There are so many things professional pianists look for, but that subject will remain for series of separate blogs. For an average family purchasing an affordable piano, the piano should provide three things: a high level of responsiveness, a good tone, and good stability.

For most beginners, a piano should have keys that are even in weight. There should little to no play before the hammer travels once the key is depressed. When a key is lifted, the sound should be damped immediately. Double repetition and aftertouch is not as important for a beginner, but a grand piano action will...

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It is so frustrating to see the amount of deception and manipulative marketing tactics employed by some of the more famous piano companies making digital instruments today. Yamaha manufactures so many expensive Clavinova digital pianos using what they consider "wooden key actions." Or NW-GH. The only problem is...these are not wooden keys. Check out the picture below.

As you can see, this is nothing more than a sticker of wood veneer slapped on the sides of plastic keys. This is the same dated technology found in portable weighted keyboards, definitely not a true piano key. Not even...

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When is the last time you have made a monthly payment? From iPhones to mortgages, we live in a world based on credit. Borrowing money effectively and responsibly boosts our credit scores, and empowers us to better choose how and when we spend our hard-earned cash, which is great. However, interest rates are, very often, unfathomably high and unpractical-- negating the good they might do for our credit. So many people come into our store wanting to finance a piano, but they simply cannot stomach the idea of paying a high interest rate. We understand. That is why we have thought long...

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Buying an affordable piano from a famous piano brand is similar to buying an affordable German car. Cheaper pianos from Yamaha look like Yamaha pianos because YAMAHA in gold lettering is proudly stamped on the fallboard. The GB1K says “Yamaha Pianos” on the soundboard, vacuum-processed plate, and even has a vague similarity in sound compared to  other Yamaha models. This is where any resemblance quickly ends. Yamaha does not offer a quality cheap piano, despite being priced significantly higher than pianos of comparable size and build quality from entry-level companies, such as Pearl River or Samick....

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Hailun: Moving Forward Radically  

Today the global world seems to gravitate towards greater multi-national partnerships than ever before. It is a recent phenomena brought on by globalization and has contributed to radical breakthroughs in science and technology. No other piano company has taken advantage of this new global capitalism like Hailun.  

Here is a list of countries that make Hailun special:

• Austria
• China
• France
• Germany 
• United States
• Japan
• …and more!

From world-renowned piano designers to all-European hardwoods and felts, Hailun pianos utilize the best materials one would...

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Are Grey Market Pianos Bad?

This is a top contender for the most asked question we get from callers, emails, and visitors in our store. Many people desire a high-quality Japanese piano, such as Kawai and Yamaha, at a price they can afford. Over the years, both Japanese companies have invested considerable time and money into their marketing throughout North America in effort to convince buyers that a grey market piano is always inferior and guaranteed to have issues. All of these claims are immense exaggerations of partial truths—very similar to how politicians emphasize and deemphasize certain facts to win...

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Will a piano’s tone change over time? 

One of the most common concerns people express in our store is “Will (brand x) piano sound the same in my home over time?” The answer is yes and no. Intrinsic tone and consequential tone are two very different concepts that I have created to describe the phenomena of a piano “loosing” or “changing” its tonal color. 

Intrinsic sound is not bound by variables or conditions, such as hammer quality or climate. As pianos receive continuous use over time, the hammer felts actually begin to compress. This compression makes the hammers...

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Have you ever noticed how reverberant the sound of a concert grand piano is in a concert hall? The gleaming tone colors from the stage envelops the entire space, with an echo that is rich and full. This is due to hard, reflective flooring beneath the piano and careful acoustic engineering that amplifies the natural sound of the instrument in the hall; emphasizing the fundamental pitches and thinning out the overtones that, when too strong, create a harsh tone that is unpleasant to our ears. When considering an instrument for your home, workplace, or institution, it is paramount that the...

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Modern acoustic pianos come in two configurations: grand and upright. The first occurrence of piano-like instruments occurred in treatises from the 15th to 18th century. These instruments, pantaleons, were the descendants of the clavichord. Cristofori’s first “pianofortre” was based upon the design of a harpsichord, and German manufactures such as Stein and Silberman initially produced “square” pianos based on the design of the clavichord. Ultimately, it was this clavichord-based design that won in popularity with middle-class people, while the English and French manufacturers, such as Broadwood and Pleyel, started producing grand pianos in the traditional, harpsichord shape. Grand pianos and square pianos existed from the beginning,...

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When customers first walk into our store, the first thing they usually tell us is “Wow, you have a lot of pianos!” Stilwell Pianos, compared to any other store, has a greater and larger selection of used, restored, and new grand pianos than any other store in the Valley. Some stores focus solely on a high-or-low-end market, which often results in fewer pianos being sold. Fewer sales mean less pianos can be purchased and placed on the showroom floor. Do we maintain healthy relationships with many different vendors? Absolutely. This also enables us to get our pianos for less than...

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