Hi,
Sometimes I hear bad things said about Chinese pianos in general which I think is very unfortunate. So I just wanted to chime in and say that I am in love with my 5'5" Chinese baby grand. I purchased it new back in 2001 and I am very happy with it. It has given me so much joy over the years.


Top view



Close-up


Front view

Wow beautiful!

Nice piano and nice room!

Beautiful! I don't know which I like more- the piano or the room itself!

A lovely instrument, indeed! And, a beautiful music room too!! I love the color of the walls and the wood floor.

Congratulations!

Rick

Pretty; thanks for posting!

The sun on the strings will cause you problems. I like the chairs.

As Dan has already pointed out .... The sun streaming through the window onto the strings will knock the poor instrument out of tune very quickly,and may well lead to structural problems overtime.

Direct sunlight on any piano will cause problems such as drying out of the action and soundboard, leading to splits and loose action sections.

Best advice would be to either move it away from direct sunlight or at the very least install blinds to reflect and defuse it.

If you value your piano, I would get this seen to ASAP!

Congratulations!

Neat story and significant data point as well (I don't mean the chairs ) .

Ten years is a bit of a track record. It's good to look back on old forum faves that have passed from view with the onrush of successive generations of new Chinese latests and greatests. It's really a shame that the Nordiska brand in partiular, and the DongBei grands in general, have been derailed through no fault of the designers and builders who brought them to market. There was so much promise there.

If I may ask, what maintenance has your piano received other than tunings over the course of years?

solution: wood shutters (and they offer great insulation against both cold and heat, when closed all the way)
*or the newer, synthetic wood look-alike type...

Thanks for your nice compliments about the piano and our music room!

Regarding the sunlight, these windows only have sun a short time in the early mornings and the top lid stays closed unless I am playing and then I mostly keep it on the lowest setting. But I have been thinking of curtains to preserve the finish better. But the down side is that I love light and it is great to be able to play and look out at the same time. Wood shutters might be a good option. The jury is still out in this one though.

As far as maintenance, I have not had the need for any adjustments yet. It gets tuned 1-2 times per year. But I am just a happy amateur so it only gets played like 4-8 hrs per week. However, I just got a Roland RD-700NX digital piano for night practice (when the kids are sleeping) so I might notice the need for tunings faster now. If that is the case I will just have to tune it more often.

Turandot, yes, it's too bad what happened to DB and Nordiska.

Deleted by moderator *SPAM*

Here is the problem; the instrument has dark colouring. Dark colours attract and retain heat; much more so and at a faster rate than the clear top coat of finish.

This expansion underneath could at some point cause the top coat to crack; this is what happened to the Blüthner that I have. It was placed into an oceanfront home in the morning window. The entire flat side chequered in long streaks. Morning sunlight has little in the way of filter as the dust of the day has not yet risen.

There is UV film you can purchase to eliminate the harmful light but not the heat transfer. A white cotton or linen sheet will reflect the heat.

Better Homes and Gardens magazine once observed, "Nothing adds more charm to a home than a few undraped widows."

I think the OP is going to be a tough sell on the idea that direct sunlight on a piano is damaging, after ten years. So it is hardly worth pointing out that his lovely Chinese baby grand is also sitting right over a heater vent in the floor.

Wood shutters are just as charming as undraped widows, if you ask me.

Jeff, spot on. I also view it this way; this piano is by no means in the same division as Steinways or other high end pianos that cost 10-20x more. We enjoy the piano and having the room bright. I shot these pictures early in the morning as I liked the way the sun lit up the room and wanted to capture it on camera.

The piano has to be this close to the corner as the opposite corner of the music room hosts its younger Japanese sibling


Roland RD-700NX

Why not flop? The digital won't be affected by sun and heat, right?

" undraped WIDOWS (sic) " ???

wow, from Better Homes and Gardens , no less ??? well, I guess they could add some charm to a home.....

That corner is smaller.

Undraped widows? maybe you could use the discarded drapes to cover the piano, and stand the leftover widows in the "small" corner for perusal later.
I am struggling not so much with the widows, but with one corner being "smaller" than another, it looks like a regular 90 degree corner as well, has it been photo-shopped?

... 90 degree corners are no good for pianos as that is way too hot! You should know better...