It might be easiest to donate the piano and take whatever tax benefit results from that.

When my mom sold her house and my sister's Gulbransen spinet finally was going to be moved to her place, the husband (now ex-) showed up from Illinois in an open pickup with a couple of tiedown straps to move it. What could possibly go wrong? I at least had the foresight to head out with lumber, carpet scraps, a tarp and tools so I could construct a set of braces to hold it in position in the truck bed for the 1,000 mile drive to its new home.

Yes, the label indicates that they are made in Braunschweig (Brunswick) - the city in northern Germany from which my mother came and where my brother passed away a few days ago. Given your climate I expect the piano will have survived its storage with only the usual periodic maintenance required to bring it back into proper tune.

I'm sorry to hear about your Brother. Thanks for the info. That is my hope, and to my ignorant ear/ touch it does sound pretty good un-tuned.

Unfortunately I did a forum google search and didn't find a decent Piano Forum, much less one with a C&V Piano Sub-forum.

You know... 50 years from now there will probably be one and forum members will be drooling over grail pianos...

...or not.

John

From the Steinway site :

There are rebuilders, technicians, and non-Steinway dealers who will claim that Steinway pianos built during the “Golden Age” are the best Steinway pianos ever built. This is a myth that has been around since Steinway started building pianos.


Are older Steinway pianos really better than new ones?


As the late Henry Z. Steinway, great-grandson of the founder of Steinway & Sons, often said, “Steinway pianos crafted 40 years ago are always from the ‘Golden Age.’ It doesn’t matter which year it is today—1920, 1950, 1980, 2008—the ‘Golden Age’ was always 40 years ago!”


Why the Myth Exists:


There are very few piano dealers that are authorized to sell new Steinway pianos throughout the world (only about 68 in North America) but many piano dealers who can acquire pre-owned Steinway pianos to resell. Since they can’t sell new Steinway pianos, it is to their benefit to advertise that their used Steinway from the “Golden Age” is more desirable than a new one.


Artists demand the finest.


The myth of the “Golden Age” is easily disproved. Just look at the concert halls throughout the world who cater to the most discriminating pianists of our time. How old are the pianos you are hearing? On average, they are less than 10 years old. If the world’s most prominent pianists felt that pianos from a “Golden Age” were superior to those produced today, we would not see new Steinway pianos on these stages.

I found that pretty interesting, and it's why I don't feel entitled to any figure of money from it. If the best playing pianos are relatively new, then this is a collectors item & a whole different kettle of fish than something thats value is derived from its practical value.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=478821

I need something like this for all my books.

Something to bear in mind is the reverse.

Steinway, like all factory instrument manufacturers, need to move instruments and they too have a vested interest-except in selling brand new instruments. A Steinway 9D 9' concert grand costs $100,000+ retail. How many 9D pianos do you think Steinway needs to sell a year to stay afloat and keep their doors open? And moreover-who can afford to pay those prices?

Just about the only people who can afford to pay retail for a new instrument are concert halls and LARGE institutions or those with massive endowments. I.e. music conservatories, for-profit concert halls, and so on. Every music teacher you ever meet will almost NEVER have anything close to a new piano in their basement, as they are fantastically out of the budget for just about every single person....also 99.9999% of piano players no matter how good don't make it as a soloist earning the big bucks.

The only other people who can afford new retail piano pricing are billionaires with minimal or no musical skill but craploads of money who want furniture pieces (I had an uncle like this briefly). These are the same people by the way who own and bid on all the Strads, Guarneris, Amatis, and Steiner violins that ever go up for auction.

I thought most talented musicians, especially classical and jazz players, were very wealthy? I see jazz clubs in Auckland packed out with young people every night ... oh wait lol

My music professor I studied with at a major NCAA institution you hear of every Saturday on ESPN had his job and title for 20 years. He earned $40,000USD /year. Did I mention he was a university professor in the same place for 20 years? Most musicians have 5-6 part time jobs. Around here, all of them teach 10-20 kids privately, they teach public school, they have an orchestra gig, they play weddings...and they get by.

