all grand pianos currently produced.

Other improvements of the mechanism included the use of felt hammer coverings instead of layered leather or cotton. Felt, which was first introduced by Henri Pape in 1826, was a more consistent material, permitting wider dynamic ranges as hammer weights and string tension increased. The sostenuto pedal (see below), invented in 1844 by Jean Louis Boisselot and improved by the Steinway firm in 1874, allowed a wider range of effects.

One of the major technical innovations that helped to create the sound of the modern piano was the use of a strong iron frame. Also called the “plate”, the iron frame sits atop the soundboard, and serves as the primary bulwark against the force of string tension. The increased structural integrity of the iron frame allowed the use of thicker, tenser, and more numerous strings. In a modern grand the total string tension can exceed 20 tons. The single piece cast iron frame was patented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus Babcock, combining the metal hitch pin plate (1821, claimed by Broadwood on behalf of Samuel Hervé) and resisting bars (Thom and Allen, 1820, but also claimed by Broadwood and Érard). Babcock later worked for the Chickering & Mackays firm who patented the first full iron frame for grand pianos in 1843. Composite forged metal frames were preferred by many European makers until the American system was fully adopted by the early 20th century.

Other important advances included changes to the way the piano was strung, such as the use of a “choir” of three strings rather than two for all but the lowest notes, and the implementation of an over-strung scale in which the strings are placed in two separate planes, each with its own bridge height. (This is also called “cross-stringing”. Whereas earlier instruments’ bass strings were a mere continuation of a single string plane, over-stringing placed the bass bridge behind and to the treble side of the tenor bridge area. This crossed the strings, with the bass strings in the higher plane.) This permitted a much narrower cabinet at the “nose” end of the piano, and optimized the transition from unwound tenor strings to the iron or copper-wrapped bass strings. Over-stringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s, and first patented for use in grand pianos in the United States by Henry Steinway, Jr. in 1859.

Duplex scaling of an 1883 Steinway Model ‘A’. From lower left to upper right: main sounding length of strings, treble bridge, duplex string length, duplex bar (nickel-plated bar parallel to bridge), hitchpins, plate strut with bearing bolt, plate hole.Duplex scaling, patented in 1872 by Theodore Steinway, enhanced the voice of each note by using sympathetic vibration. Short lengths of non-speaking wire were bridged by the aliquot throughout much of upper range of the piano, always in locations that caused them to vibrate in conformity with their respective overtones—typically in doubled octaves and twelfths. Somewhat similar systems were developed by Blüthner (Aliquot stringing, 1873), as well as Taskin (1788), and Collard (1821). Each used more distinctly ringing, undamped vibrations to modify tone. Picture is Steinway in The White House in Washington.

Some early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The square piano (not truly square, but rectangular) was cross strung at an extremely acute angle above the hammers, with the keyboard set along the long side. This design is attributed to Gottfried Silbermann or Christian Ernst Friderici on the continent, and Johannes Zumpe or Harman Vietor in England, and it was improved by changes first introduced by Guillaume-Lebrecht Petzold in France and Alpheus Babcock in the United States. Square pianos were built in great numbers through the 1840s in Europe and the 1890s in America, and saw the most visible change of any type of piano: the iron-framed, over-strung squares manufactured by Steinway & Sons were more than two-and-a-half times the size of Zumpe’s wood-framed instruments from a century before. Their overwhelming popularity was due to inexpensive construction and price, although their tone and performance were limited by narrow soundboards, simple actions and string spacing that made proper hammer alignment difficult.

The mechanism in upright pianos is perpendicular to the keys.The tall, vertically strung upright grand was arranged like a grand set on end, with the soundboard and bridges above the keys, and tuning pins below them. The term was later revived by many manufacturers for advertising purposes. Giraffe, pyramid and lyre pianos were arranged in a somewhat similar fashion in evocatively shaped cases.

The very tall cabinet piano was introduced about 1805 and was built through the 1840s. It had strings arranged vertically on a continuous frame with bridges extended nearly to the floor, behind the keyboard and very large sticker action. The short cottage upright or pianino with vertical stringing, made popular by Robert Wornum around 1815, was built into the 20th century. They are informally called birdcage pianos because of their prominent damper mechanism. Pianinos were distinguished from the oblique, or diagonally strung upright made popular in France by Roller & Blanchet during the late 1820s. The tiny spinet upright was manufactured from the mid-1930s until recent times. The low position of the hammers required the use of a “drop action” to preserve a reasonable keyboard height.

