Introduction
Hi, everybody and welcome to another piano video here at Merriam Pianos. My name is Stu Harrison. And in this video, we're talking about baby grand pianos. This is a follow up video, where I'm really gonna be focusing on what are the questions you need to ask yourself to dive into this whole shopping process and have this experience be a positive one, and not get bogged down and lost trying to navigate all of these forums and understanding exactly what's important.
So, we're gonna try and simplify that a little bit in today's video and boil this down into a few simple questions that is gonna accelerate your shopping process and hopefully make it a little bit more enjoyable. So, let's get started with this right away. Thanks so much for joining us.
So let's get started. First thing I wanna say is the point of this video is not to tell you what model to buy or what brand to buy or how much money to spend. The purpose of the video is to help you navigate your shopping process so that you know what questions you should be asking. And you're just better informed when you start to either walk into some showrooms or start to dive into websites, you have some type of framework to understand how you could be making this decision.
Don't Start With a Brand
And the first piece of feedback I'd give on that front, is do not start with brand. A lot of people enter this shopping process knowing not very much about baby grand pianos, but they probably have heard about a brand and that's generally where they start their shopping process. It's no different than how we start shopping for televisions, computers, cars. We've heard a friend say something good about a particular brand. We've seen it on the street. We've seen it in living rooms like, "Oh, wow, yeah, that must be a really great option."
And without totally understanding how the industry is structured or how much money you need to spend in order to get a certain quality point, we dive right into the ecosystem at the brand point. And we deprive ourselves of a lot of really valuable information and understanding exactly where we wanna be in the overall structure of the industry. So, my first point of advice is, don't start with brand, there are four or five other questions that I would strongly suggest you do start with.
Start With Size
Start by deciding how big an instrument you can actually fit in your home. We've used the label baby grand in the title of the video, and that's a really loose term. I mean, baby grand in terms of the industry, we call anything from about a 4 foot 9 to about a 5 foot 3. A baby grand, and when I'm talking about length, really, just so that we're clear, we're talking about the distance between here on the piano back to about the back edge or the back curve of the instrument. That's how we measure grand pianos. And so, when people in the business say baby grand, we're talking about anything that's about 4 foot 9 to 5 foot 3.
But people who are just shopping for an instrument, even sometimes pianists themselves, usually use the term baby grand piano interchangeably with just grand piano, which we think of as anything from about 5 foot up to 6 1/2 even 7 feet in length, and that's when we start to get into semi concert grand or grand pianos. So, the information we're gonna be giving to you in this video is applicable pretty much to any size of piano. But of course, if you are looking for a baby grand, which is sort of something in around that 5-foot range, it's gonna be extra helpful hopefully.
So, as I said, a really great place to start is actually deciding what size of instrument you think you can accommodate because you can get a 5-foot piano used for probably $5,000, you could get a brand new 5-foot piano that costs $100,000. And so, the size and the budget really are quite disconnected. So, deciding what you can fit will then allow you to continue moving through the different questions, which will hopefully let you start to hone in on your perfect solution.
You can get templates often from websites or dealers that will help you decide what size you need. As we said, there are lots of places where you can get free or very inexpensive templates so you can understand how much floor space you need for a particular size.
But there's another really important consideration, which is the bass string length. Now, when we're talking about bass string, bass strings are of course the lower strings, which are copper in color. So, we're talking about these fatter bass strings down here. And these strings, even though it's not intuitive to sort of look at this fact, the shorter the string, the fatter they actually have to make the string because you're basically substituting length with thickness so that the string still has approximately the same mass. And that's how you wind up being able to generate the same frequency.
But the shorter the string, and the more they have to wrap it with copper, the more there's a chance that all that extra copper winding is gonna create a lot of additional frequencies, they call it overtones or uncontrolled overtones. And you're hearing more of those overtones, which are kind of extra color tones on top, then you are of the actual string itself. So, sometimes you'll hear people refer to that as clarity or lack of clarity, or whether a bass string is really kind of noisy or not producing a nice clean tone.