Most aren't wealthy unless they marry $$$$. Piano players/teachers are worse off than most as there are a ton fewer jobs out there relative to other instruments, and for the crapload of schooling and study you need to be a serious concert professional...the piano playing chops required playing for those jobs is a serious case of over-qualified employment. You're able to play Rachmaninov piano concerti at 18, you're probably going to getting $$$ accompanying church choirs and teaching rudimentary piano to kids who don't practice.

You've got a Grotrian-Steinweg, not a Steinway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotrian-Steinweg

Yeah i know

Cool- I hadn't seen that you acknowledged that, and then the quote from the Steinway site...

Sorry.

haha i'm kidding dude :rolleyes:

It does surprise me that with a great jazz school at the Auckland University putting out very talented youngsters who are fantastic to listen to & 50,000 students at one tertiary institution right next to it, the weekly gig is frequented only by music students and middle aged people. It's almost willful unpopularity.

My friend contrasts this with his experience in NYC where each night you decide which gig to go to, not whether you'll go to the weekly gig or not. Even that doesn't translate to a decent living for hard working musicians.

*disclaimer* i don't get nostalgic about life in the 1950s and my favorite kind of music is hiphop.

All good. My Grandmother & Mother (who both play & really should have known better) thought it was a 'German Steinway', but it was pretty obviously not as soon as i opened the lid and spent 2 minutes on google. This explains why Steinway would take legal action for the name lol.

Mentioned it a few posts before....but nobody noticed, I guess.......:rolleyes:

I noticed ;)

also was pleased to know it's a competitor and not something altogether different/ much inferior.

What's it sound like? Heavy action or light action?

No idea lol

Ill post an update once it's tuned & played by someone else.

To me, sadly, it is just a pretty piece of furniture.

Pianos are a buyer's market. Most people want a baby grand or grand piano want new because its a showpiece in their home, regardless if that instrument is as nice as something vintage. Its about how spectacular it looks when they are entertaining NOT how they play. Moving a Piano stresses the instrument, and while professional movers can minimize this with the right equipment, many pianos were improperly moved previously.

The reality is that moving a grand or baby grand piano rivals the purchase price in most markets. You can usually find a grand or baby grand piano on Craigslist for free in most markets. That should give you a ballpark of what people think they are worth. Most people have to give them away due to the cost of moving them. Sad considering some of these instruments sold for over $10k (in today's dollars).

A takeaway from that Wiki article is that the Steinweg is "[of] higher quality than New York-built Steinways."

It actually IS a "German Steinway," you just aren't understanding that, or the details of why it is.

Read the Wiki on it. Same cat that started Steinway & Sons in NY, after emigrating. Henry Steinway's real name is Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, and he founded Steinweg in 1835 in Germany, he founded Steinway and Sons in the US in 1853. Same cat. Different names, and an interesting Klein v. Cannondale, or Speedplay v. Bebop bit of litigation to protect his "Steinway" brand in the US when Steinweg wanted to import here.

lol i have already read that Wikipedia article

Steinway also has a plant in Germany so it's not a German Steinway

Think about it like Masi in Italy and Masi in the US. Any bike built BY Masi is a Masi. It is the same guy that started both companies. Whether you call him Henry Steinway or Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, the piano you have is from a company that he founded. It is one of his pianos. I think that was the point your mother and grandmother were trying to make.

I noticed- but hadn't noticed that it had been acknowledged.

No.

Leo Fender founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, that later became Fender Musical Instruments Company. He left Fender and founded Music Man. Later, he left Music Man and started G&L.

A Music Man is not a Fender. A G&L is not a Fender, nor is it a Music Man.

Heinrich Steinweg started his company and left to start ANOTHER company in New York. The original Steinweg company was left to Theodor Steinweg, at which point he partnered with Fredriech Grotrian- that company became Grotrian-Steinweg.

Heinrich Steinweg Americanized his name to Henry Steinway and started ANOTHER company called Steinway & Sons. It is a separate company.

Steinway makes pianos in the US, they also have a company that makes them in Germany. They are not made by Grotrian-Steinweg.

Grotian-Steinweg makes pianos in Germany. They are not made by Steinway, nor are they Steinway pianos.

They are different companies, with different ownerships, with different factories that share a common founder.