SEARCH NEW PIANOS BY BRAND

If you’re looking for the lineup of current models from a particular brand, simply click on the corresponding logo below. These brands represent the largest contingency of manufacturers in the world. Each piano maker has a different signature in methods of piano making and subsequently each brand offers something different musically. Combined, they represent hundreds of thousands of pianos made annually.

SEARCH NEW PIANOS BY SIZE

There are 4 common sizes of upright pianos and 6 categories of grand sizes available. For a detailed description of each size, click on the desired size of piano. Upright pianos are qualified by height and grand pianos are measured by length. Assuming that most pianos have 88 standard-sized keys, piano width is similar. Depth of upright pianos range from 21″ to 27″ (52cm-67cm).

RESEARCHING PIANOS

I’ve heard this statement many times before: “I’m just doing my research on what piano to buy”. But what does this actually mean? What do people research when they say that they’re examining a piano? Isn’t a piano just a piano? This series of 5 articles gives a foundation of components in piano manufacturing. Find out the subtle differences that vary from one maker to another.

Hammers Believe it or not, piano hammers are really varied. They might look the same from one piano to another but really they’re not. Here are some of the variables that make piano hammers so different: the felt quality, the wooden moulding, the manufacturing process, shaping and voicing. And the subtleties in each of those categories are so vast, we could speak about them for days. Continue Reading Strings Isn’t wire just wire? Piano wire is made up of drawn steel with carbon content of more than 0.80% which means it has high tensile strength to deal with the demands of piano tension (often 18 tons or greater). It also is ideal in that it is easily bendable and can be worked around tuning pins without breaking. If you look at the plain wire strings on a piano, they may look the same but they are actually graduated in size. The top strings are quite thin and they become thick near the middle. Continue Reading Piano Rims The rim is the outer wooden frame surrounding the soundboard. Generally, it is thought of as a rigid, reflective surface to bounce the sound waves back again into the soundboard. If you were to liken this to a drum, the skin would be the piano soundboard, freely oscillating and held firm at the perimeter by the drum rim and shell. But much of the character and the body of the tone come from the rim and the skin under compression. So too in piano manufacturing, the rim of the piano plays an important role in tonal character of the piano. Continue Reading Soundboards When doing research on pianos, what role does the soundboard play? After a key is struck on the piano, the hammer is activated to strike against the strings. The vibration of the strings, in turn transfers the vibration through the bridge to the soundboard. It’s the job of the soundboard to act as a transducer, transforming the vibrations of the strings into audible waves of sound. Continue Reading Bridges The soundboard magnifies the tone of the piano strings. The part responsible for this is called the bridge because it acts as a bridge between the strings (sound source) and the soundboard (amplifier). The bridge is one of the central pieces in piano manufacturing. Continue reading Actions To understand the differences in piano actions, we first need to look at the makeup of the components. Piano actions consist primarily of wood. Hornbeam and maple are used extensively for these parts. Steel is used for brackets while aluminum is often used for common rails connecting all of the parts for each of the 88 notes. Jointed parts are also made from nickel or chrome brass pins inserted into the wood and rotate quietly on cloth bushings. Continue Reading