So, the shorter the piano, the shorter the bass string, and the shorter the bass string, the very good chance that you're gonna wind up with this lack of clarity, you start to see that change right around the 5-foot-2, 5-foot-3 mark. And so, I would say, for people who are more serious players, or they've already had some experience with pianos before, if you can fit 5 foot 1, 5 foot 2 and you're like, there's just no way that you can get any bigger than that fair enough. You can find other ways to make sure that the piano you get is gonna be really satisfying. But if there's an extra way to just push that a little bit and make sure that you're kind of in that 5'2", 5'3" range, which is gonna be in around 150, 156 centimeters or above, there's some extra tonal benefits that you get from that.
Choose a Price Range
Second question after size that I'd suggest considering is exactly what quality or price range you think you might wanna be in. As I said right at the beginning, you can get a 5-foot piano that costs $5,000 or $100,000. So kind of figuring out where you think you should be or what level of investment is appropriate for you, I would say is the next most important thing.
And when we talk about quality, like why is this piano one price? Why are those pianos over there another price? What makes any of these instruments so much different than one another? That the price point would be that wide. Well, I'm just gonna walk over here and talk a little bit about why those price ranges are as wide as they are.
Now, these are two displays from Bechstein and you will see that I referenced some brands. This is not to say that these are the brands that you should be buying. They happen to be the brands that we carry here at the store, but there are several more that I will be suggesting and that we might be referencing. But if you're wondering why you're seeing these particular brands, well, we are a piano store and these are the ones that we happen to sell.
So, these two diagrams that we're looking at are really good examples of what two different quality ranges will give you when you're kind of under the hood of the piano. Because when you're looking at them from the exterior, they kind of do look the same. You've got this black or often black, shiny exterior, and they all have steel plates, and they all have the copper strings, and they kind of look the same. And you're thinking yourself, well, maybe the only difference in price really is brand, maybe the brand is what's creating this extra layer of cost.
Well, in pianos may be more than any other high-end good, for the most part, for the large part of the industry, you're getting what you pay for. If you're spending $100,000 on a piano, there's a very good chance it's not just the brand you're paying for. It's because that instrument has two or three times more cost involved in the instrument. The cost of materials is there, the cost of labor is a whole lot higher. The piano industry is not an industry where a lot of people are getting super rich and super wealthy. And the margins are actually fairly tight. So, when you have a price point that's getting up into the six digits, it usually means that you're, as I said, getting what you pay for.
What Makes a Piano More or Less Expensive?
I'm not going to drill too much into the weeds here, but I'm gonna give you an example of why two different price ranges might result in two different quality levels. So, on the left, we have a diagram of what approximately a US$50,000 grand piano would get you in terms of certain components, and I'll point those out. And on the right, we've got an instrument that is basically twice the price. So, they're both from Bechstein. They're both made in Germany. So why would one piano be US$100,000? Why would another piano be US$50,000? And by looking at these two, you start to understand why really the entire industry have these types of price differentials.
Grand pianos can be broken down into about four different components: you've got action, you've got the rim, you've got the soundboard, and then you've got sort of the scaling and the harmonic components. And when you start to take a peek at the differences of that, you realize what a massive difference in production time and just the tolerances and the quality materials can exist. Let's take a look first at the rim.
So, here's an example of $50,000 piano, and we have the outer rim and the inner rim. I should point out that most pianos all have an outer and inner rim with a couple of exceptions. Steinway is well known for having their continuously bent rim, meaning the outer and the inner rim are actually formed at the same time. There is some debate as to whether that actually results in any sort of a musical advantage. However, it is something that they have done right from the beginning of their time in the industry. And they use hard rock maple for that. So, certainly, just the longevity of the design and the success of the design speaks to that.
However, most pianos have an outer and an inner rim. And with the lower cost Bechstein, you can see that there are far more laminations and that those laminations have more imperfections, and it's a lower quality of hardwood that's going into those laminations. So, you're taking a lower grade wood and you're essentially substituting the quality of the wood for a laminating process that kind of compensates for that. So, you probably have 30 or 40 laminations through here, which means more glue, it may mean more stability in the structure. However, that rim is going to produce less of a tonal effect, less of a speaking effect than a rim that has highest-quality fiber, less wood, and is just able to resonate more.
So, we've seen that. Now, if we go over here and take a look at what $100,000 rim looks like, you can see there's actually quite a big difference, far fewer laminations. A greater variety of hardwoods that have been selected there with all sorts of different pore lengths so that different frequencies can respond. And of course, the tolerances by which those laminations are created and sanded and manufactured are extremely high. There's just literally not a thousandth of an inch gap in between any one of those laminations.
