Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum J Strauss & Son Piano - need info

We just put a deposit on a J Strauss & Son piano and are looking for information / experiences with this piano since we were only able to find limited information. It is a model GJ72D, 5'8". It is a floor model. We played it and it sounds excellent. My daughters and I play, but no one is going to be a concert pianist. We are looking for a good consumer piano that will last us a long time. Would appreciate any information you can share. Thanks.

Made in China by Shanghai Piano Co.

Cheaply designed and constructed, so if you're expectations are not high, it might suit your needs. Check out Larry Fine's "The Piano Book" plus its most recent supplement. Don't have one handy so don't know his opinion.

I doubt these pianos have been made long enough to have a long-term track record, and as you would need to spend at least $10,000 more to get a good grand, your budget constraints may dictate this purchase rather than quality considerations. That's OK. You're casual pianists with a limited budget (I'm assuming around $8,000-$10,000, as that is the list price range of these pianos). Just understand you're buying what many "serious" pianists would consider to be an inferior instrument.

If you're committed to this price range, you should also know that there are any number of Chinese manufacturers selling this size grand for about this price.

Aaron, Thank you so much for the information. However, I've told there is a difference between a J Strauss & son piano and a Strauss piano (2 different companies and 2 different categories of pianos). I've been told that the J Strauss is made by a mfr in China called Seung vs. Shanghai piano. Do you have any insight on this? I am trying to find more info. I am committed to this price range for what we will use this for, but I'm looking for quality within this category (3). Thank you.

You're right, they're different makers. According to the Piano Technician's Guild database, J. Strauss & Sons pianos--

Pianos made in: Guangzhou and Dongbei, China and in Belarus, Russia.

Oh, and here's a link to a piano rating site:

Piano Ratings

J. Strauss is rated considerably higher than Strauss.

plbri,
The J Strauss is a different company than Strauss. The problem is that the J. Strauss is a private label brand belonging to the dealer you purchased it from, so there may not be an abundance of non biased information pro or con. I do not have an opinion regarding this brand, but I wanted to shed some light on why it is hard for you to find information.

Aaron,
That rating site is owned/operated by the same dealer as above FYI.

I'm told that the J Strauss is made by Sejung in China. There is ASC (America Sejung Corp) who sells a Falcone which looks to be the same if not similar. Do you know anything about this piano?

Aaron, I belief that site is discredited because it was assembled by a dealer? I seem to recall this.

Well, then can you tell me anything about the Altenburg labeled pianos?

I knew someone would ask that..of course it's Chris

The upright pianos bearing the Altenburg name are stencil, as long as they can be marketed as a decent instrument for the money. Currently, Samick and Beijing are producing them for me.

Grands can be had either way of stencil or custom-made to specifications (depending how many containers you want to order). The 4'7", 4'11", 5'2" are stenciled and the 5'3", 5'7", 5'10", and 6'3" all have individual strung unisons and small cabinetry changes done.

Currently, there is not a 7'2" in production because: 1)Lack of demand,and 2)I could not get a good price on what I consider quality to put my name on to be marketed at the price level I want to be.

That's enough of me now; I don't want to hijack this person's thread. I only contributed because it seemed this party was not getting any info they wanted, so I explained why. I also realize that there is lack of info, good or bad, about my own line and I hope the above may shed some light.

plbri,
An individual would have no idea where or who this instrument was made by, unless it is seen. If you like the piano, have a outside tuner examine it.
The J. Strauss I have seen personally were trade ins, and they are all Belarus.

Fred:

My point that was that for pianos that are sole-sourced, like the pianos of the topic and your stencils, it's best NOT to ask the people selling them about how good they are.

oh....DOH!

Look in the mirror.. you'll see a SALESMAN..

Clever piano manufacturers, setting up a phony piano evaluation page! I am so

Wow! That rating site gives Fazioli VERTICAL six stars!

Here's another fun one.
http://www.jstraussandsonpiano.com/local_dealer.html

Feel free to type in any zip code to find your local dealer for J Strauss & Sons pianos to find a price comparison.

I am a frank newbie and this is my first post here.

Thanks to these forums, I think I avoided a huge mistake. I also put a down-payment on the J. Strauss (not knowing much and wanting a piano for my daughter). Having read through this and a few other threads, I quickly cancelled the order and had my deposit refunded.

I relearned a valuable lesson: The stronger the pitch, the more profit. The more profit the dealer makes on a lower cost item, the cheaper his/her cost. The cheaper his/her cost, the cheaper the product. I shoulda' seen it coming.

So this was my second bad experience in my second piano dealer. I'm not clear what to do now.

I am looking for an upright for my daughter who is just about a year into lessons and needs to move from the electronic keyboard. Realistically, an upright in the $4000-$6000 range is my limit. I expect to upgrade in 4 years if all goes well with her, but who knows. I think I prefer new. Finally, I'm in Central New Jersey and I now don't know which dealers to trust. Any help from unbiased folks would be appreciated.