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I bought this piano new about a year ago (original thread is at http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2299621 ). I've been playing it quite a bit and decided to finally take some pictures! Ok, so I'm not that great of a photographer (there is a lot of glare in these photos), but I hope you like the small gallery of the piano and the room!

Video Recording (camcorder audio quality) is below images. Enjoy!









View from upstairs:


Piano bookshelf:

More bright than my vintage BB. But, a lovely piano.

Impressive performance of an EXTREMELY difficult work. Bravo.
The room is beautiful and serenely harmonious.
Piano is loud. It must be very powerful in that space.
The NEW Mason sound. Hmm.
Karl Watson,
Staten Island, NY

Okay excellent BB porn and your playing puts mine to shame, but holy crap your music room. It's perfect, I'm in awe.

Karl - keep in mind the recording is from a cheap camcorder. I've found it severely compresses dynamic range. Playing mezzo forte and fortissimo both come off as forte. With that said, the piano can generate quite a bit of sound if the performer demands it. It can also be very quiet too.

Glad you liked the performance, piano and the room!

Mark - the room has been a work in progress for the last year .

Very nice! Just wondering - are you left-handed?

Beautiful piano, beautiful home, and beautiful playing!!!

Congratulations!!!

Rick

I am right handed. One of the goals of this work was to develop my left hand more. One of the other goals was to keep playing after I temporarily injured my right hand about a year ago (culinary accident). My right hand took a few weeks to heal, so it seemed like a good excuse to learn some left hand music.

Very nice, on all counts! Congrats, on a very nice piano--you play it well--and the very cozy space in which it lives.

I just realized there was a separate sub-forum for posting new piano pictures. Can I get a moderator to move this thread? Sorry for the inconvenience.

Nah, your piano is a year old now so you can leave the pictures in this thread. Lovely piano and great playing!

Very impressive playing, and your piano sounds lovely too. My left hand could certainly use more work but I think I'd be scared to attempt that piece

Lovely - congratulations. May there be many years of enjoyment ahead.

Beautiful playing on a beautiful piano - thank you for sharing benjamink.

One comment - I see lots of ambient daylight. How does the piano hold up in that space? Is there any fluctuation of temperature/RH during the day?

Enjoy your piano!

Glad you like the instrument and the performance!

In general I have the blinds closed on the giant window which eliminates most of the light. We don't get direct sunlight shining into the house, so I usually open it on weeknights and the weekends (when I am home) to help with lighting. The RH does fluctuate a little, usually less than 5% over the course of a day in the summer. The temperature also changes about 10 degrees over a summer day, since I don't have AC (most homes in the Seattle area do not have AC). In winter, the RH and temperature are more constant.

I considered getting a Dampp Chaser installed, but a tech told me that he thought 5% wasn't anything too serious. I've had the piano tuned a lot this past year, but I think that is largely due to it being new, and me playing a lot of music which puts it out of tune . If I'm still having to get it tuned a lot in 2 years or so, I'll rethink the Dampp Chaser.

I had a similar discussion with my tech after we replaced the bass strings to my piano, I play quite a bit and the piano naturally goes out of tune, there is no way around it independently from the equipment attached and the temperature/humidity control. When living seaside in Italy and practicing few hours every day, my piano needed to be tuned 3 to 4 times per year, with no A/C and pretty severe humidity fluctuation due to the shifting of the wind (land wind = cold & dry, sea wind = humid & warm) twice every day. I see that kind of equipment more for people that play very little and don't want to deal with tuning often. I have my issues in "electrifying" a beautiful instrument that isn't born to have an electric plug. :-)

My tech advised me to get a humidifier for Portland's dry winters (due to heating)-- I'd assume you'd have a similar situation in Seattle? (We have a very old house so probably have a decent amount of air leakage, and we don't have A/C.) He just wrote me this morning with a recommendation-- it's an expensive German humidifier but he says it's very good quality and won't leave mineral particulates from evaporated water. Thought you might be interested!

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Here is the Venta humidifier: https://www.venta-airwasher.com/

It is really a superior design - quieter then I remembered (the acoustic levels are essentially whispers), and the power drain is under 10 watts -- about that of a typical night light. You won't have to rewire your house! I was pleased to find Bed, Bath and Beyond sells them. And Amazon. The pianist in Victoria had to import them from Germany and paid ~$500 CD for them.

The LW25 model (~$300) should work in your room; or you could opt for the LW45 (~$400) for more water capacity and room size. You won't need a unit until we enter the heating season (Oct-Nov) when the air will get significantly drier.

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You should also purchase a cheap digital hygrometer to track the humidity in the room. Here's an example: http://tinyurl.com/nnj9v9f
The absolute RH% accuracy is not important; we want to keep track of the delta RH in the room and keep it within a +/- 10 point window (e.g, 30%-50% RH).
Bo's tuning will start to move if the humidity departs 10 points or more from where it was when tuned.

Great taste in composer portraits. You have two of my three favorites. And yeah, Franz was pretty good as well.

Wow!! All of it is impressive. I especially like how well-organized you have your music. I need to do something like this. What a beautiful piano and lovely space in which to play.

Hey, I bet I know exactly how happy you must be with your MH BB. Fortunately, I also have one, born in 2013.
Here are 2 posts of my home and grandpiano, and links for YT videos, so you can check up how good it sounds.
Lest's keep in touch, and best wishes.

Arrival in Brazil, and home

Last weekend, test of new mics and videocam (Zoom Q8)

MH BB in Brazil - videos