Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum My Mason-Hamlin BB is coming tomorrow! Yikes!

Yikes! After a bit of a wait, my Mason-Hamlin BB is coming tomorrow and I am really excited, but also very nervous. It has to go up a flight of stairs, down a hall, and around a corner. I have been assured it will work but I have this terrible vision of a seven foot piano wedged into the corner of a hallway for the rest of my life. It will be going into a smallish bedroom, too, so that is another worry. I was originally going to buy a 6'4" M-H AA, but switched to the BB when I tried them both, and now I am worrying again if it will be too loud for the room. I am a soft player and will keep the lid down, the room is carpeted, and I can take other measures if needed, but I still will worry until I can try it out. I have a fully-finished, climate-controlled, third floor which is very large, carpeted, and wide-open, so I can always move it upstairs if I have to, but then every time I want to play, I will have to climb two flights of stairs and, at 63, this is not appealing.

I am hoping I can stay calm enough to watch them bring in the piano and take it up the stairs. If I can do that, I may get some pictures taken. Don't get me wrong, I know this will be a wonderful stage in my life, I just worry a lot about things. I have been playing this piano in my head for weeks and can't wait to do the real thing.

I will get back to you after it comes!

It's not unnatural to worry about a piano delivery, even one that is simpler than the one you described. In terms of the volume, it's also possible to do some voicing to make the piano softer without significantly changing other aspects of the tone if this is necessary (in addition to other less drastic steps like adjusting the room's acoustics, etc).

I assume the movers or dealer is insured on the 1 in 1000 chance the delivery isn't perfect. Do you know how many movers will be there? I assume the minimum would be three for your 1000+ lb. monster.

I bet my own BB delivery story was much more...shall I say "exciting" than yours will be.

They know about the stairs, the size and weight of the piano, and so on. I have been assured they are the kind of people I can trust. I just worry a lot (basically I always have.)

>I have a fully-finished, climate-controlled, third floor which is very large, carpeted, and wide-open, so I can always move it upstairs if I have to, but then every time I want to play, I will have to climb two flights of stairs and, at 63, this is not appealing.

Well that will be 1 time per day up and one time down right?

I would take that third floor large room

Well at 65 myself, I can tell you that climbing two flights of stairs several times per day would probably be good for you !!!

Now I'd like to hear about your BB delivery story, pianoloverus! Is there an old thread?

Hope everything goes well, Chopinlover49!
Kathy

I am in the same situation as you concerning the trepidation you are experiencing with the impending delivery of your piano.

My Sauter should be delivered sometime next week. It gets shipped from Germany starting today.

Bon chance!

allthumbs

Yes, but I have no idea which thread has the story and it's a too lengthy to retype.

How about trying in four sentences or less? Kind of like the contest where novelists have to write a complete novel in a day, and they only get the theme the day they begin.

"... I have a fully-finished, climate-controlled, third floor which is very large, carpeted, and wide-open, so I can always move it upstairs if I have to, but then every time I want to play, I will have to climb two flights of stairs and, at 63, this is not appealing."

You could think about getting a Stair-Master (hope I have the name right--- what I mean is, one of those stair-climbing chair lifts; you see them advertized on TV all the time). Possibly, subtracting the cost of a second piano-move from this device's cost might make the price somewhat more attractive, or less daunting.

Anyway, congratulations. I hope you enjoy your new piano. No--- I'm sure you will.

Congratulations on your new purchase. I also bought a BB almost a year ago and it is in a smallish room. I was also freaking out but the movers were fabulous. Yes it can get a touch loud but the difference between the BB and AA is huge. The piano is quite heavy and we live in an older home and have had ZERO problems with it's size and concerns about going through the floor, etc.

I think the piano sounds best with the lid fully open, and if it has been well regulated and voiced, it should be no problem.

Best wishes and I am sure you will love it. Cheers!!!!

Thanks, everyone. I will try to relax. You are probably right about the extra stairs being good for me, but in the past, when my daughter had her Steinway at our house, I would go in three or four times some days to play it. That's a lot of stairs. My wife might say, "Dinner will be ready in 20 minutes," so I would play for 30 or so (She always underestimates.) You see? I will just wait and see how it goes. I am pretty sure the volume won't be a big problem. I am more worried about the room being a little like a reflector for the sound. However, I am getting a little hearing loss so I probably won't even notice.

Congratulations - the BB was close to the top of my list. Should be a great piano.

I had "concerns" about how loud my piano would be once it was delivered. No problems. I generally play with the lid up (sounds better). Of course, I CAN play louder than what is comfortable, but with any piano, that is a possibility.

>However, I am getting a little hearing loss so I probably won't even notice.

One more reason IMHO to be extra careful, you don't want to loose the remaining hearing?

don't worry.. actually learning how to play VERY softly makes one a very diverse and good player. You must be super excited. Congrats. take pics if you can.

Maybe you can have rug selected for underneath and find a nice piano cover that is somewhat insulated. I rolled up a small quilt and put it directly behind the music desk.. and later removed it. it sounded nice.

I didn't sleep much last night. The guys are a few minutes late. I am hoping to stay calm enough to take some pictures when they do their thing. Then I will have to find out how to put them on this site. Later...

I bet you didn't sleep much! I didn't either, eagerly awaiting my delivery. Alas it didn't come until 7 at night. Hope that yours arrives soon.

There is a sticky thread on how to post photos. Hope that you do when you need a break from playing!

I also hope that it works out well for you in your smaller room. I only dared to go for an AA in mine. Would love the BB!

Well, it is here! It was quite an experience. The movers arrived a little late, but not a problem. Everyone was really nice and they had come quite a distance, so I was expecting it to be an approximate arrival time. There were three movers. I showed them the stairs, and general path to the bedroom where the piano goes. The boss of the group, Brian, said they were going into the city to get some more help.

Quite a while later, they came back with two painters from a local home improvement store (not really piano-moving types, if you ask me.) Brian told me he called most of the piano stores in the city but once he told them he was delivering a Mason-Hamlin BB (1020 pounds), they said they had a lot to do, a previous engagement, or whatever. I guess this is a frequent problem.

Anyway, they did a great job, the piano went up the stairs, down the hall, and into the turning corner. These guys really huffed and puffed! I was glad I wasn't on the bottom pushing! Things slowed down there, but with a lot of wiggling, they got it around the corner, into the room, and set up. Even though the cost of delivery was quite a bit more than I had originally expected, after watching them move that tank up the 16 steep stairs, I gave Brian a big tip to split with the guys!

One small wrinkle, they brought the wrong piano bench by mistake. I don't think it was their fault because when they picked up the piano, there was no one at the site to direct them and the bench was disassembled in a sealed box. I guess arrangements had been made and a small mixup occurred.

I have spoken with Rich at Cunningham's and it will be taken care of so I am not concerned.

I took about 60 pictures, trying to stay out of the way as much as possible. As soon as I figure out how to put pictures up on the site, I will upload a few of them.

Thanks for all of your support. I am really thrilled with my new polished ebony piano! I think I have played about eight hours since yesterday. My shoulders are killing me!

Congratulations! Enjoy the fine instrument!

My first try of putting up a photo of the delivery:

http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/IMG_4628