However, the vast majority of pianos ever produced in the US are very old now.

Every company had to compete against each other and while everyone was at the peak of production, the quality was at an extremely high level it had to be. However, the vast majority of new pianos are nowhere up to the standard of the handmade pianos.Īt the turn of the 20th century, there were over 1800 companies producing pianos in the United States! Sure, we still remember some of the big names, but with hundreds of companies competing for the top spot, there were plenty of phenomenally high-quality pianos being produced during that time period. There are still some pianos being made today in America and elsewhere that maintain a very high quality – but unfortunately, they come with a very high price tag. Today, we only have 3 piano companies left making pianos in the US and the rest are mostly made in huge Asian factories at a fraction of the cost and quality of the handmade pianos of yesterday. Back when I was growing up we had Baldwin, Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, Knabe, Sohmer, Chickering, and dozens of more piano brands still producing new pianos in the United States. So what changed? Well, pretty much everything when it comes to pianos.

For a large part of my life, I grew up with a similar mindset.īut now things are different for me I sell restored pianos. Back then, whenever he would encounter a restored piano he would scoff at them and couldn’t see any value in them.

When he was selecting new pianos for performances and recordings, we used to go into the Baldwin artist showroom in New York City and he would play all the pianos and choose the one he liked the best. When I was growing up, my father Mortin Estrin was a Baldwin artist. This might sound silly but this is actually a very complex question.

1976 kimball baby grand piano