I'm sure Del's influence will be of great benefit.

Let's not forget Mr. Walter is no slouch in designing pianos.

Between the two's ideas, I'm sure the piano will be, quite impressive.

Not trying to spin here but with the strong Euro
These may have an advantage when comparing to the great German uprights.

The 1500 is not Dale's design, it's Chuck's.

I suspect that the new piano will have much in common with the scaling on the 1500, albeit in a larger and more powerful piano.

A promised update... I finally went to the dealership and - gasp! - no piano. I was told that it was sold yesterday. I was even shown the place where it stood . That's the bad news. The good news is that the price quote was around $8600. Now, I'm not sure how much stock we can put into this, but when I was there I tried an RX-2 and the initial price quote (without any negotiations) was $16000, which is (I suppose) pretty close to what they are eventually sold for. There was absolutely zero sales pressure, they completely left me alone, let me play and only answered my questions. Which makes me think that the quoted price should stand once the pianos are finally available. Anyhow, I left my coordinates and hope they'll call me when another 50" CW makes its way to the dealership. Sorry to disappoint you.

Dmitry.

Once again there are no Walter 50" pianos in the market yet. None have been shipped. Call the factory if you want. And they will cost more than the price you say they told you.

Did they have other Walter product? If so what and how many?

Not sure why you believe this salesperson after the info I gave you and the fact when you got there, you found no piano just an empty spot.

I thought the original Charles Walter upright was pretty much based on the Janssen studio.

It's really not a matter of "believing - not believing". I posted my conversation with the dealer last week, I went to the dealership this morning and now I'm reporting the results. They are authorized CW dealers, I sent you their coordinates via PM last week, they are referenced on the CW web site. They have several CW uprights and a couple of grands. All the CW instruments I saw were new. I'm repeating the quote I was given. I explicitly said that we probably shouldn't put too much stock into it. That's it.

Thanks for the update I guess they will give you a call at the end of the year when they get the new 50".

Take care

I received this email from Richard at Walter Pianos today:

Nice... With regard to my experience with the CW dealer described above - what a way to generate some traffic at the dealership!...

I had long discussions with the Walters last week at the PTG conference in Anaheim. And once again they said it is to be released for the end of the year as I and cookstar have mentioned.

They did say the dealers including me are anciously waiting for this new piano as it could be a great seller for the Walter dealers.

I hope to have my first ones in January/February 2009. We will see.

You are correct. I am not involved in this project. Chuck and I have had some discussions about it over the past several years but I am not doing the design.

ddf

Don't mean to raise this thread from the dead but-

i'm interested--- any news on the walter?

it's been a while..

i just googled 50 Charles Walter and found this thread.

This is kind of exciting in a way.

hahahah, thats what I did apple

is there any updates on this piano??? im really excited about this 50" charles walter upright

I got an email from my dealer today that they just began shipping them. All have a bright neon green finish with keys in the opposite colors (black and white reversed). There is a fourth pedal that activates an internal steel triangle every time you press a key. The most revolutionary feature was the CrashBoard, it's the fallboard but with an accelerated closing mechanism to make sure dust never gets in during the 250 milliseconds you have to take your hands off of the keyboard.

Apparently these are the latest, most fashionable designs these days at C. Walter.

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??????

But gnuboi, this can't be right. The one I tried out was hot pink with orange and chartreuse keys. It also did not have the fourth pedal as that is an added cost option (according to the dealer). It did have the crashboard feature, though. That is relly fun to play with, but you have to get your fingers out of the way very quickly or risk losing a finger to the crashing fallboard with its sharp edge which puts one somewhat in mind of the guillotine. I expressed fear that the piano would be damaged by the sharp edge clanging shut with such force, but the dealer explained its revolutionary new super-hardened-titanium reinforced stainless steel keybed and keyslip. He also told me that the revolutionary new aluminum hammers will never need replacing or voicing. They are guaranteed for life as is the carbon fiber-kevlar-fiberglass-cardboard composite soundboard. Amazing what technology can do these days! Did I mention that the keytops are soft and cushy kinda like those padded toilet seats?

JDSY,
The design of the CW 50" was completed. Unfortunately CW didn't start production since the cost of making the plate's mold was not financially feasible.
Iron foundries willing to make piano plates in the United States are practically extinct.

One of the reasons behind making a 50" studio was the market's pressure for tall uprights. As we know CW doesn't make a main-stream studio as the Asian and European piano makers. All being said; CW needed also pianos finish in polyester this was also a challenge since the manufacturer is not really equipped to work with poly at higher volume.

IMO CW doesn't need a 50" upright their 45" and 43" sounds better than most 50" in the market and yet offers higher quality built than brands that sell for higher price. What CW needs is better marketing and a sales force who can represent properly these wonderful instruments.

On another note; the issue with the Iron Foundries and poly is also true for Europe and not only North America; which makes me suspect of many European makers using Plates and Panels manufactured in China and sold as European pianos.

Damn, and I just bought a piano!

(I knew I should have waited.)

Awww go on... these aren't the latest designs... Yamaha's been doing these things for YEARS!

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(Calm down Yamaha lovers, I'm only KIDDING!!!)

This is true for some German makers who offer sub-lines from their main line pianos and have chosen to be less than transparent about stuff.

Put besides their own top line of pianos pianos one can tell - virtually in each and every case.

On the other hand, design and componentry alone are not the only thing that will make a piano special - there's this something special that one can feel and hear the moment you play it. It's an 'unimitable' kind of quality.

Perhaps it's the 'execution of work' or 'attention to details' or whatever you will - this will be the test all truly great pianos will have to pass.

*To clearly stand out from the crowd*.

'Good' and 'very good pianos'...sigh.. the market has a plenty....

Norbert

Thnx Kurtman for the update---
Jdsy

Marketing challenges and high polish finish aside, since CW is already using some Chinese-produced action parts, would it be that far a leap to also outsource the plate production to China? Then we might actually see the Walter 50?