Modern upright and grand pianos attained their present forms by the end of the 19th century. Improvements have been made in manufacturing processes, and many individual details of the instrument continue to receive attention.

Much of the most widely admired piano repertoire, for example, that of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, was composed for a type of instrument (the pianoforte) that is rather different from the modern instruments on which this music is normally performed today. Even the music of the Romantics, including Liszt, Chopin, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms, was written for pianos substantially different from modern pianos.

In grand pianos, the frame and strings are horizontal, with the strings extending away from the keyboard. The action lies beneath the strings, and uses gravity as its means of return to a state of rest.

There are many sizes of grand piano. A rough generalization distinguishes the concert grand (between about 2.2 m and 3 m/9.84 feet long) from the parlor grand or boudoir grand (about 1.7 m to 2.2 m) and the smaller baby grand (around 1.5 m).

All else being equal, longer pianos with longer strings have larger, richer sound and lower inharmonicity of the strings. Inharmonicity is the degree to which the frequencies of overtones (known as partials or harmonics) sound sharp relative to whole multiples of the fundamental frequency. This results from the piano’s considerable string stiffness; as a struck string decays its harmonics vibrate, not from their termination, but from a point very slightly toward the center (or more flexible part) of the string. The higher the partial, the further sharp it runs. Pianos with shorter and thicker strings, i.e. small pianos with short string scales, have more inharmonicity. The greater the inharmonicity, the more the ear perceives it as harshness of tone.

Inharmonicity requires octaves to be “stretched”, or tuned to a lower octave’s corresponding sharp overtone rather than to a theoretically correct octave. If octaves are not stretched, single octaves sound in tune, but double—and notably triple—octaves are unacceptably narrow. Stretching a small piano’s octaves to match its inherent inharmonicity level creates an imbalance among all the instrument’s intervallic relationships, not just its octaves. In a concert grand, however, the octave “stretch” retains harmonic balance, even when aligning treble notes to a harmonic produced from three octaves below. This lets close and widespread octaves sound pure, and produces virtually beatless perfect fifths. This gives the concert grand a brilliant, singing and sustaining tone quality—one of the principal reasons that full-size grands are used in the concert hall. Smaller grands satisfy the space and cost needs of domestic use.

Upright pianos, also called vertical pianos, are more compact because the frame and strings are vertical. The hammers move horizontally, and return to their resting position via springs, which are susceptible to degradation. Upright pianos with unusually tall frames and long strings are sometimes called upright grand pianos. Some authors classify modern pianos according to their height and to modifications of the action that are necessary to accommodate the height.

Studio pianos are around 42 to 45 inches tall. This is the shortest cabinet that can accommodate a full-sized action located above the keyboard.
Console pianos have a compact action (shorter hammers), and are a few inches shorter than studio models.
The top of a spinet model barely rises above the keyboard. The action is located below, operated by vertical wires that are attached to the backs of the keys. Anything taller than a studio piano is called an upright.

In 1863, Henri Fourneaux invented the player piano, which plays itself from a piano roll. A machine perforates a performance recording into rolls of paper, and the player piano replays the performance using pneumatic devices. Modern equivalents of the player piano include the Bösendorfer CEUS and the Yamaha Disklavier, using solenoids and MIDI rather than pneumatics and rolls.

A silent piano is an acoustic piano having an option to silence the strings by means of an interposing hammer bar. They are designed for private silent practice.

Edward Ryley invented the transposing piano in 1801. It has a lever under the keyboard as to move the keyboard relative to the strings so a pianist can play in a familiar key while the music sounds in a different key.

The prepared piano, present in some contemporary art music, is a piano with objects placed inside it to alter its sound, or has had its mechanism changed in some other way. The scores for music for prepared piano specify the modifications, for example instructing the pianist to insert pieces of rubber, paper, metal screws, or washers in between the strings. These either mute the strings or alter their timbre. A harpsichord-like sound can be produced by placing or dangling small metal buttons in front of the hammer.

Electric pianos use electromagnetic pickups to amplify the sound of the strings. Playing a note loudly causes the electric signal to clip, and the player can incorporate the distortion into his or her expressive range.

