Piano Name: Pearl River Website: Pearl River Model: UP115 Made in: China Parent Company: Guangzhou Pearl River Piano Group Ltd. Company Location: China Height: 45″ History: Established in 1954, Guangzhou, China, Pearl River is the largest piano builder in the world surpassing 100,000 pianos annually. They have over 1.3 million square feet of manufacturing space… Read More
Piano Name: Kawai Website: Kawai Model: 506N Made in: Indonesia Parent Company: Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Company Location: Japan Height: 44.5″ History: The Kawai company was formed in 1927 by a group consisting of Koichi Kawai and 7 of his colleagues. By 1955 Shigeru Kawai led the company into modern manufacturing and by… Read More
Other Images & Videos Piano Name: Essex Website: Essex Model: EUP-108C Made in: China Parent Company: Steinway Musical Instruments Inc. Company Location: USA Height: 42″ History: Introduced in 2001, Essex is the name of Steinway’s cost effective piano line. Steinway designed, built by Pearl River in China to Steinway’s specifications. Dimensions: 42.5″x58″x21.5″ or 108cm x… Read More
It’s helpful to find information on comparable products. Piano Price Point has gathered and compiled all of the major brands of pianos and organized their models into price categories. Since list prices given by the manufacturer are often significantly higher that what you would find in stores, it is better to shop higher than your… Read More
Historically there have been approximately 11,000 names of pianos listed in the Pierce Piano Atlas. These 11,000 names were manufactured by about 1,000 pianos makers building pianos under different names, a process that is called stenciling. Today, we are left with about 50 global brands of pianos. They are represented below. Are there more piano… Read More
Knabe WV43 Upright Piano Piano Name: Knabe Website: Knabe Model: WV-43 Made in: Indonesia Parent Company: Samick Music Corp. Company Location: Korea Height: 42″ History: William Knabe established his company in Baltimore, USA in the year 1839 and remained in the family until 1906. As a well established name, the Knabe company became part of… Read More
A Voice from the Past
“Step right up… See the amazing piano that plays by itself!” I can just hear the man at a trade show in the 1920’s. “Just push the pedals and this paper roll will play songs like Swanee and The Entertainer and Bicycle Built for Two.”
This invention in the late 1800’s was quite remarkable. It functions similarly to a harmonica in reverse. Rather than blowing through holes in a harmonica, the player piano sucks air through a perforated tracker bar. The paper roll has a punch-out hole position for every note on the piano. Through the use of bellows and gears, the paper roll would mechanically slide over the tracker bar and when a hole would appear in the paper, air would get sent through a tube and pneumatically play the corresponding note.… Read More
Meet Mr. Charles Walter, CEO of the company which bears his name. I had the privilege of speaking with him… Read More
Have you ever heard someone describe an object as being “jet black”? Jet is derived from the French word “jaiet”, a process that… Read More
Every piano has one. It is the backbone to structural integrity. It’s also what gives a piano most of its weight. What is it? Commonly called the frame… Read More
