Anybody heard of Ritmuller UP 130T?

[rogerbann]

Hi

I found a nice upright from 2006, but can not find any information on this particular model. There are 130R's but not T-models. Anybody heard of this and how it compares to other high uprights?

With best regards

[huaidongxi]

130 mm. (51+ in.) should be a serious upright.  have you played the beast, or did you speak with a Ritmuller dealer ?  the people involved with higher end pianos are generally very helpful with information on older models.

[rogerbann]

It's a private seller and I'm about to have my sons pianoteacher take a spin with it. I just could not find any such model. There is a 130R and a 132R, but no 130T. As I understood that Ritmuller is an "branch" of Pearl River that does have a 130T-model; could this be some intermediate UP?
Any knowledge on the qualities of those in 2006?
The asking price is around 2000$. I can not quite afford the Yamaha U3, but perhaps this could substitute...

[huaidongxi]

as you probably know, Ritmuller was originally a German piano maker starting in 1795, putting them right at the birth of the pianoforte, or as LvB referred to them, hammerklavier. Pearl River bought the brand name and proprietary methods, technology, et cetera. the current Ritmullers are designed by a european, L.Thomma, built with many european materials (hammers are German made Renner) and european manufacturing methods.  don't know if that was the case ten years ago.  Pearl River is a huge concern and at various times made pianos for Yamaha and Steinway (the Essex budget line).  the tall Ritmuller uprights were probably intended to compete with the kawai and yamaha uprights.

[huaidongxi]

found a possible explanation why you weren't able to find information on that model number. according to concertpitchpiano.com, Pearl River took possession of the Ritmuller name in 2001, and until around 2008 the main differences between the ones they made with the German brand name vs. the Pearl River name were cosmetic.  at that point they hired Thomma as the designer and differentiated the manufacturing methods and materials used for the Ritmuller brand, no doubt intending their product to have a euro piano sound characteristic. since your model was from 2006, it should probably be considered as if it were a Pearl River piano, maybe with a higher quality cabinet and exterior finish.

[rogerbann]

Thank you for your help  .
I'm writing from Finland and we do not have neither Pearl River nor Ritmuller dealers here, so the upright was a surprise to me. Had to ask...
Perhaps I could dare a deal. The used Yamaha U3's cost about three times the asking price for this instrument...

[huaidongxi]

it's not easy at all to be without a decent instrument, especially in an area with relatively few options (what the lack of dealers you noted indicates to me).  have no clue what the market conditions are for you re. decent, used, full sized upright pianos.  if used yamahas sell for 6000 u.s.$ there, in materially spoiled (revoltingly so) north america for that amount, the buyer would expect something unusually good. patience is usually rewarded when looking for an instrument, but scarcity tilts that of course.  is the market for used instruments significantly better in any of the adjacent areas to you where you don't face formidable transportation or taxation et cetera barriers.

don't know if you've read other posts under this section "Instruments", but the contributor Indianajo has shared quite a bit of his experience with used pianos (and not very fond of yamahas, b.t.w.).  used instruments, particularly mass produced in Asia, as both Pearl River and yamaha are, have to be considered each on their own, not by name or age.  there are good days and bad days on assembly lines, alert and attentive labor for some batches of products, sloppy on others that have a nearly identical external appearance.  maybe the quality control at yamaha is a bit higher, maybe they turn out fewer 'clunkers', yet Pearl River at one time made instruments for them. of the huge numbers yamaha has produced, probably more than a few are bland and mediocre, if acceptable for most students. have no complaints about the well-used small yamaha grand that saw many hours of play before me and many from me, but it was built back in the early 1970s (paid 1100 for it, but that was 40+ years ago, not a small sum).  would not surprise me at all if the best Pearl River instruments surpassed mediocre and indifferent yamahas.  your son's instructor might give the piano a high approval.

buona fortuna on your quest and in music.

[rogerbann]

You sum it up very nicely. Finland is a scarcely populated country (5,4 million people on 340 000 km2). The neighbour West (Sweden) and south (Estonia) are behind waters and the big neighbour in the East is Russia. Not much of a market for pianos...which pushes prices up on the few decent ones.
In Sweden (who has a great history of piano production) they are throwing away all kinds of pianos, but the testing, transportation and probable restorations all hike the costs too high.

p.s. As a father I really, really want to do the right things for my kid. He's blown me and my wife away, coming from a simplified Fur Elise to a wonderful Valse Triste in nine months...