Digital pianos use digital sampling technology to reproduce the sound of each piano note. Digital pianos can be sophisticated, with features including working pedals, weighted keys, multiple voices, and MIDI interfaces. However, when one depresses the damper pedal (see below) on such an instrument, there are no strings to vibrate sympathetically. The synthesis software of some higher end digital pianos, such as the Yamaha Clavinova series, or the KAWAI MP8 series, incorporates physical models of sympathetic vibration.

With the advent of powerful desktop computers, highly realistic pianos have become available as affordable software modules. Some of these modules, such as the 2004 Synthogy’s Ivory, use multi-gigabyte piano sample sets with as many as 90 recordings, each lasting many seconds, for each of the 88 (some have 81) keys under different conditions. Additional samples emulate sympathetic resonance, key release, the drop of the dampers, and simulations of piano techniques like re-pedaling to augment these conditions. Some other software modules, such as Modartt’s 2006 Pianoteq, use no samples whatsoever and are a pure synthesis of all aspects of the physicalities that go into the creation of a real piano’s sound.

Today, piano manufactures take advantage of innovative pianos that play themselves via a CD or MP3 player. Similar in concept to a player piano, the PianoDisc or iQ systems allow pianos to “play themselves” when the software interprets a certain file format. Such additions are quite expensive, often doubling the cost of a piano. These pianos are available in both upright and grand.

Keyboard of a Steinway grand pianoAlmost every modern piano has 36 black keys and 52 white keys for a total of 88 keys (seven octaves plus a minor third, from A0 to C8). Many older pianos only have 85 keys (seven octaves from A0 to A7), while some manufacturers extend the range further in one or both directions.

Some Bösendorfer pianos, for example, extend the normal range down to F0, with one other model going as far as a bottom C0, making a full eight octave range. These extra keys are sometimes hidden under a small hinged lid that can cover the keys to prevent visual disorientation for pianists unfamiliar with the extra keys. On others, the colors of the extra white keys are reversed (black instead of white).

The extra keys are added primarily for increased resonance from the associated strings; that is, they vibrate sympathetically with other strings whenever the damper pedal is depressed and thus give a fuller tone. Only a very small number of works composed for piano actually use these notes. More recently, the Stuart and Sons company has also manufactured extended-range pianos, with the first 102 key piano. On their instruments, the frequency range extends from C0 to F8, which is the widest practical range for the acoustic piano. The extra keys are the same as the other keys in appearance. See picture of Bosendorfer model 290.

Small studio upright acoustical pianos with only 65 keys have been manufactured for use by roving pianists. Known as gig pianos and still containing a cast iron harp, these are comparatively lightweight and can be easily transported to and from engagements by only two people. As their harp is longer than that of a spinet or console piano, they have a stronger bass sound that to some pianists is well worth the trade-off in range that a reduced key-set offers.

The toy piano manufacturer Schoenhut started manufacturing both grands and uprights with only 44 or 49 keys, and shorter distance between the keyboard and the pedals. These pianos are true pianos with action and strings. The pianos were introduced to their product line in response to numerous requests in favor of it.

Piano pedals from left to right: una corda, sostenuto, and sustain pedalPianos have had pedals, or some close equivalent, since the earliest days. (In the 18th century, some pianos used levers pressed upward by the player’s knee instead of pedals.) Most grand pianos in the US have three pedals: the soft pedal (una corda), sostenuto, and sustain pedal (from left to right, respectively), while in Europe, the standard is two pedals: the soft pedal and the sustain pedal. Most modern upright pianos also have three pedals: soft pedal, practice pedal and sustain pedal, though older or cheaper models may lack the practice pedal. In Europe the standard for upright pianos is two pedals: the soft and the sustain pedals.

The sustain pedal (or, damper pedal) is often simply called “the pedal”, since it is the most frequently used. It is placed as the rightmost pedal in the group. It lifts the dampers from all keys, sustaining all played notes. In addition, it alters the overall tone by allowing all strings, including those not directly played, to reverberate.

The soft pedal or una corda pedal is placed leftmost in the row of pedals. In grand pianos it shifts the entire action/keyboard assembly to the right (a very few instruments have shifted left) so that the hammers hit two of the three strings for each note. In the earliest pianos whose unisons were bichords rather than trichords, the action shifted so that hammers hit a single string, hence the name una corda, or ‘one string’. The effect is to soften the note as well as change the tone. In uprights this action is not possible; instead the pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings, allowing the hammers to strike with less kinetic energy. This produces a slightly softer sound, but no change in timbre.

