I just got back from Germany and had the opportunity to play on some very high end grand pianos at a store in Cologne. They had Bosendorfers, Bluthners, a Steinway C (used), and some Schimmels. All of the pianos were clearly good ... good actions and musical up all the way up and down the scales ... but they seemed to be not particularly well prepared.

I actually liked the Steinway C the best, except it had a sticky key ... I liked the sound though, and this surprised me since I havn't liked the treble on many Steinways (this one was a Hamburg). The Bosendorfer disappointed the most mainly because the mid-bass voicing was completely dead compared to the rest of the instument. The Bluthner and Schimmel were both very good as well, but I felt my Estonia was very competitive even with being a smaller piano ... (the room acoustics were fine by the way).

Is it common for dealers to not bother to fully prep showroom pianos? ...

ALL the time!

Unfortunately it is as common in Europe as it is in the ROW.

schwammerl.

From the dealer's perspective, he has to weigh up:

The amount of stock he displays (the customer wants as much choice as possible) against:

1. The stock may well receive a seriously heavy 'pounding' from customers and as the stock is generally new, or newly rebuilt, hence unstable, it needs frequent tuning and additional 'mini' prepping.

2. When does the dealer do the tuning if there are customers playing in the showroom? Not many tuners /techs want to do a night shift! Not many dealers have facilities or space to wheel a piano out of the showroom, tune and 'mini' prep then wheel back into the showrooms. (Display areas and floor plans are often fixed)

Most of us dealers do the best we can...

Chris makes valid points.

To add a little more perspective, different dealers have different levels of prep. that they find acceptable. Are they prepping for a novice buyer, for an experienced player, or do they need to hire technicians to do this work for them when it is needed? These questions will all play a role in how much prep. is done to a given dealers stock.

Also, even the most meticulous dealer has to deal with environment. For instance, we have had temperatures go down to 38 F. and they will go up to 81 F with a swing in humidity as well - all within a few days. A change like that, no matter how well the environment is managed, will wreack havoc on any prep. done to a piano.


My 2 cents,

And Rich adds more valid points.

I'll add (maybe) another. A dealer is more likely to spend an additional hour of prep where the margin is higher. Thus (other things equal) you'll likely find more prep tweakings spent on higher end pianos than on the latest entry level beast from China or Indonesia, even though (in some sense) you might think that the entry level beast 'needs' it more.

I suppose PW serves as an “unbinding” system of checks and balances between customers and dealers. As such, I will say that (in my view) sitting down at a new (or newly rebuilt) grand piano with a price tag of thousands or tens of thousands of dollars and the instrument is badly out of tune is a big turn-off (to me at least, and I can’t even play all that well). Sure, it can be tuned, but what about first impressions?

When I was shopping for a piano there was one dealer in particular who I spoke with on the phone about a certain piano they had in stock. When I mentioned to him that I would make plans to visit the store and look at the piano he said he would make sure that particular piano was tuned before I got there.

Now that is a good strategy on the part of the dealer. Of course, I didn’t buy that particular piano but I was impressed with the dealer and would do business with them in the future.

Just my .02.

Take care,

Rick

Not so long ago I was in a similar situation where a customer wanted to try a particular model. I had 3 of the same on the floor, only had time to re-tune 2 before her visit. Guess what - she chose the unprep'd one! Maybe that's an indication of my prepping!?

More seriously, a badly out of tune or unprep'd piano can be a ploy by certain unscrupulous dealers to display one manufacturer's brand which they have no intention of selling, but leave unprep'd in order to promote their more profitable makes/ models.