August Forester Grand

[Richard Brekne]

Hmm.... August Foresters.... what shall one say.

Ok... they have a nice big sound,... solid sound really. Big booming 
bass, reasonably good balance and good sustain. All in all one of the 
better of the old eastern european makes. Actions had a problem tho. 
They used a lot of plastic parts through the years, mostly flanges in 
both grands and uprights and damper arms in uprights.  The centers 
tended to freeze up after some years use, and the bushings always showed 
signs of being treated with some kind of a chemical... perhaps some kind 
of lubricant. In anycase I've had to completly repin at least 50 of 
these over the years, and I am by no means the only one who has had the 
pleasure.  Often enough on the grands you will find loose tuning pins in 
the very low bass. Never could figure out why really, but I would find 
the lowest 8 -10 notes very badly affected while the rest of the tuning 
pins remained tight as you could ever want them.

Ok.. so nothing is perfect. All in all an ok piano that can be made to 
play and sound really nice actually. Massive and heavy are words that 
come to mind. But I always kind of liked them.

Hope this helps

RicB

Terry wrote:

> I will be inspecting an August Forester Grand for water damage later 
> this week. I have never met one of these in person. