I recently had the pleasure of playing a Steingraeber at a friend's house....I believe it was a 205 and just fell in love. What do yo uall think? I was intterested in buying a Schimmel NWS 189 but fell in love with the Steingraeber and Sohne. I found one online recently for sale, but it's 10 years old. The owner says it's rarely been used...but what do you all think of buying a 10 year old piano? Thanks everyone.

You'd definitely have to go and play it,, take a tech to inspect it, it'd probably be at least different to your friend's Steingraeber 205. Jivemutha, the OP said the piano for sale is ten years old. Good luck

You MUST play it before you buy any used piano and almost any new piano (new Yamahas being the arguable exception, assuming one has played the identical model, also new).

Also, as was wisely said recently on pianoworld, when you get to the very top tier of pianos (of which this is one), the piano one likes the best is frequently not going to be the most expensive one.

I would think one would go and play even a New Yamaha before going with a purchase. Any piano, for that matter.

The owner says it's rarely been used...but what do you all think of buying a 10 year old piano? Thanks everyone.

Here's what I meant regarding Yamaha: if it's new and you've played, for example, one or more new U1s and have heard it (or them) in situations related to where your piano will be (in terms of room size, carpeting, etc.) then you needn't play the new U1 you intend to buy. They're all the virtually same. This is not true for many (most) other brands.

I just had to special order a Yamaha because American dealers don't generally stock silent C2s. I certainly made sure I played on various C2s in different rooms, etc. (The acoustic sound of a silent C2 is the same as a regular C2.) Then, I placed my order without the kind of fear a Steinway buyer would have to experience waiting to see if the K52 they ordered sounds as good as the K52 that they might have previously played.

Yamaha is not the best piano in the world. It is the most consistent, according to dealers who sell multiple lines, technicians, players, etc. Sure, someone out there will have a different view, but what I'm saying here is widely accepted by many.

Even if it spent those ten years at the bottom of a lake, it would probably still sound better than 90% of the pianos in the world.

. . .If you don't love a piano after playing it and listening to it, don't buy it. If you do love it, you have to go for it. Most sellers will try hard to come up with a workable deal.

My Steingraeber had me after the first few notes.

The top tier pianos cost what they cost. But if you're in the market for any of them, you're really in the market for all of them.

I can only tell you what I saw, which is a great deal of evidence that it's a buyer's market today -- to the point where pianos I had never beleved would be affordable turned out to be just that.

You can agree with that or not, but for me the proof is being played in my family room as I now type.

LOL!

though in reality, i doubt it.

You never know. The Steingraeber-Phoenix pianos have the WNG parts, carbon fiber soundboards, and beryllium alloy agraffes....