On grand pianos, the middle pedal is a sostenuto pedal. This pedal keeps raised any damper already raised at the moment the pedal is depressed. This makes it possible to sustain selected notes (by depressing the sostenuto pedal before those notes are released) while the player’s hands are free to play additional notes (which aren’t sustained). This can be useful for musical passages with pedal points and other otherwise tricky or impossible situations.

On many upright pianos, the middle pedal is called the “practice” or celeste pedal. This drops a piece of felt between the hammers and strings, greatly muting the sounds. Often this pedal can be shifted while depressed, into a “locking” position.

There are also non-standard variants. On some pianos (grands and verticals), the middle pedal can be a bass sustain pedal: that is, when it is depressed, the dampers lift off the strings only in the bass section. Players use this pedal to sustain a single bass note or chord over many measures, while playing the melody in the treble section. On the Stuart and Sons piano as well as the largest Fazioli piano, there is a fourth pedal to the left of the principal three. This fourth pedal works in the same way as the soft pedal of an upright piano, moving the hammers closer to the strings.

The rare transposing piano (such as owned by Irving Berlin) has a middle pedal that functions as a clutch that disengages the keyboard from the mechanism, enabling the keyboard to be moved to the left or right with a lever. The entire action of the piano is thus shifted to allow the pianist to play music written in one key so that it sounds in a different key.

There were three piano companies to include extra pedals other than the standard two or three. Two of these companies offered a piano with four pedals (Crown and Schubert Piano Co.), and Wing and Son of New York offered a five-pedal piano from approximately 1893 through the 1920s. There is no mention of the company past the 1930s. Labeled left to right the pedals are Mandolin, Orchestra, Expression, Soft, and Forte (Sustain). The Mandolin pedal produces a sound similar to a vibrato feel by bouncing a set of small hammers against the strings, enabling the piano to mimic a mandolin, guitar, banjo, zither and harp. The Orchestra (Orch) pedal used a similar approach, lowering a set of metal-tipped felt strips in between the hammers and the strings. This extended the life of the hammers when the Orch pedal was used, a good idea for practicing, and created an echo-like sound that mimicked playing in an orchestral hall.

The pedalier piano, or pedal piano, is a rare type of piano that includes a pedalboard, enabling bass register notes to be played with the feet, as is standard on the organ. There are two types of pedal piano: the pedal board may be an integral part of the instrument, using the same strings and mechanism as the manual keyboard, or, less frequently, it may consist of two independent pianos (each with its separate mechanics and strings), which are placed one above the other, a regular piano played by the hands and a bass-register piano played by the feet. This was developed primarily as a practice instrument for organists, although there is a small repotoire written specifically for the instrument.

Many parts of a piano are made of materials selected for strength and longevity. This is especially true of the outer rim. It is most commonly made of hardwood, typically maple or beech, and its massiveness serves as an essentially immobile object from which the flexible soundboard can best vibrate. According to Harold A. Conklin, the purpose of a sturdy rim is so that “the vibrational energy will stay as much as possible in the soundboard instead of dissipating uselessly in the case parts, which are inefficient radiators of sound.”

Yet Bösendorfer, (now owned by Yamaha)  the Austrian manufacturer of high quality pianos, constructs their rim from spruce, the very same wood that the soundboard is made from. Their idea is to concertedly involve the cabinet in the projection and coloration of sound. The loss of energy into the Bösendorfer case alters the instrument’s tone, giving it perhaps less power but a complex and unusually resonant sound.

View from below of a 182-cm grand piano. In order of distance from viewer: softwood braces, tapered soundboard ribs, soundboard. The metal rod at lower right is a humidity control device.The finest hardwood rims are made by laminating thin (hence flexible) strips of hardwood, bending them to the desired shape immediately after the application of glue. This system was developed by Theodore Steinway in 1880. The thick wooden posts on the underside (grands) or back (uprights) of the piano stabilize the rim structure, and are made of softwood for stability. The requirement of structural strength, fulfilled by stout hardwood and thick metal, makes a piano heavy; even a small upright can weigh 136 kg (300 lb), and the Steinway concert grand (Model D) weighs 480 kg (990 lb). The largest piano built, the Fazioli F308, weighs 691 kg (1520 lb).