And so, as you go down from this type of a concept, all the way down to say a $5,000 or a $10,000 piano, you basically continue to get a cheapening of the materials, a thinning of the rim, and more glue and more laminating taking the place of thicker laminations, higher-quality wood where the wood itself can do quite a bit of the tonal generation of the piano.
So, there's just one example in a piano where a very different design, different use of material, and a different set of tolerances actually produce both a different musical effect as well as quite a desperate pricing effect as well. And you see that as you go all the way through the piano.
You get the same type of effect when you get to soundboard, where soundboard that uses a slow growth spruce versus one that's grown at lower altitudes and has thicker rings makes quite a big difference in terms of the responsiveness of the soundboard. You get a big difference when the soundboard is tapered, such as you see here. It sort of becomes narrower when you get to the outside and thicker when it's on the inside, versus this one, which is actually a uniform thickness all the way through. So that's another difference that you see on instruments as you go from a lower price point to a higher price point.
You see differences in how well the overall frame of the instrument is integrated and cohesive. So that energy that's received at any one point of the rim is able to be reflected through the entire structure. You see steel plating, often in higher quality instruments, versus ones where it's basically left up to the carpentry to ensure that you get all of that reflection and all of that connectedness.
So, these are the questions that may help you to determine what price range you wanna be in because all of this results in clarity and consistency of tone. Action is another really, really big one, which has more to do with the feel of the piano than it does the sound of the piano. But those two things together are gonna produce either the $10,000 piano or the $100,000 piano.
So, if you are new to piano, and this is something that is you're just really passionate, really excited about, and you think that having a beautiful instrument in your home is gonna inspire you to sit there and wanna make music, and you don't really have too many reference points, and you're not say, an avid audio file, a $10,000 piano may totally satisfy that need for you.
If you've already got some experience with instruments and you're moving from an upright to a grand or your ears developed and the $10,000 piano is gonna have too many inconsistencies in the tone or it's not gonna have the resonance out of the body that's gonna cause you to want to sit there and be moved to play for hours, then maybe $20,000 or $30,000 is what you are going to want to invest in to get an instrument that's very consistent and your ears aren't gonna be picking up on imperfections.
Clear of the $30,000 mark is where you might get somebody who's truly either a higher level player or a passionate audio file, who isn't just looking for a lack of imperfections, which is what you kind of get when you get up to around the $30,000 range. But beyond that, then it starts to become more of a connoisseur's art. The difference between buying a bottle of wine for under 20 bucks versus spending $200 on a bottle of wine. It really becomes how focus towards a very specific tone and a very specific touch do you wanna get?
So, price is the second question that I would say you really, really wanna make sure that you can spend some time thinking about. This is where getting into showrooms and sitting down and playing a number of price points without being too scared that you're going to fall in love with something. But that'll help you educate yourself in terms of what your ear really needs is... My advice to every customer is always, if you can hear the difference, it may be worth it for you. If you can't hear the difference, there's a good chance it's not a good investment for you.
And I think that holds true for many, many people who are shopping for this. If you can discern it, and you can afford it, then it may be a really good spend. And if not, just find that point where you're not able to discern anymore, and there's a good chance that that's probably where a logical spend for you would be.
Choose The Right Action
So, we've talked about rim, we've talked about soundboard. Piano actions are another really big factor, which contributes to your overall enjoyment, as well as the price. And here's why this is such a big impact on the price of an instrument. It's often said that on a digital piano, more than half the cost of the piano is the action on its own. And on a grand piano, it's not quite half, but you're definitely looking at 20%, 30% of the cost of the instrument is wrapped up in either the construction or the preparation of the action. And here's why.
There is an enormous number of parts that go into a grand piano. And so just the sheer complexity of how this action is built, assembled, and designed on its own, would certainly add an incredible amount of cost of the instrument. And different manufacturers will have many different approaches to how they design it, how they build it, how they prepare it, and how well it lasts out in the field. Whether you're using a laminated key stick or a solid wood key stick, the length of the key, the geometry involved, whether it's using composite parts or whether it's using all wood parts, whether the hammers a single felted or a double felted, whether the shank is a particular type of wood and how well it's balanced.
