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Sorry, I thought I made it clear it's an upright. It's overstrung and underdamped, and as far as I know it's still on its original pins, strings, action etc.. I don't know if that helps at all. Incidentally, I would be interested to hear your thoughts on supplying a piano to the space station with i...

I was mulling over the playing weight of a Victorian piano, and remarked to someone in the trade about it, wondering if the balance weights had been replaced with smaller ones. I was told that the more slack in the pin joints there are in an upright's action, the lighter the apparent weight gets. Wi...

I got out the comfy chair and bright lights, and pinned my mother to her seat as I asked searching questions on this piano's antecedants. Apparently 'Granny' is not my maternal granny but my mother's paternal grandmother, so I got the wrong end of the stick. The piano bought in 1908 was a Bechstein ...

Interesting .. (family history indicated it was bought new in 1908 by my grandfather as a present for my grandmother).

Maybe it was bought for her to learn on (she was born December 1877).

Any idea what it would have cost then? (Burr walnut upright).

My guess would be around 25.00 GBP

Anyone know the date for Ronisch piano serial no. 11877 ?

Many thanks in advance

My grandmother bought a burr walnut cased Rönisch brand spanking new upright in 1908, and it is the one my mother, my sister and I all learnt on. As you'd expect it's a very decent overstrung underdamped job. It still has its original pins (as far as I know), and keeps its tuning. Apart from the sco...

I'd be prepared to bet the house-keeping for a week that you will find that the lid is a walnut veneer around 1mm thick. If the burn has got all the way through the veneer to the wood underneath (and you should be able to feel with your fingers if it has because of a change in texture), then you wil...

Here's another opportunity to jump down my throat for you guys ... The pitch of the note is proportional to the square root of [ the tension divided by both the length and the mass (weight)]. This is correct by observation. For example if you double the length of a string, which will also double the...

There is a trade off required here: with a budget of say 15K pounds I could have either a small, new grand, or a big (7 ft) second hand grand. Anything ten years or more old will be based on out of date technology. Since I started playing in the 1950's, I've not noticed any leaps in technology at a...

FWIW, I've had to 'silence' the majority of my duplex strings on my Steinway otherwise it becomes impossible (and that's in a room 20x30x10). It's just a bit of felt that threads up and down through the strings. I found that I kept stopping because I thought I could hear the telephone ringing when t...

Not all Steinways have to be harsh and shrill, it's up to you and your tuner to get them how you want them. I'm supremely happy with mine thanks very much, and it's got a dynamic range I've never experienced on any other piano (vast) - with possible exception of a Chickering (Stuarts claim ppppp is ...

I bought a pedal set like this from a very old chap in Newport, Gwent in the early 1970's. It's all pretty obvious how it works. The pedal board surround extends backwards so that the whole of the piano can be supported on the back of the pedal board. A series of strings runs from the top of each of...

Yup, I agree that it's the finest instrument I've ever played. Apparently the 9' 6" Chickerings built in the 1930's are on a par, and it's rumoured that the Autralian Stuart concert grand is even better. I've tried Raviolis but they didn't do a lot for me, to be honest. I waited 47 years before...

I've only ever moved uprights, but when I saw the picture of the Bosendorfer removals shortly before the accident I wondered if it wasn't inevitable. If you rememmber, the keyboard end of the Bosendorfer was on the hydraulic tailgate going down, while the tail was still on the bed of the lorry, stay...

In the late '60s I bought a Morris Minor which did sterling service for a couple of years, and when I came to sell it I thought that the mileage seemed a bit high, so I resolved to 'correct it'. When I took the back off the speedometer, a small scrap of paper fluttered out. On it were the words &quo...

While at Uni, I was playing some Qantz flute stuff with this lass, who's a member of the Cadbury family, and she invited me to their 'pad' in Worcestershire where they had a music room. It contained a Steinway B, and a Bechstein Model III (7'9" ish) as well as a two manual pipe organ. It was th...

I spent 3 years looking for my ideal 'B', and failed to find it. I tried just about everything I could lay my hands on, and in the end found this 'D' which was streets and streets ahead of any other I had tried. Like every other pianist, it was that bass that sold the 'D' to me. When I dug a bit, I ...

I couldn't agree more about the tacky lettering. My 1985 'D' in matt got sent to be properly finished in polyester, and I had them take out the lettering - it's much, much better. Apparently I have ruined my piano for all time as a consequence.... I don't care because it's going to be sold by my gra...

I strongly advocate getting someone to show you round these things, rather than take it from a book. When all is said and done, music is a living thing and being shown by someone who knows what they are doing is worth a thousand words. (Bit like a picture, I suppose). If you want a book to describe ...

I've never played it, but definitely suffer from Poulenc-philia (I'm staging his Stabat Mater in a couple of weeks). I went to an all Poulenc concert at Symphony Hall (Birmngham) where Peter Donohue and his wfe Elaine Burns played the double piano concerto. What made it special was that someone had ...

I was watching the rugby this afternoon, and was pained yet again when 'Flower of Scotland' was played, and as ever the descent to the 7th of the lower octave at the end was sung simultaneously as both a semitone and a tone below the tonic. (The younger ones opted for the semitone, whilst the old st...

I used to accompany for ABRSM exams and used to charge around MU teaching rate at the time. (That was around £7 an hour in the late 1970's !, so £20 would seem a tad low to me on today's rates). I stopped doing it because I dodn't have the time, but in reality because I had probl...

It's when the rest of the piano needs rebuilding that the frame cracks are a problem, and most old Bechsteins need rebuilding. Why are they a problem? Removing the strings can cause the frame to break I've never known a piano frame to break except in a piano smashing competition. Why do you say this?

As a chartered engineer, who has spent his life designing things, I can tell you that the only problem with the vast majority of cracks in piano frames is that people think they are dangerous. They aren't and mostly don't matter at all. The frame is in constant compression due to the strings pulling...

I took a choir to Prague for a singing competition, and in one of the warm up halls, there was a Petrof Grand. I must confess that I thought it was singularly awful in almost every respect. In the end I had the choir singing unaccompanied (even though it was not supposed to be). That improved matter...

Thnks for the advice everyone, I'll let you know about any progress.

Don't panic, Captain Mainwaring! As Gill says, the soft fabrics have a huge effect and you shouldn't make any decisions until you have the room organised as you intend. You might give the piano shop a ring and tell them that you are unhappy, but will wait until you've got the carpet down before taki...

I've been playing the piano for over 50 years, and now have time to play and practise regularly. I have gone back to the Jeffrey Tankard exercises in his book piano technique on an hour a day. I sit at the piano at the height I always have with curled fingers (holding an imaginary orange, as taught)...

Out of interest, is the fall board the same date as the frame ?

I suspect that there's been some 'creative activity' on that front.

That's pretty much my experience of Steinway Hall too. 3 years ago I sold my Bechstein model IV (1892) all 7ft 2ins of it, and moved over to a Steinway, having looked for some 3 years for the instrument I wanted. I started out lookng for a B, but in the end found the piano wanted (or more accurately...