The pinblock, which holds the tuning pins in place, is another area where toughness is important. It is made of hardwood, (typically hard maple or beech), and is laminated for strength, stability and longevity. Piano strings (also called piano wire), which must endure years of extreme tension and hard blows, are made of high carbon steel. They are manufactured to vary as little as possible in diameter, since all deviations from uniformity introduce tonal distortion. The bass strings of a piano are made of a steel core wrapped with copper wire, to increase their mass whilst retaining flexibility. If all strings throughout the piano’s compass were individual (monochord), the massive bass strings would overpower the upper ranges. Makers compensate for this with the use of double (bichord) strings in the tenor and triple (trichord) strings throughout the treble.

Cast iron plate of a Steinway grand piano: The plate, or metal frame, of a piano is usually made of cast iron. It is advantageous for the plate to be very massive. Since the strings vibrate from the plate at both ends, vibrations absorbed by the plate result in energy loss to the desired (efficient) sound transmission channel, namely the bridge and the soundboard. While some manufacturers use cast steel in their plates, most prefer cast iron. Cast iron is easy to cast and machine, has flexibility sufficient for piano use, is much more resistant to deformation than steel, and is especially tolerant of compression. Plate casting is an art, since dimensions are crucial and the iron shrinks about one percent during cooling.

Including an extremely large piece of metal in a piano is potentially an aesthetic handicap. Piano makers overcome this by polishing, painting, and decorating the plate. Plates often include the manufacturer’s ornamental medallion. In an effort to make pianos lighter, Alcoa worked with Winter and Company piano manufacturers to make pianos using an aluminum plate during the 1940s. Aluminum piano plates were not widely accepted, and were discontinued.

The numerous grand parts and upright parts of a piano action are generally hardwood, e.g., maple, beech, or hornbeam. However, since WWII, makers have used some plastics. Early plastics were incorporated into some pianos in the late 1940s and 1950s, but proved disastrous because they lost strength after a few decades of use. The Steinway firm once incorporated Teflon, a synthetic material developed by DuPont, for some grand action parts in place of cloth, but abandoned the experiment due to excessive friction and a “clicking” that developed over time. (Teflon is “humidity stable” whereas the wood adjacent to the Teflon swells and shrinks with humidity changes, causing problems.) More recently, the Kawai firm built pianos with action parts made of more modern materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic, and the piano parts manufacturer Wessell, Nickel and Gross has launched a new line of carefully engineered composite parts. Thus far these parts have performed reasonably, but it will take decades to know if they equal the longevity of wood.

In all but the poorest pianos the soundboard is made of solid spruce (that is, spruce boards glued together along the side grain). Spruce’s high ratio of strength to weight minimizes acoustic impedance while offering strength sufficient to withstand the downward force of the strings. The best piano makers use quarter-sawn, defect-free spruce (eastern white) of close annular grain, carefully seasoning it over a long period before fabricating the soundboards.  There are several qualities of spruce, from good to not so good:

eastern white spruce, (northern Canada only)

alaskan spruce, (Alaska)

sitka spruce, (Russia, middle Canada)

spruce (southern Canada, China, US)

Cheap pianos often have plywood soundboards.

In the early years of piano construction, keys were commonly made from sugar pine. Today they are likely to be made of spruce or basswood. Spruce is typically used in high-quality pianos. The black keys were traditionally made from ebony and the white keys were covered with strips of ivory, but since ivory-yielding species are now endangered and protected by treaty, plastics are now almost exclusively used. Also, ivory tends to chip more easily than plastic. Legal ivory can still be obtained in limited quantity, but it is very expensive.

 

 

 


Yamaha Piano Manila Philippines

Posted on March 11th, 2017

Yamaha Piano Manila Philippines

Yamaha C and Yamaha G Grand Pianos: The difference. By Manila Pianos, 02.801.3431.

Yamaha C and Yamaha G Grand Pianos; We at Manila Pianos Inc. import used pianos from Japan. Many people over the years have asked me what the differences are between a C and a G series Grand Piano,  and I am really at a loss. All I can say is that overall I find the sound of G series more pleasing to my ear because they are somewhat more ” merlot” sound than the “cabernet” C series.

