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It turns out they didn't know any better. Even then it wasn't a very good instrument. But, it was pretty, and it said "Steinway."

Yes we did, my wife saw it at a small church up in Maine that was having a tag sale one Saturday. Noone put a bid on it so she went up to the Rector after the sale was all over and made an offer. He told her that he would need to run her offer (which was lets say only a few hundred dollars) passed the trustee's. Three weeks later they called and told her to come get it. We had it for approx. 8 years before it finally needed major work. Knowing absolutly nothing about pianos, we had no idea what we even had. We called our tech in to tune it and he told us it was time for major work. My wife made the comment to him after he told her how much restoration work it needed, that I could haul it to the dump. He told her that " Some people consider this a German Stienway and it is well worth rebuilding" That started the whole rebuild process. As far as the story behind it goes, we were told that a wealthy woman in Maine purchased it and had it shipped over to the US because she thought that it was a better instrument than the piano's being produced out of New York even though by this time Theodore Steinweg had sold the company to Grotrian, Hellfrich and Shultz and come to New York. We are still trying to track down more of it's history.

Jeffo,

A "few hundred dollars".

Sometimes it's OK to walk down the street, and step in sh*t. LOL You have certainly cleaned your shoes off real nice.

A new one...





Derick

Derick,

Is that a Model Concert Grand 280?
Very nice piano.
You have the back wheels on the hardwood. Will the weight damage the floor? And I've heard that the sound is better with a rug under the whole piano. Have you tried it?
Thanks for posting. Nice photo.

Derick not sure I saw the wood floors last time you posted a photo of your Imperial. Are you able to handle all that sound with the top up? How big is the room? I was considering putting in wood floors in my piano room but I am not sure I want to now that I have had my D for a few months. The volumn might get to be too much. Its pretty loud even with wall to wall. I will post photos maybe tonight.

Actually all the wheels are on a thin, but very stiff piece of wood stained to match the floor. The wood is under the rug for the front wheels.

I think, and this is just my opinion, that when you put carpeting under a piano you are muffling a lot of the overtones. When people do put a rug under the piano and state that it sounds better, I think it is because the brightness of the piano is cut down. Bosendorfers are typically not bright pianos.

It's a model 290, not a 280 (which is also a nice piano).

The room is 19x20 with 9' cathedral ceilings that top out at 14'. I don't find the sound too much at all - and I do not like loud pianos. I could really pound on it and then, yes, it would be too loud. But under normal playing conditions it's an ideal environment.

My previous piano was a 7'4" Falcone - made in America essentially a copy of a Steinway. At that time I had wall-to-wall carpeting. With the original Renner hammers I had a lot of volume. I later put on Abel hammers and the volume was cut considerably. I think the Falcone with Abel hammers would have sounded better on the wood floor, but I think it might have been too much with Renner hammers.

Derick

Derick,

9'6" WOW My room is a little bigger then yours, and I'm thinking my 6'1" is going to take up a lot of room. My ceilings go to 15'. It will be a carpeted room.
Well all I can say is, "That is one very nice piano". Post some more pics.

Derick, I believe you are quite correct about the overtones. I am hearing less overtones than I did when the piano was in Steinway Hall, still it sounds great. Unfortunately I have only 8 foot ceilings. I think the height of your ceilings are the ticket for a concert grand. Do you know if anyone out there has a concert grand with 8 foot ceilings and wood floors. I am tempted to go with wood and then use an area rug. Sure would like to know if someone else went through this and what the results were.

The height of the ceilings probably does have something to do with it. It's hard to say. I guess the only thing you can do is try it (kind of expensive though) and then put down an area rug as you mentioned if it is too loud. Or you could have the piano voiced to be a bit mellower. I believe there was someone who had a Bosendorfer 280 with 8' ceilings but I don't think he's posted here in a while and I can't remember his ID. He never mentioned a volume problem but I don't think you can go by that. Every piano make will sound different in the same room, and the same piano will sound different in different rooms. There are certainly a lot of people with 6' pianos here who are always trying to quiet them down. Personally, I think wood floors are a must and the piano should be voiced to sound good in the room.

Mazer, don't worry, I guarantee you the piano will shrink after you get it. I thought mine was enormous when I first got it even though it is only a little more than 2' longer than my previous piano. Now it just looks kind of average size. What are you getting?

Derick

P.S. Click on my homepage and there are more pics if your interested. They are before I got the music stand upgrade.

Derick,

2005 Nordiska 185 Imperial

http://community.webshots.com/user/maze069

Read my story on page 3 on how I bought my piano. And I really like the light. Where did you get it?

Wow, that's beautiful. I really like the finish and the music stand (you can probably tell I'm a bug about music stands). I've never played, or even seen, a Nordiska but I hear great things about them. Congratulations.

Derick

The piano was just voiced so its not going to get quiet unless I stuff some blankets in it. Even then it would probably have a boom to it. Actually I'm not worried so much about volumn as reflection. Agree they shrink. The D doesn't seem so enormous anymore but I do not wish for a larger piano thats for sure.

LJC, is your piano at an angle from the wall?

Derick

What a magnificent weapon of a piano Derick I remember playing an Imperial in Belgium and I thought they could feel the bass of that piano in France. Awesome.

Diarmuid2,

Where is your photos? Come on, post for us all to enjoy. Thanks

Sorry Steven! Here are a few pics of the Bluthner. They were taken before I had the house completed so there is an old piece of carpet under it (I sanded and varnished the floorboards myself, almost killed me).

http://www.diarmuid.plus.com/Bluthner1.jpg

http://www.diarmuid.plus.com/Bluthner2.jpg

http://www.diarmuid.plus.com/Bluthner3.jpg

It needs full restoration, but a 9ft concert grand has a bass to die for.

Diarmuid2,

Thanks for the photos.

What year is the Bluthner Concert Grand? You say it needs full restoration. Looks good from the photos. The New Bluthner's have a new designed cast iron plate. Is there anything else they've changed?

Lots of great pianos and stories on this thread!

Derick, you had a Falcone??!! You should have come to our gathering in Lowell on April 30th. You could have had a chat with Santi!!

Hi all! Here's a picture of my brand new Estonia 190, signed by Dr. Laul. My music room has 20' ceilings and the sound is wonderful!

http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/PICT00200.JPG