Renner Piano Parts Manufacturing July 22, 2015 It was a delight and privilege to sit with Clemens von Arnim and ask him about his connection to Renner. I had no idea that it was his grandfather… Read More
Hailun Piano Factory ~ A First Glimpse June 25, 2015 It’s simply overwhelming the stature and size of the Hailun Piano Company. They manufacture roughly 38,000 pianos per year. Now if you do the math, that’s just over 3,150 pianos per month in 4.2 MILLION square feet of factory space.… Read More
Estonia Piano Company Redefines Tone April 18, 2015 This month I had the wonderful pleasure of skyping Dr. Indrek Laul (CEO of Estonia Piano). Although we’ve only met twice in person, he is a pleasure to converse with and… Read More
Mapes Piano String Company – How Piano Strings are Made March 25, 2015 Stephen Mapes established the Mapes Piano String Company in 1912 and shortly thereafter in 1918 it was purchased by John Adam Schaff. Now 4 generations later and employing 125 people in a space of 200,000 square feet, Mapes produces piano wire… Read More
Interview with Norbert Abel – Abel Hammer February 24, 2015 Abel is world reknown specializing in hammer manufacturing. It was my pleasure to meet Norbert Abel last month and have him shed some light on the piano hammer making… Read More
Hailun Piano Innovation December 25, 2014 Working with a translator, he showed me different concepts in his pianos. What caught my eye was this silver looking gleam under the keys on one of their upright pianos. As seen in the picture… Read More
Mason & Hamlin Features High Tech Components October 4, 2014 When speaking earlier this year with Kirk Burgett, president of Mason & Hamlin and WNG, we touched on various aspects of their pianos that have been re-designed with ‘outside the box’ thinking. One such concept is hammer shanks… Read More
Making Bösendorfer More Austrian June 6, 2014 When queried about this, he said that areas which had been outsourced are now being made in Austria. He referred me to the man who specializes in this at production level, Simon Oss (Premium Piano Market Development Manager for both Yamaha & Bösendorfer)… Read More
Testing Pianos Like a Pro May 8, 2014 Going back just over 20 years, I was a new upstart that just got hired by the local piano store. With 2 Classical degrees behind me I felt confident I knew my way around the keyboard. Fortunately my boss at the time… Read More
Weickert Felt for Hammers April 8, 2014 But this one man’s company has single-handedly infiltrated most of the major names of pianos in the world. 200,000 pianos per year to be exact! Who is he? Jack Brand.… Read More
