Yamaha might be close to exceeding the quality of Steinway (perhaps already has) for newly manufactured piano's, BUT reconditioned Steinways from the pre CBS days are still the best insturments on the market, bar none. Steinways from around 1910 to the 1972 buyout are absolutely magnificent, far greater than anything else man has created, in my opinion. Of course CBS has not stopped cutting corners, and now their felt will have to be downgraded, so we can expect a pretty glum outlook on the future of Steinway piano's, at least in the short term. As far as I know they have yet to find another felt producer that gives them the results they had of even post CBS Steinways, because post CBS Steinways were using the proper felt, they were just cutting corners on manufacture in other ways. Very recently (no more than a year ago I believe) their felt company, based out of Italy, went out of business. They started producing quality piano's again, but alas the pressure from CBS on mechanization wherever possible instead of hand making caused the piano's to never quite reach the level of pre CBS Steinways. Steinway returned to felt and at the same time upgraded all the machinery they had been using to make the piano, with CBS funding.
That persisted for a few years but quickly went out of style due to the horrible product it turned out. Obviously the resulting piano's were horrible. They continued steadily increasing in quality and dominating the world concert piano market until 1972, when they were bought by CBS who put to use teflon bushings on the piano instead of felt. In 1860 they concieved the overstrung grand piano, the forerunner to todays concert grand. They first recieved major public attention in 1855 with their square piano at the worlds fair. Steinway was founded in 1853 by Henry Steinway. The thing to remember when discussing the quality of a Steinway piano is that it is impossible to speak of the the quality of Steinway's as a whole because of the numerous ups and downs the company has gone through. Remeber that's just my opinion and not a personal jab at anyone! I'm just going to post this without reading it over.if theres any run on sentences of my rambling I'm sorry. I'm pretty sure Bosendorfer's are incredible pianos. This is likely because of something wrong with the piano though. the 3 black notes at the bottom were just dull mush. And the only Bosendorfer i ever played on sucked. But sound quality, feel/ability to control sound, lightness and heavieness, brightness, darkness.I personally believe is completely on the side of steinway. A lot of people don't get to practice on grand pianos every day. I've practiced on many a yamaha grand in practice rooms, and it's great. Personally we all have piano's we like playing on. Steinway is superior in every way to a Yamaha. No, the interior of a bentley to the interior of a chevy. Your trying to compare a bentley to a chevy. MY OPINION (so please don't start getting mad at me for the boldness of this statement) is that this is not a comparison. YAHAMA is good for beginners but if you are advanced go for the brands listed above. IN conclusion, these are the best brands to buy.Īny how many of you have ever seen a Yahama concert grand in use at the Walt Disney Concert Hall? The good brands that are great for value, however, are Schimmel and Petrof. The only competition for steinway is Bosendorfer but all the other brands like Yahama( all Japanese pianos in particular), all Korean Brands, all Chinese brands. the only model that even warrants consideration is their RX-A which is tremendously overpriced. Have you ever seen a god damn Yahama at the walt disney concert hall or at carnegie hall. Why the hell do you think they usee them at major recitals and concerts. Steinway has a rich tonal quality and doesn't live off reputation. the C3 though bright lacks the tone color.Īll you people are talking about the yahama giving you instant gratification but that is partially due to its extreme brightness. compared to the C3, the steinway kicks it *** ass. I used to own a Yahama C3 in my house but i have recently switched to a steinway model L.