Here in Ann Arbor I've been fortunate to work on a wide variety of pianos. I work on all acoustic pianos, as well as acoustic pianos that also have electronic functions (such as player pianos and "silent" acoustic pianos). I've also worked on a few older style player pianos - the kinds that have extensive mechanical parts that make the piano go - although I caution clients that my ability to repair certain problems on those particular pianos might be limited by the presence of the player-piano mechanisms.
Earlier this year I repaired and tuned a Steinway square piano built in 1867. That's the oldest piano I've had the opportunity to service here in town.
The vast majority of pianos fall into two main categories - grand and vertical. Grand pianos come in many different sizes, from small grands that measure less than 5 feet from front to back, to concert grands that span 9 feet. An abecedarium of the grands I've handled are Baldwin, Boston, Brambach, Brinsmead, Bush & Lane, Cable, Hobart M. Cable, Chickering, Clarendon, Essex, Estonia, Fischer, Forster, Gaveau, Grinnell Brothers, Hallet Davis, Hamilton, Hardman, Hazelton, Ivers & Pond, Kawai, Kelsworth, Kimball, Knabe, Kranich & Bach, Mason & Hamlin, Petrof, Samick, Schiller, Schimmel, Schomacker, George Steck, Steinway, Story & Clark, Tokai, Vose, Charles R. Walter, Weber, Weinbach, Yamaha, and Young Chang.
Vertical pianos also come in many sizes and varieties. The smallest vertical pianos are spinets, known for their "drop-action." The tallest upright pianos were manufactured mainly in the first half of the twentieth century. Among more recent large uprights, my favorites are the Yamaha U3, and the Kawai K-500. In between the spinets and the tall uprights in size we find "console" pianos. I have worked on many vertical pianos, including Aeolian, Altenburg, Baldwin, Bechstein, Becker Brothers, Beckwith, Boston, Brodmann, Cable, Cable Nelson, Hobart M. Cable, Channing, Chase & Baker, Chickering, Cornish, Cristofori, Essex, Eterna, Everett, Grinnell Brothers, Gulbransen, Haddorff, Haines Brothers, Hardman, Hallet Davis, Howard, Irmler, Ivers & Pond, Janssen, Kawai, Kimball, Knabe, Kohler & Campbell, Krakauer, Lester, Lyon Healy, Mehlin, Mendelssohn, Munn, Petrof, Samick, Schafer, Schimmel, Sohmer, Starck, George Steck, Steinway, Story & Clark, Stroud, Thompson, Vose, Charles R. Walter, Weber, Weinbach, Winter, Wurlitzer, Yamaha, and Young Chang.
In the heyday of piano manufacturing in the United States, in the early decades of the twentieth century, there were approximately 300 piano manufacturers. Today, only three U.S. companies continue to manufacture pianos in the United States: Steinway (Queens, New York), Mason & Hamlin (Haverhill, Massachusetts), and Charles R. Walter (Elkhart, Indiana).
In a future post, I'll talk about the importance of a piano's size to the quality of sound and touch. Thanks for reading!