Sevicing low end pianos (was clothing)

[Farrell]

I guess that would be something of an immature grand.

Personally, I follow the guidelines used by Larry Fine. Baby Grand would be anything up to about 5' 6". (I think that is close to his size definition.)

IMHO, I have not heard any pianos smaller than 5' 6" with a nice full-bodied sound. Good pianos larger than that can have what I would consider to have a big piano sound. Obviously there is no definitive size where pianos sound big or small, but I find that a good 5' 7" piano to be about the minimum size for what I consider to be good - or not small - sound. It also is consistent with the Baby Grand size designation in that I can then say that IMHO, Baby Grands generally have a small piano sound - much like a spinet or console - and larger grands tend to have a significantly more full sound.

When people call asking for information regarding selecting a new piano I highly recommend to them that they consider a piano 5' 7" to 6-foot as a minimum size because of the tone they will get from the bigger piano. Invariably they call initially describing a 5' 1" Chinese piano they saw for $6,000. I suggest to them that they play a bunch of bass notes on a number of smaller and larger grands at the dealer and see if they don't hear the difference.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Avery Todd" <avery@ev1.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, June 24, 2002 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: Sevicing low end pianos (was clothing)


> Hi Terry,
> 
> Now what I want to know is what is your definition of a "Baby Grand"?
> I've heard anything up to almost a 7' one called that! :-)
> 
> Avery
> 
> At 06:45 AM 06/24/02 -0400, you wrote:
> >"I prefer to call the piano by it's rightful name, Spinet, Console, Baby 
> >Grand, etc."
> >
> >I like the naming philosophy of many of North America's native Indian 
> >tribes - a name is earned!
> >
> >Terry Farrell
> 
> 
>