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We finally made the purchase. Guess what we decide to take?

I own a Petrof upright. To upgrade, I started with Schimmel which I had been dreaming of since five years ago when I first played one in a NJ dealer (let’s call it A). During my first visit to a Schimmel NWS 189 in Westchester NY (B dealer), I was distracted by a lot of other beautiful options: it was initially a Kawai RX-6 which I picked first after playing side by side with two Schimmel (a NWS 189 and a T230), three Kawai Shigeru (from 3-6), and two Grotian (205 and 225). After listening to the overwhelming journey this beautiful satin-finished 7 feet Kawai RX has been taken to in the past six months (road shows and a rental to a six-week music camp), I easily moved back to my dream piano Schimmel (a NWS189) and a new star SK 6. That day, I for the first time in my life got on line and posted my first message about these two pianos on Piano Forum with the name of my 2 yr old boy’s favorite character Miffy.
A couple of days later, I went to dealer A where I fell in love with Schimmel five years ago. This time I was amazed by a 7 feet one (T213). I loved it very much especially because it has the 7 feel power and surely sounds a lot more attractive than the NWS189 I played earlier. Though feeling a little unease with its sale’s strategy there, I told myself I must go back to this T213 Schimmel for a second trip.
In my trip to the third dealer C in Westchester, I played a ten year old T213 Schimmel and was horrified by how bad it sounded. It was a trade-in towards a Yamaha S by a “heavy player musician,” and I guess the store just leaves it on the floor with a price tag without doing anything about the instrument. I posted my concerns, and, thanks for all of your posts especially those regarding maintenance issues, finally started cooling down and regaining my confidence about Schimmel.
And just then, my trip to the 4th dealer, Ori’s Allegro Piano (a “celebrity” here, let’s call it Ori’s), completely changed the picture. I had a 2 hours’ class in his basement, surrounded by Bosie, Bluthner, August Forster, M&H, Steinway, Yamaha, and OF COURSE Estonia, etc. Being reminded by another dealer “you will be convinced to buy an Estonia there!” and said over times “Estonia piano is the one I hate the most in the world” by our Russia-trained piano teacher, I told Ori that I would prefer something else. In fact, since I have already owned a Petrof which is of very similar line, I want something different this time. Don’t worry, Estonia funs! I actually found the Estonia really beautiful. Even I did not set up my mind for an Estonia, I did my best to convince our strongly opinioned teacher to give Estonia a chance….well, that is something you will read about later…
Guess which one I liked in Ori’s place? A 7’2” Forster! First of all, it has the 7 feet powerful! The NWS 189 was a beautiful piece but I have to say it was such a pity to be placed side by side with all other bigger ones in the same room. I was only thinking of a 5’10 grand before my technician from Beethoven Piano in NYC told me that my room can accommodates nicely something between 6-7 feet (26x20 with 10’ ceiling). And by comparing NWS 189 to T213, I was eventually sold to the power of a 7’. This Forster was set in the middle of a Bluthner and Steingraeber (both one size smaller, tricky Ori!) but facing a 7 feet Bosie and Bosie CS. I found all of them much better prepared than every single one I played previously, of course, and with not much information about the prices of them (because they were never in my price point even though there were gaps among this group too) my ears told me they were equally excellent! When Ori asked me which one I liked, I pointed to the Forster which I believed was of great character. I liked the way it sounded: beautiful and deep bass and charmingly bright treble, tasting like honey but not too sweet, crispy but not dry, rounded but not milky. (Excuse me for not having sufficient vocabulary to describe the quality and feature of sounds, my poor English) In fact, I am quite flexible in terms of choosing “bright” or “mellow:” I can go either way as long as it touches my heart. I never hate bright treble as I have got used to high pitched violin since early childhood.
Before I left, I squeezed first-round-price out from Ori and found out that Forster was CLOSER (but not even close!) to our budget than the other three! On my way home, I tried to digest the big gap between my budget (originally set up for a Schimmel according to the price FIVE years ago) and the offer for the Forster from Ori. Before getting lost, I decided to ask for some information about the street price of a Forster and its ranking in the Forum and was unfortunately assured that a Forster would be substantially stretchy for our budget. Then, our boss (my husband), along with one of you, reminded me that there would be always better piano out there to distract me and I need to stop at certain point.
So here I was. With my Petrof 125 trade-in and my budget, I can get it either a NWS 189 or a SK 6 in dealer B, with quite a lot more (unfortunately) for the Schimmel T213 I saw in dealer A (which should not be priced even higher than a NWS 189 according to the listing price?). Now all a sudden, the Forster appeared. I tried my best to convince myself to forget about it and go back to Schimmel NWS 189 and T213.
That was an interesting Monday. In the follow-up phone from dealer B, I honestly told him I got distracted to Forster. By the way, in this economy, I got follow-up phone calls from every single dealer one after the other. Before I told him I had almost no intension to pay for this Forster because of the price gap, dealer B offered right away that if I could stretch to a Forster 215, he would give me his Grotian 205 for $$k! My goodness, was I supposed to be debating between a Grotian and a Forster? I got lost again, with excitement though. I forgot telling you that I ordered the FL’s 2008-09 piano supplement book after seeing Ori and now understood that Grotian and Forster were ranked the same, a lot higher than Schimmel, and a little better than SK (?!). I tried so hard to forget about the Forster but now it came out a Grotian!
I CAREFULLY mentioned this Grotian, and BRIEFLY talked about the information about the Forster and the Grotian in the FL book to my husband that night. To my surprise, he told me if I could get any of the two in the middle between our planed budget and the offer, he would pay for it. But of course, none of us believed this would happen, even though he joked “I think it this way: if this piano can satisfy my two ladies (me and my daughter), I consider this price still cheap.”
I promised myself and my husband that I would definitely stay strictly within this newly increased number. And I told myself: this is about discipline and I will honor it no matter what. That was an exciting night. I woke up many times… My husband asked me why in the next morning. I told him I was buying my piano in my dream and got over excited. He gave me a hug and said “Honey, don’t worry. You will get the one you like. Let’s pray!” Yes, I need to pray, for not getting lost in my “greedy” dream about a German piano and I don’t know whether God will give me my dream piano if I keep dragging the numbers. Yet, I felt great about not being distracted by a Bluthner or Bosie 
Well, since I felt that our new number may not be sufficient for the Forster and Grotian and I still like the 7 feet power, I started to think about NWS213, which costs 6% more than the NWS 189 according to the listing price, and which therefore I thought I might probably end up getting it somewhere around my new budget. And my husband seemed to buy my logic too: I get my dream piano Schimmel with unexpected beautiful finishing in NWS which in deed means more than just an appealing case, and hopefully, if not two much off, 6% more than we planned for a 7’, yet still within the budget…. So I asked my piano teacher to go with me for the NWS 189 in dealer B and to dealer A for their T213 Schimmel and NWS 213 (which I did not even look at for it was priced too high to reach for me then and probably still now).
Two days later, something interesting happened. Ori’s phone call woke me up from a nap. He wanted us back. I became curious again about the Forster and so did my husband. In the following Sat. morning, my husband asked me to take him to a dealer with a Forster, but of course not Ori’s at this moment. Guess what, the NJ dealer (let’s call it D) which sold me my Petrof happens to be the other authorized deader of AF in the era. So the whole family went. My husband was sold to the instrument displayed at the entrance: my 8 yr old played on this 7’ Forster and made daddy feel like listening to a professional player, he said. And now he got excited about Forster, not less than I did.
Three days later, I woke up with excitement as that morning our piano teacher and I were heading dealer B for the NWS 189 (Grotian too, if a Forster is a choice) and dealer A for the NWS 213 and T213. We planned the trip long time ago, but our pregnant teacher (due in May) decided right before the trip that she did not feel like going to see the NJ dealer A (with Schimmel T213 and NWS 213). So we found ourselves in dealer B with the Kawai RX6, Schimmel NWS 189, SK6, and THE Grotian. That was a sad day: this “fussy” lady picked the Kawai RX 6 TOO and only that one for me! On our way home, she apologized since she figured out that she sort of broke my Schimmel and Grotian dream. We both felt bad for that NWS189: it was just unfair to be set together with all bigger ones in that room.
That night, I wrote a long message to AMDQMOM who dropped me a private email after reading my fascination about Ori’s Forster and had become a very supportive and resourceful friend in my piano hunting journey. I shared my sad feeling after the trip: I felt like I gave up the Schimmel already for Kawai RX6, not because our teacher picked it up for us; I myself picked it up at the very beginning.
Let’s get back to our Russian teacher. She sat in my car with me for about 2 hours that day. After finding no excitement in dealer B and listening to my excitement about Ori’s place for two weeks, she finally started asking me about Ori’s place. She did not want to know about it, not even to go there, at the beginning, just because I told her the Estonia pianos there were beautiful too. After the long drive, I sort of felt that she may not like Forster either as its treble can hardly be called mellow, which this teacher specifically looks for in pianos. Before I dropped her off, our teacher offered to go to Ori’s place with me in three days. For three days, I felt like I was going to be sentenced: Kawai RX 6 or Forster 215.
Now it was all about the Forster. Dealer D followed us in phone calls with new prices and another MA dealer of Forster made an offer too. With Ori’s together, all of the three offers were reasonable yet vary QUITE a lot. Wait a minute, didn’t Ori say that he wanted us back to make us happy?