And you have different levels of fanaticism as you go through all of the different price ranges. And for every one of these parts, you can get into essays on whether one particular design versus another particular design is the most advantageous route to go.
And so, basic designs that don't receive a lot of time and regulation to refine them, and don't really try and push the envelope in terms of innovation are not very expensive, and a lot of Chinese manufacturers will supply you an action like that for $800, $1,000 as a manufacturer, it's not a big deal. But you're not gonna get a very stable action or very consistent action or one capable of translating a lot of nuance.
As you go through the various price ranges, the biggest difference tends to be the time that they take to regulate the piano action, meaning how much time they're spending to adjust every single one of these tiny little components so that it's operating perfectly. And then the second big one is materials. The cost difference between a basic hammer and a really premium hammer that's got nice felt on it, double felted, the time that they take to choose the shank of the hammer, how well the damper felt is regulated. It gets insane to the point where some manufacturers are spending 40 or 50 hours regulating an action. And those are being done by artisans which are being paid $40, $50, $60 per hour as well.
And so, even before you get into the cost of materials, you're already looking at several thousand dollars at the manufacturing level to get this action arriving in a showroom absolutely perfect. So huge range in cost, materials, and design and actions. And for somebody who's a more advanced player, this is gonna be one of the most critical points critical decisions that you are gonna make.
Other Components
Now, the fourth aspect that I really wanna highlight are some of the internal scaling components of the instrument. I'm just gonna walk over here. This is a Kawai GL-10. This is their entry point, baby grand piano. It's 5 foot 1 in length. And I gonna draw your attention to this area right here. And you'll notice that the strings, which are coming across the bridge right here, are then wrapped around these pins. And this whole section is muted, these strings are being pressed up against this piece of felt, and it's just not possible for these strings to ring. Obviously, there's no allowance for them to be able to sympathetically resonate, and this is very common for pianos that are kind of in and around $10,000, $15,000 even some $20,000 pianos have this type of string as a part of their design, as part of the scaling.
However, when you look over at something like a GX, which is also part of the Kawai grand piano line, and you look at the same section, you see something quite a bit different. And this is what is called duplex scaling. Now, duplex scaling enables this other section to ring so, you notice that as I'm plucking this, you're actually hearing pitch instead of just a sort of a thunk, like you did the other way. Now, the energy to get that string activated isn't crossing the bridge. This is actually just sympathetic resonance that's happening for energy that's just being transferred through the entire instrument. And all of that extra sort of frequencies and extra color thicken the treble. And so this is something that adds a lot of very specific character to an instrument is what they do with that top end.
You'll also see that on the front of the string, there's another section, which sometimes is called a double duplex. And again, you'll see on the Kawai that this is actually a very specific fulcrum here and here. And so these are also allowed to ring sympathetically. So, how a manufacturer deals with those two sections, the front and the back duplex section, affects quite a bit of the tone of the instrument.
The Bridge Matters More Than You Might Think
The very last part of piano design, which I'm going to highlight, because it's one of the most misunderstood or least talked about, maybe is the best way to say it. It's actually the bridge. Now, you just saw two bridges because it was this piece of wood that's actually kind of snaking along through the piano. And this is the piece of wood whose responsibility is to take the vibrations from the string and kind of squish it down into the soundboard, it translates or it transfers the vibrations to the soundboard. And that's actually ultimately where the sound comes from.
But not many people know that bridges are one of the most complex little piece of carpentry in the whole piano. What we're looking at here is often thought of as kind of the top-level design that you can get in a bridge, and they call this a vertically laminated capped bridge. And so, you can see that there's a little piece of wood right on the top, which is horizontal, and that's where all of the bridge pins are tapped into. And that really helps to cushion the incredible tension and weight that the strings are pushing down on.
But then you've got all of these different types of wood, which are vertically laminated. And the purpose of that is that just like the piano rim, different types of wood have different pore lengths and different densities and they're better at communicating different frequencies. And so, this bridge is really like a highway for the frequencies to travel from the string down into the soundboard. And when it's only one piece of wood, or there's all kinds of glue in the middle of it like a laminated bridge, lots of frequencies, lots of information actually gets omitted.
