Keybird ~ A New Portable Piano

Many years ago, I remember seeing a piano in a museum similar to the one shown above (built in 1787 by Christian Gottlob Hubert. On display at Germanisches Nationalmuseum – Nuremberg, Germany). I have often wondered why acoustic portable pianos never really took off. Although we’ve seen more portable keyboard instruments like harpsichords, accordions or… Read More

Kayserburg 3D Printed Grand Piano

It’s obvious that car makers in the 60’s were looking at the birth of air travel as the way of the future. Hood ornaments and emblems were symbols of flight with angelic creatures or airplanes. Tail-lights like jet engines were positioned on top of side “wings” and the trim, made to look aerodynamic. All of… Read More

Researching Pianos ~ The Rim

Close to where I live is a sea wall made of large concrete blocks that extends out into the ocean. It serves to protect boats coming and going into the harbor. At times, the waves crash up against the sea wall and at other times, the waves bounce gently and you can see the reflected… Read More

Researching Pianos – The Bridge

A piano bridge is a thin section made of wood that runs perpendicular to the strings. Pianos generally have 2 bridges; the short bridge for the lower bass section and the long bridge for the tenor and treble sections. The sizes vary from maker to maker but they run the width of the piano and average about 1½” wide and are about 1” tall in the treble and 2” tall in the bass.… Read More

Researching Pianos – Hammer Felt Matters

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? They’re shiny, they have 88 keys with 3 pedals, right? While that is a… Read More

Yamaha SX Grand Pianos with ARE

Yamaha works at a molecular level implementing ARE, Acoustic Resonance Enhancement in their new SX line of pianos. Yamaha quietly introduced something this year at the NAMM show that caught my eye. It’s not a new process. In fact, it’s been going on since the 8th century with the Vikings in their ship building. Since the 1930’s, Scandinavian countries have also been experimenting with it.… Read More

Visiting Pearl River Factory

On this latest trip to China, I managed to catch a glimpse into the transformation of Pearl River Piano. Already the largest piano company in the world manufacturing more than 130,000 pianos annually, Pearl River Piano has its sights set on even greater advancement.

One hundred thirty thousand pianos annually equates into about 400 pianos being manufactured per day. Imagine though what it must be like to produce 400 pianos daily. With roughly 225 tuning pins…… Read More

Pearl River and Schimmel Alliance

Recently I sat down with June Wang from Pearl River Piano Group and corresponded with Rob Slayman from Schimmel Piano to discuss their strategic alliance as I was curious how it had affected both companies. It was announced at NAMM 2016 that Pearl River had purchased a controlling interest in the Schimmel company.

Why do piano companies purchase other piano companies? We hear of company mergers in the news all the time. What is the impetus – the driving force for one piano company to acquire another piano company? If we paint with large brush strokes, on one side there is massive demand to be fulfilled in China. Nearly 80% of the world’s piano purchases happen in China.… Read More