Three days later, a big “troop” appeared at Ori’s basement door at 9am in Sunday morning: my husband, I, my 2.5 old boy, my 8 yr old girl, and our piano teacher. We got there a little late and found our teacher already in the showroom. She shouted to me when I walked in, “These Estonians are great!” I answered with big laughter “I told you!”
Here is what I wrote to AMDQMOM after the trip: After constantly saying to her how much I love the Forster in Ori's place and how reputable he is in the business for about two weeks, our strongly opinioned Estonia-hating teacher finally became curious about Ori and agreed to go to Ori's place with my family on Sunday morning. She was sold, both to Estonia, a brand she hated so much (for she played in her entire college period in her Russian conservatory and heard all bad things about Estonia even recently from her Russian friends), and the so-called "bright" Forster. Of course, after she fell in love with Estonia, she heard Forster and said “Ori I am sorry this one is much better than that (Estonia)!” She was so touched when my daughter was playing both a romantic piece and an English Suite by Bach on the 7’ Forster: she found the pure and clean treble so attractively bright and classic and the piano goes amazingly well with completely different styles of music. When I first told her weeks ago that I picked the Forster as most attractive being played side by side with a Bluthner and Steingraeber, she very much doubted, but now she completely agreed. She found the Bluthner too happy even for an E minor melody, Steingraeber too milky, and Bosie so sweet (which we both liked but way out of reach in price anyway).
We came home with excitement. To be honest, the result of the trip was a somewhat surprise to me: I could not believe our teacher fell in love with that Forster (of course Ori’s place in general) as I did! The next morning, Ori called and made a great offer. Ori did not want my Petrof and offered a trade-in price close to a mountain bike in my first visit, but now made the trade-in offer a little more decent (still not even close to the other two trade-in offers or a possible private-sale price). So? …
I left this “So?” for four days and finally came back tonight with an answer. We closed the deal with Ori for that Forster last night! We will also have a dampp-chase system and a Paul Jansen duet artist bench. I remember my daughter was too short to reach the pedal of a Steinway and fell off of the bench during her audition last summer when she was playing a waltz by Chopin. Now I believe that will never happen again when she stretches her tiny body, because Ori said that she would not even be able to move that duet bench for an inch.
We are waiting for Ori’s phone call with delivery date. Now, my new rug for the piano is in its place; my daughter excited told all her friends in our church that her new piano is arriving next week. For two nights in a row, my husband and I sit near the open French door in our living room, staring at the rug and imaging what the room will be looking like with our new Forster…

Great story. We all love piano shopping stories. Congratulations. Make sure to upload pictures upon delivery.

Good Lord, my head is spinning from that story. But I congratulate you on your August Förster, it is a first class piano, you have seen the beginning of a life long love affair.

Congratulations - wonderful choice!

By the way, many Russian teachers have initial reservations with Estonia which they often remember from the old days in the Soviet Union.

Rest assured,Estonia wasn't building their pianos then with much love for their old masters....

Nice to see the reaction of those pianists now when playing a new one, we had same happening several times ourselves.

Enjoy your new August Foerster!

Norbert

Congratulations on a happy ending to your whirlwind piano search!

Congratulations on the new instrument Miffy! Did'nt think the RX was going to make it home with you! Enjoy your new piano!!!

What a wonderful story!
Congrats on your purchase on the Forster and let's wait for the delivery and then the pictures!

Wonderful story and you kept us in suspense. Which one will she buy?

But, Ori did it again! Yup his 2 hr intro lesson and well prepped pianos makes it hard to buy elsewhere!

I have enjoyed playing Foerster's in several places and recently enjoyed a CD by Nairi (husband posts here) played on a Foerster.

Congratulations on purchasing a fine piano. I hope that you remember to take pics of the delivery and well, maybe of your daughter playing! We love pics as well as good 'search' stories!

LL

Congratulations--it sounds like you played every piano in the northeast! I'm sure you'll be glad to be able to play your favorite from now on right in your own home.

Nancy

Thanks for the fun story. You got a wonderful piano, congratulations.

I will definitely take pictures for the new piano and hopefully post them with a piece played by my daughter on the new Forster. I really want to thank you all, especially those who have been offering suggestions and comments, for being there during my overwhelming journey in the past one and half month.

Miffy congratulations on your beautiful new piano. Ori is certainly tops when it comes to piano prep of his pianos. Don't forget to post pictures.

oh wow

i bet you are cloud nine!

that's just wonderful and i'm very happy for you.

Is this a sock puppet alert???

Miffy, are you Busy Bee as well?

Just asking - got a lot of PM's from u regarding the RX6 - and miffy and busy bee's url's are the same...

So you owned a Petrof...

Deon van aswegen, I am not BusyBee. I wasn't aware that someone else was also serious about a RX6, I guess a lot more than me, at the mean time.

Miffy:

Congratulations! What a wonderful journey to your dream piano. Someday I have to get to Ori's to play all of those wonderful instruments. I really want to try an AF.

Can't wait to see the pictures!

Well that is very strange indeed - someone called Busy Bee then hijacked our PM's.

Did you PM me about the RX6? If I am mistaken I apologise in advance.

The mind boggles at these antics....but you must enjoy your magnificent new instrument! It is always such a joyous occation when it finally arrives!

Happy playing

I have an AF 215 and just love it. Would like to have a higher ceiling and larger room for it though. I bought mine from Fred Altenburg about a year and a half ago and it was in the showroom for about a year... I consider myself lucky to have the older double brass wheels as opposed to those enormous stage wheels. I really don't like the way they look. They were originally only on the 9' pianos (275) but are now on the 215's also. Which wheels did you get?

Wow ! What a story ! After all that, I'd say the actual purchase & delivery are almost anti-climatic. The joy is in the journey. We will of course be expecting many photos stat !

Congratulations on a beautiful piano (...drools....) !

Deon, what are you talking about me hijacking your pm's? I'm confused?