And so, the point of a bridge is to basically not be there, you want the bridge to be able to communicate a maximum amount of that tonal information that's contained within the string. And so, the type of bridges that you're getting on the instrument will have an influence in price for sure and definitely an influence on the color and the range of frequencies and harmonics that your piano is able to produce.
And so, there's a pretty wide variety of the type of bridges you can get. The most common is literally just a single piece of wood. There's no vertical lamination, there's no cap. It's just a single piece of wood that might be maple and might be hornbeam. Then you have a solid bridge with a cap is kind of the next one that you get up. Then you might get some sort of a laminated vertical lamination that's just a single piece or a single type of wood. And then finally, at the very, very top, so you have Hamburg Steinway, Bechstein, Shigeru Kawai, and Fazioli would probably be the four examples that come most readily to mind for me, are bridges that actually have this type of configuration.
So that kind of rounds off the discussion of specific components and why they can have such a huge influence both on the musical experience as well as the price that manufacturers are charging for it.
New Versus Used
Third question that I would say you need to address is whether you're looking at new or whether you're looking at used. And this ties directly into question number two, which is what price am I looking at? Because sometimes these are highly related. Let's say you decide that you wanna spend $20,000 on an instrument. And if that means a new piano, then you may be looking at a certain set of instruments. But as soon as you start looking at used, it opens up this whole other realm of instruments. And so, you're thinking yourself, well, how do I know what the better spend is?
And unfortunately, there is no simple answer to that. And the reason is that pianos are not static in terms of their design, in terms of craftsmanship and manufacturer. This industry is always evolving and always changing. And so, if buying a piano in 1990 meant that you basically were getting the same instrument then, then you were if you went and spent the same amount of money today, like in other words, if the design was static, and nothing else was different, this would be a very, very confusing... Well, basically new pianos probably would never sell.
But the reality is that there are a lot of constant evolutionary forces acting upon the industry. I'll just give you an example right here. This piano, which is a Kawai GX series, is evolved from really it's kind of a combination of both the Shigeru Kawai as well as the RX. And there's a bit of a debate amongst people who know Kawai well and are involved in Kawai whether the GX really is an evolution up from the RX or whether it's a devolution down from the Shigeru. My vote is that it's actually kind of devolved from the Shigeru, but this is getting into a bit of an esoteric debate.
The point is that this instrument represents Kawai's mid-range offering, which they focus towards their institutional market, or they're better players for home. And different markets will have different specific price points for this. But it's a Kawai GX-1 and so in US dollars, this pianos usually floating somewhere in the low to mid $20,000 range. For that price, you could probably find a 7-foot version of Kawai's RX or KG series.
This one is actually a 5 foot 6. So it's a 5 foot 6, this is still kind of considered a baby grand piano. But if you were looking at a longer instrument, which was older, you'd probably be talking about the same price range. And so, where's the better value?
Well, here's some advice when it comes to used instruments. So first of all, you have to investigate every single used piano on a very individual basis because there is no uniform way in which a used piano degrades over time. But this is the important thing to know, all used pianos do degrade over time. There are aspects of an acoustic piano, in which it's just physics and time don't work in its favor. You have 30,000 pounds of tension that are operating on the frame of the piano. You have two or three times of tension that's constantly pushing down on the soundboard of the piano. You have thousands of moving parts in the action, which is basically just an engine. And over time, those parts also wind up wearing down.
So there's no such thing as a used piano that's in the same physical condition as a new piano, if it has been used, even if it's been used really responsibly, with regular maintenance and follow up and tuning and all of that. It's like a car. Pianos are not like violins that age gracefully and in fact could improve. The main difference between a violin and a piano? Violin has what? Four or five moving parts. And there's only a couple hundred pounds of tension on a violin. You're talking about thousands of moving parts, and tens of thousands of pounds of tension on this instrument. They just don't last forever. They all slowly degrade.
So, the trade off with a used piano, or the way that I would suggest thinking about a used piano is if clarity of bass tone and volume are priorities to you then a used instrument, a larger used grand could make a lot of sense. If you're thinking in your head that really the only thing that you wanna be doing is trying to save some money and you're thinking that you're actually getting more for your money with a used one than you are with a new that actually just does tend to be true.
