When buying a piano does the finish matter? Would you go for black? White? Wood? Glass?? Decorated (e.g Louis XIV)???

I ask because I am in the market for a piano and the one I want only appears to be available in Black. This strike me as odd since it isn't really a concert instrument and is aimed at the home market where I would have thought a wood finish that fits in as a piece of furniture might be more acceptable. ON the other hand, at least one person has told me that he black sheen finish we see on concert instruments may affect the acoustics (he didn't say whether it would improve them, just that it would affect them!)

Still, as my wife has just said " You can't really go wrong with Black!"


Why isn't there a grand piano smiley??

I suppose it is possible that the black polyester finish has some effect on the acoustics (although I've never heard of it before). I saw a piano at the weekend that had had a nasty accident, and I was surprised at the thickness of the black layer (approaching a centimetre, roughly).

Black doesn't fade - a wooden piano will fade in sunlight if you are not very careful about protecting it. Wood can be significantly more expensive, especially for a new piano.

Mine is feathered mahogony

Have fun choosing..

Sue

Absolutely - a wooden piano would have to match any other wooden furniture in the room (at least, it would in my mother's house). Rather than trying to find a piano to match - or make pianos that will match the widest range of furniture - go for black! It goes with everything

In our house nothing ever matches so it doesn't matter, but my little teaching area is co-ordinated

All the shelves match the piano - a nice glossy mahogany It shows up fingerprints really quickly though!


I think white pianos look very tacky - a bit like white limos

Before I bought my current piano, I would never have thought of buying a black shiny one....but I love it!

There's also endless amusement with pupils making faces at themselves, checking their hair in the shine...

I know what you mean about the hair!! My piano is mahogany satin, but one of my pupils has a black one and is always looking at his hair in it- especially has he has just started to use hair gel!!!

It also means you have to be careful with your expression, since they can see your reaction to things in the reflection...

I find it useful, when practising on a shiny piano, to be able to see my hand position & movements. If I was buying a piano, I'd be very likely to go for a shiny one if possible.

If the piano you want only comes in black, there isn't really a problem is there? It's when you have a choice of finish that the dilemma comes. You're buying an instrument first and a piece of furniture second, so if you're sure that's the piano you want, go for it!

My piano is shiny black. It was the only colour it came in.

I think it might be something to do with the market the piano is aimed at. If it's aimed at musicians then they'll be most interested in the performance, touch and tone so the manufacturer will probably offer less choice in finishes.

For a piano that's going to be chosen more as a piece of furniture the manufacturer may offer a wider choice of colours because that aspect of the piano may affect the buyer's choice of instrument as much as the performance.

When I was buying my piano I looked at lots, including the whole of the kawai upright range. The cheaper pianos in the range came in a much wider selection of finishes that the ones at the top of the range which only came in shiny black and maybe one other colour (if you were lucky).

This probably doesn't apply to the very high end manufacturers though. Bluthners seem to be available in a bewildering range of finishes.

Have you seen the Baldwin custom pianos?

Here's the wildest piano I've ever seen (awful!):
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Divisions/Bald...eelin%20Groovy/

Here's another one in the range that I think is really beautiful - drop dead gorgeous, in fact
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Divisions/Bald...n/The%20Scroll/
Shiny black and scroll work - yum!

Rebecca

oh. my. god.

I think it's for the people who don't want to smoke pot, but who want to know what it feels like!



my piano is an average wood-finish one. Never actually though about getting black. Then again, I was 6/7 at the time, so i probably didn't really care!

I have heard of the piano finish has some bearing on the sound the piano produces, too. The man did explain but I can't remember exactly... I guess it is really a personal preference... The wooden case does look more "homely" and "warm" if you are putting the instrument in a lounge. However, if your style is minimalistic, then the black would look super!

My piano has wooden case, and I love it!
Happy piano shopping!
hero

I think the wooden ones are more beautiful, but they do seem to be more expensive (in my limited experience). I went to a viewing of a piano auction in London a few days ago and that was absolutely fascinating - like going round a piano museum. There was everything from square pianos to an art deco upright to a Steinway Grand containing a Pianola which actually worked (is there anyone today though, who could fix it if it went wrong?).

The other thing was that the more beautiful the case was the more work they needed on them. Some of them sounded very odd.

Sorry - they're both indescribably tacky. YMMV

Edward

I would have thought that's the point!

Try these

:glass
:otmar alt

I would choose wood every time. I used to have a black polythingy finished piano and it showed every tiny finger mark. I like the look of real wood and enjoy polishing and dusting wooden cased instruments. If somebody uses spray polish on the black finished ones they will dull easily.

Not much chance of this at my house - I'm a "life's too short for spray polishing" sort of person!!

Who on earth would inflict a glass piano on themselves? I have enough problems keeping my shiny black one clean.

Something I'd love is an old walnut piano with candlesticks attached at the sides. It would be so nice to play with the candles flickering over the keys and reflecting off the wood. One of my pupils has one like this, but I have to say it sounds terrible.

The see through glass piano could be fascinating to watch while it was being played - a bit like one of those glass kettles which allows you to see what the water is up to as it boils, but even more interesting.

Sorry, I'm joking - you've got to give them points for creativity though

Thinking about watching the piano action as it plays: I love it when the piano tuner comes and I can watch all the bits and pieces inside the piano moving. Maybe I'm very sad but I find it so interesting.

Rebecca

I love things you can watch the insides working! I remember as a child, being dragged round Comet or somewhere like that, my parents trying to choose a dishwasher. I picked one because it had a window in the door (like an oven has), and I was really disappointed to be told it was a display model to show you how it worked...

On the other hand, the practicalities of a glass piano might outweigh the fascination. We have a glass-top coffee table and I am forever paranoid I'm going to drop something on it and smash the glass. It'd be a million times worse with a piano!

Should anyone be wondering about repairs of pianolas etc, there is a fascinating museum of mechanical music in Northleach - I'm sure the chap there would know about these - they have a collection of all kinds of barrel organs, player pianos, multiple instrument players and a Steinway vertigrand that plays rolls recorded by all the famous players of the day (I've heard it play Rachmaninov amongst others) Well worth a visit if you are ever in the Cotswolds.

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Should anyone be wondering about repairs of pianolas etc, there is a fascinating museum of mechanical music in Northleach - I'm sure the chap there would know about these - they have a collection of all kinds of barrel organs, player pianos, multiple instrument players and a Steinway vertigrand that plays rolls recorded by all the famous players of the day (I've heard it play Rachmaninov amongst others) Well worth a visit if you are ever in the Cotswolds.
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Thanks for that Sue. Northleach isn't that far from us and this museum sounds like well worth the trip. At the auction I mentioned in my post there was a large amount of pianola rolls with music from a wide variety of composers as well as contemporary (well, contemporary when they were made) jazz and ragtime.
I've never actually heard a pianola - the only one I've seen in someone's house was broken. At the museum will they let you hear one?

Don't care so long as you let me play it!

We could write one and submit it to the people that run the forum

Tis a good idea. you can be in charge of that!

Of course!




Over to you, Tom!

[quote name='enharmonic' date='Apr 5 2008, 01:22 PM' post='685419']
[/quote]
Should anyone be wondering about repairs of pianolas etc, there is a fascinating museum of mechanical music in Northleach - I'm sure the chap there would know about these - they have a collection of all kinds of barrel organs, player pianos, multiple instrument players and a Steinway vertigrand that plays rolls recorded by all the famous players of the day (I've heard it play Rachmaninov amongst others) Well worth a visit if you are ever in the Cotswolds.
[/quote]

Thanks for that Sue. Northleach isn't that far from us and this museum sounds like well worth the trip. At the auction I mentioned in my post there was a large amount of pianola rolls with music from a wide variety of composers as well as contemporary (well, contemporary when they were made) jazz and ragtime.
I've never actually heard a pianola - the only one I've seen in someone's house was broken. At the museum will they let you hear one?
[/quote]
Yes you will hear all sorts of different instruments, I'm afraid I can't remember all the individual names and details, but it is a fascinating tour - you see the insides of things working too. It takes about an hour to go round - Keith Harding's Museum of Mechanical Music. Northleach is quite a small village and the museum is on the main road - you can't miss it. Well worth the trip (but perhaps ring before you set off - aha, they have a website - here it is...) Mechanical Music

Thanks for that Sue - I'm looking forward to going.

My first piano was like this but my mother refused to let me have candles (I would have been about nine at the time). Only about two and a half octaves of notes actually worked so once it became clear that I was taking piano lessons seriously my parents bought another one (much more boring to look at but all the notes worked).