Although some more opinionated pianists may disagree, regardless of it being a “G” or a “C” model, Yamaha Grand Pianos are still a higher end Asian piano (as opposed to a Samick, or Young Chang, both owned by Korean companies)

We have  worked on many “G” series

ManilaPianos Inc.

Yamaha C series.

as well as several “C” series, although I not 100 percent sure what the technical difference is if any, (I was once told “C” stood for “Conservatory” series, but Yamaha makes a newer “C” series that isn’t necessarily a conservatory line), but G’s are plenty nice. seriously.

Check it out in our store and let your fingers and ears be the judge. we have them side by side, no matter what your teacher or technician tells you, give both of them a look-over before buying.

Anyone out there that can fill me in ab out the difference? You are welcome to email me? I’ve been in the business for 25 years and I still don’t know the big difference. I hereby invite and will post  your comments for sure.


Piano Rebuilding Manila Philippines

Posted on March 11th, 2017

Piano Rebuilding Manila Philippines.

Piano Rebuilding Manila, Philippines and area? Come to  Manila Pianos Inc. We will rebuild it for you according to your specifications. We are specialists in rebuilding Steinway but also do lots of other grand pianos and uprights. When a piano is old and worn out and your tuner tells you ” I cannot tune this piano any more” you have to make a decision. You could restore your old upright or grand piano or you could purchase a different new or used grand piano.

It is our opinion that this decision should be based on 3 factors, namely:

  • Is my current  piano a good brand name
  • Will the piano be worth the money I put into it by the time the work is done
  • Is there enough “sentimental value” to rebuild the piano.

You must know that for less money than a restored piano, you can purchase a new one. These days, with pianos coming out of China that are really inexpensive to buy, you can actually purchase a new piano for less than a good restoration job.  You will spend anywhere from PHP 500,000 to 2M to rebuild or re manufacture your current Steinway & Sons or other piano !

grotrian 01

Some reasons to rebuild:

First, the basic construction of many older pianos like Steinway & Sons is so good that a new piano, even of the same make, is usually less well built.  Many manufacturers of new pianos are using inferior materials and workmanship.

Second, technology is available now to make your piano better than it was even when it was new.  By having your old piano restored by us you can be sure that your piano will have premium attention given to every aspect of the action regulation.

Third, when having your old Steinway & Sons grand piano restored you can specify the exact color of finish you want and even if your original ivories look so horrid you think they can’t be saved, they can probably be made to look splendid again. No need to settle for what you can find on the showroom floor at a music store.

Piano Rebuilding Manila, Steinway rebuilding, the differences.

At Manila Pianos Inc. we are striving to make it goal to have the largest selection of rebuilt used Steinway & Sons grand pianos in Asia.

Certain older Steinway & Sons pianos and grand pianos and upright pianos are excellent candidates for restoration.

Lately new high end grand pianos are very expensive. Steinway & Sons are very expensive and in our opinion as piano industry insiders, new Steinway & Sons grand pianos are not as well manufactured today as they were in the past.

As a consumer you could get a very good deal and a better piano if you purchased an older Steinway & Sons providing you know what to look for. If you don’t, our advice is to ask assistance from someone that knows. We also think it is very important to learn as much as you can before investing a large amount of money.

Problem areas to look out for

  • Most upright and grand pianos “look” good after they are “rebuilt” and sitting on a show room floor. The trouble is that most so called rebuilders are not  capable of doing a good job. Or they may simply be unwilling to do a comprehensive job because they want to sell the piano for a lower price. This can be easily achieved by replacing fewer parts and spending less money on labor and a piano is parts and labor, nothing else!
  • Another problem is that very few dealers and technicians have the capability, knowledge and/or the facilities to properly rebuild a grand piano. Most tuners and certainly almost all piano teachers do not know much about the workings of pianos at all!
  • We have heard horror stories about these pianos. In many cases the rebuilding has been done with poor materials and workmanship. Our advice is to stay away from these questionable pianos. When purchasing a rebuilt piano make sure you trust the workmanship and reputation of the rebuilder.
  • Also important is to ask what kind of quality parts were used to rebuild the piano. For example, a full set of RENNER hammers can cost upward of PHP 20,000 while a full set of low quality hammers, which look virtually the same, will cost only PHP 1,000 per set!

If you decide to restore your piano and you want us to do it, we will need to sit down and discuss the extensiveness of the process. We will try to clearly explain what we think should be done and why.