If you buy a $20,000 piano used, that's now $10,000, that's maybe 15 to 20 years old. And you measure that instrument against its new equivalent, here is what you're often gonna find is that the sustain is now nowhere close to what the new one is. So you're dealing with a lower level of sustain, you're dealing with an action, which is going to have a lower repetition speed, and probably more loose and less life left in the hammer. It will probably distort more than a new instrument because of the compression on the hammer and the aging of the string. It's not gonna hold its tune as well.
So, you start to add all of these things up and you think yourself, "Well, how much would I pay to make sure that the tuning was the same? Maybe, I'd add $1,000. Well, how much would I pay to make sure that when I'm playing every one of the treble strings, there's no false beating? Or I'm not having to get a tune twice a year instead of once a year? How much would I pay for that? Well, maybe another 500 or 1,000." You go through that whole exercise. And you realize that you're actually not that far away from what a brand new one would be with a warranty.
So, this is not a whole lecture to say that new is always better. What I'm saying is there are specific situations in which used is going to make a lot of sense. And that's where the priority is on bass tone clarity, which I find for the dollar does tend to be better with the used piano. And then overall dynamic range, even though a larger piano might have degraded a bit, it's still probably gonna give you more volume than a brand new smaller one.
But where you never really get more value on a used piano is if you're looking for action and touch accuracy, tuning stability, or of course, clarity of tone really from about the mid range up. So that is the third question that I would implore you to explore as we're talking about instruments. And just once again, to reiterate size, price range, and now we've addressed new versus used.
Consider Your Favourite Brand Last
So, after those three questions have been explored, then is when I tell customers is a great time to start thinking about brand. So, you know whether you're talking about a specific price range, you know what sort of quality points you're interested in, you know the size you can fit, and you know whether new versus used is really where you wanna go. When you start to get into the brand, is when you can get to know very specific models.
And really, most companies have specific traits about them that you may enjoy. And these are far less objective. This is something that you might just sit down at some of these instruments and just love it and you may not be able to explain why. And you shouldn't be forced to have to think about or articulate sometimes why you fall in love with an instrument. This is a very emotional and a very personal connection that you have with a machine or a work of art or kind of halfway between those two things. It's gonna allow you to just find a different dimension of relaxation and expression and I mean it's wonderful. The connections that I have with the instruments in my life are precious to me and I really even thinking about parting with them is causing some anxiety. So, you wanna find that connection. And the point is, you don't always have to be able to explain it to anyone except yourself.
But getting back to brand, different brands will have different characters and this is really now where you're all the way at the bottom of your kind of research. And you're drilling finally into the last little nuances and minutiae of what you're gonna find in these instruments you might really love. People talk about the Kawai, Yamaha differences, being a little bit warmer, a little bit brighter. People talk about Bechstein versus the Steinway & Sons difference. And Bechstein maybe being a little more precise or a little more clear throughout the range. But the Steinway being really growly and highly dynamic. Other brands many consider such as Baldwin, Samick, Wurlitzer, Bosendorfer, Perzina, and the list goes on.
There's all of these comparisons that you'll find good information on and lots of ongoing debates in the forums and in different websites and in different books. And you can do all the reading you want on that, but nothing is gonna be being able to just get into a showroom, and actually try these instruments yourself so you can finally hone in on those final little details that's gonna make this just one of the most exciting and satisfying purchases that hopefully you will ever make.
Thank You
I hope you found the video to be useful. We encourage you to leave comments and questions. We try our best to respond to as many of those as possible. And if you are in the Toronto area, we would love you to stop by either one of our showrooms and just say hi, talk to us about the videos, talk to us about your piano, or if you happen to be in the market for a piano, of course, drop-in as well. And we'd be happy to show you what we've got.
So, the very best of luck to you and your family on this exciting journey. Owning a baby grand or grand piano is one of the most rewarding possessions or instruments or things that we can have in our life. It can last for decades. It's sort of our artistic partner in crime.
So, thank you so much for watching. Hopefully, we will see you back for more videos again shortly. And if you haven't subscribed yet to the channel, we would really, really appreciate it if you did. It'll let you stay up to date every time we bring out a new video. And we're always trying to post content that our subscribers or we think that our subscribers will love. So take care. We'll see you back soon. My name is Stu Harrison, and you've been watching Merriam Pianos on YouTube.
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