Should You Buy a Piano from a Brand You've Never Heard of?

Hi, this is Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com and Virtualsheetmusic.com. The question today is is it bad to buy a piano brand you've never heard of? Well, there's a lot to explore in this subject. First of all, you go into a piano store and you see all kinds of names. Everybody knows Yamaha and Steinway and maybe the piano they grew up with. But most other names are not so familiar to people. Maybe you've heard of Kawai or Baldwin or some of the other names. But there are dozens of names you'll encounter and wonder what are they?

Well, if you're going into a piano store and seeing new pianos, many of them are either fictitious names or names of out-of-business piano companies that are stenciled on Asian production pianos. After all, there are now hundreds of new companies in China, many of them exporting to the United States. And different importers want to put different names on the pianos that appeal to buyers. Does this mean that they're bad pianos? Not necessarily. Now, there's a certain level of piano that you expect out of an Asian production piano that isn't going to be the same as a hand-built piano. To make things even more complex, there are a host of niche boutique European companies like Bluthner and Fazioli and others you may have never heard of, Grotrian, that are extraordinarily fine instruments. So the fact that you haven't heard of them doesn't mean that they aren't absolutely world class. The good news is that in today's day and age you can just type it into your phone and find out quite a bit about any piano brand you encounter.

The other side of the coin is the fact that pianos were in their heyday 100 years ago. In this country at the peak, there were over 1,800 companies manufacturing pianos in the United States, unlike three today. So just because you haven't heard of a name, doesn't mean that it's good or bad. In fact, there are hundreds of piano names I've never heard of and I encounter new pianos all the time. So you have to really research the specific instrument. Play it, have an open mind and remember you could always research things on the internet or ask me, Robert@LivingPianos.com and I might just make a video just for you. Thanks for joining me here at LivingPianos.com and Virtualsheetmusic.com.

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