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Does anyone know the scoop on the Bettich verticals? Even the website (in German) gives no information as to the extent of the line, or any specs. The site is vague about the Bettich grands, mentioning soundboards of Canadian fir, strings of German steel, tra-la, but little else. I read German extremely well, and found nothing about Bettich verticals. Except that Bettich does claim to design & build verticals & grands, and also to carry new Kawai, Seiler, and Samick verticals.

The Fine books have no information on them.

Guarantee it's a Chinese made house brand, getting very common in Germany.
Not necessarily bad - in fact may be surprisingly good. [under control of superior German master technician...Aha ]

Perhaps ask Herr Bettich directly: he's the keeper of the secret:
http://www.bettich-piano.de/content/index.php?id=1

Then trust your ears, fingers and - pocketbook!

Alles Gute!

Norbert

The website says the pianos are produced in Shanghai and controlled by Mr. Bettich "vor Ort", i.e. there. Apart from certain parts, Germany comes in - according to the site - only through "German technicians" who may do a certain amount of preparation before sale. So Mr. Bettich (working with one of the large musical instrument dealers in Germany, Musik Produktiv) is just one of those dealers who has a contract allowing him to print his name on a Chinese (otherwise no-name?) piano.

On the plus side, nothing of this is hidden, one just has to read.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

@Norbert, you responded so quickly. Thank you for that. I read your information right away last night and have slept on it, because in a nutshell you have summarized the entire piano-shopping process. It is simple but good advice, I think, but up to the individual to prevent the three elements from influencing each other in deleterious ways. On to Bettich specifically: It does strike me as unusual that even if Bettich is jobbing out his manufacturing, and specifying nothing himself in the scale-design, he would have more than one model -- and that even if he has only one, that he would note that and give some actual specifications. Dimensions, maybe? 125-130cm height for a vertical? Something? Anyway. That he does not is in itself instructive.

@maurus: The Bettich site is organized in an *apparently* standard way, but the information included there is a little peculiar. As noted above, I was looking for a list of models for both verticals and grands, and found neither for the Bettich instruments. The Kawais, Samicks, and Seilers, on the other hand, are itemized, with specs, in the 'Online Shop' -- from which the Bettich verticals are completely absent. It was this 'Site-interne Ungereimtheit' that I found striking and actually a bit bizarre. Almost as if Bettich would rather sell Kawai than the instruments bearing his own name. I did read the page stating, "...Fichte ...Stahl ...Filz ...Shanghai." That page emphasizes the grand pianos, and then slides into talking about the rest, making no specific mention of 'Klavier' or 'Flügel' ever again. But I really was looking for photos, model numbers, distinguishing features, dimensions, and pricing for the Bettich model/s, rather than these slippery prose generalities. Insane, right? Why would I want information like that. Hm. But web design is tricky, so I can cut some slack. Because I was surfing on my iPhone, I was just hoping I had missed a category or link somewhere.

As Norbert has recommended, if I do visit such a piano, I will think with my ears, fingers, and pocketbook. But with no independent price reference for a new Bettich -- and the obvious fact that by being vague in its spec/scale design, the manufacturer has unlimited agility to cheapen the quality of the product at any time, I may pass. I'm looking for a used something on the order of one of the better Schimmel verticals, and the Bettich is quite unlikely to be that.

But if I do see one, I will definitely try it out, because why not.

Thank you both again -- !

P.S. Nobody tell IKEA that there's any money at all to be made in pianos.

thorn:

What Bettich is doing is no different than what Thomann, world's largest music store, is doing with their house brand "Thomann Adagios": these are Chinese made house brands of decent quality simply to compete with " the rest of them"

Plus keep good margins for those selling them

http://www.thomann.de/gb/pianos.html

Even Steinway in Hamburg had a house brand for a number of years called "Karl Lang"
[thinking "Karl Lagerfeld" would have been better choice.. ]

Since you're in Germany you could very well keep searching perhaps for some good [used] German brands including Schimmel,Sauter, Seiler and so on.

We Germans know our bread is a little 'different' from others - so are our pianos.

Please remember, said "different"...

Norbert