Small Grand Pianos

[alzado]

This topic has come up in the past, but I continue to think it is interesting . . . so forgive me if I surface it again.

In the two piano stores in our town, the vast majority of grand pianos for sale are what I would consider small.  I won't say "baby grand" because that term is used so loosely, I'm not sure if it has much meaning any more.

When I say small, I mean 4'10" through 5'1."  Once and a while, the shopper sees a 5'3" . . . which may the the largest piano on the sales floor. 

In one large store, they are all like that except a couple of rebuilt older grands being sold as used -- thay may be in the 5'6" to 5'8" range.   They also have one 6' grand up on the stage for use as a recital piano.  It has a price tag hanging on it and could be purchased if someone wanted it, I suppose.

The other store is smaller and sells exclusively Pearl River.  The grands there are all small too.

I get a feeling this size is very popular in part due to the ability of such a piano to fit into a room. 

I'm not ready to pan such pianos -- they may sound very nice.  These small pianos in brands such as Yamaha can be quite expensive -- up to $14K, it seems.  I suspect they could use more resonance in the bass and baritone range -- up through the C3 octave. Although it is hardly fair to generalize like that, I know.

Generally, most serious amateurs would LIKE to play larger pianos.  My present grand is a 5'8" and I wouldn't mind having something larger.

One young lady I know who is a piano teacher gets to play a 9' Steinway when she returns home on holiday.  For her this is a real "high."

Would anyone care to comment as to what these trends mean?  The public's "taste" seems to be central here.

And then again, perhaps when I look at music stores in this mid-sized town, I am not getting a very true picture of the national market.

[bench warmer]

Any Grand smaller than yours would probably have the same bass response as an upright. The bass strings are too short to give the primary vibration of the lower notes; it's actually all the vibrations in the string of the harmonics that makes it simulate the real thing.

Many people want a Grand because "it looks nice in the room".

But, most things in life are combinations of compromises and as you say "some may sound very nice".

 I agree it's market driven: Companies "wouldn't make 'em if they couldn't sell 'em"

[richard black]

Historically, small grands have always been the best sellers. There are loads of early-20th-century instruments still knocking around in the 4ft to 5ft6 range, most of them pretty rubbish. It's a safe bet that, then as now, most of them sold to people who hardly played (if at all) but fancied something nice-looking in the lounge.

Mind you, I know of course what you mean when you describe a $14,000 Yamaha as 'quite expensive' but if you look at the price of pianos decades ago and multiply it by the increase in the cost of living (OK, to the limited extent that can be sensibly defined) I think you'll find that pianos are cheaper now than they've ever been, like most consumer goods. And if you actually use a piano quite a lot, considering how long it lasts, value is excellent.

For instance, suppose you get a bank loan and spring $40,000 for a nice mid-size grand. With care and a little maintenance (probably only $100-$200 in a typical year) it will give you something like 50 years of service (then you, or your heirs more likely, can get it rebuilt and it's good for nearly as much agin). At a mere 2 hours a day, that's 36,500 hours of use, or about $1 per hour. Compare that with a typical car: however much you pay to buy it, it's unlikely to go much past 200,000 miles which at an average of 30mph is about 6,600 hours of use, never mind the extra costs associated with running it - and the gas! All sorts of other things costing $40,000 neither offer as much material value nor anything like the service life of a piano - I could easily figure you a hi-fi system costing that much, for instance, which would be doing well to make 25 years - and for sure none will give the satisfaction of a really good piano.

I'm sure I'm preaching to the converted here but I just thought I'd share a Saturday-night musing for you to repeat to non-musician friends next time they get cynical....

[dan101]

I have a six foot baby grand, which is fairly close to your size. Affordability was made possible for me as I bought it at an auction sale. The results, in my case, were great.

However, I wouldn't go that route if unless you either know the mechanics of a piano or you have a piano technician present with you at an auction.

As for trends (who's buying which size, etc.), never listen to store sales pitches. Always make sound your number one priority. For me, if the piano doesn't sing, it's automatically not a purchase consideration, regardless of the size. Best of luck.

[rachfan]

While selecting a small grand might often be a function of space availability, I believe that a serious pianist should never select an instrument less than 5' 7".  The fact is, the longer the strings, the richer the sound.  In artist grade grands both Steinway and Baldwin make 5' 2" models by popular demand, but would prefer not to, as there are too many compromises in such a small grand.  A grand that size might be fine for a casual pianist though.  Once you consider a grand even smaller than that, one would be better served by an upright.  My own piano is a Baldwin Model L artist grand, 6' 3".  If I had room for one, I would definite get a Baldwin SF10, the 7 footer.  A nice feature of all 7' pianos is that, unlike smaller grands, there is no wooden "apron" at the tail connecting the bass bridge for transferring vibrations to the soundboard.  Instead, there is is direct transfer.  So, for example, while the bass is very impressive on my L, it's incredible on the SF10.  It's the same for Steinway and Mason & Hamlin.