Piano sightings in Utrecht the Netherlands

[ranniks]

Went to this place where a meeting was held for the people who helped older people learn to work with the computer. I was hoping to find a Piano. And much to my happy surprise:

Ibach:



This piano played somewhat well. The action was a bit heavy for a grand piano in my taste and the pedal was a big turn off for me. Instead of being easy to push down, this one was tricky because the pedal was either too high above the ground or something I was not used to.

Also, the keyboard was weirdly inserted, there was no rims added to the keyboard. I mean, the part in front of the keys but then under it.

Wish I had taken more pictures of the Ibach for you guys.

Yamaha:







If 1 is the worst action and 10 the best, then this was a solid 6. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with it, but it just didn't feel right. I like my teacher's yamaha's action better because it's lighter and fits to the grand's proportions I think.

Like with the Ibach I had trouble with the pedal with the Yamaha as well.

The room where the Yamaha was placed was beautiful. A church room to be precise.

A good day all in all, but I prefer my upright above the Ibach and the Yamaha of today combined.

[starstruck5]

What upright do you have?  It must be pretty good if you prefer it to a Yammy Grand!

[hfmadopter]

Just for what it's worth, the category of "grand piano" has not cornered the market on light action. A lot of grands simply don't have that. It should still be more accurate action if regulated correctly, more so than an average upright at least. Touch sensitivity and ability to repeat at a fast pace should still be there on most grands but reserved for the better more performance oriented upright piano. Most uprights I've played on did not possess those traits, especially deep key repeatability ( they had no let off point like grand action has). That was the main reason I looked to upgrade my upright to a grand years ago. It wasn't tone, my upright sounded quite good actually, it was touch. But we had the space for one too.

When I get too old and feeble and no longer have space for my grand perhaps, I'd keep my Kawai digital ( or one similar). It does a fine job. I play the Kawai more than the grand these days. The other day my grand daughter was playing on the digital in the Mellow Grand setting I have custom curved in it to come close to emulating the tone of my grand piano. I was upstairs she was down, the digital sounded every bit as good as my grand with that little space added, and perfectly in tune.. So the digital is the thing to have in an apartment situation for me if that ever happens. And O maintenance cost, except a Clorox wipe down now and then.  At age 63 one starts thinking of these things now and then, not getting any younger.

Meanwhile grand pianos are beautiful pieces of furniture and fine instruments, they live at the top of the piano category. But there certainly are differences among them. It's good to play as many different pianos you can, then the differences don't feel so strange.

The pedal situation is what it is, if the pedals are high and you owned that piano you would either adjust to it and then low ones would feel strange or you could create a little heal board to place in front of the pedals to lift your foot slightly. Probably the first.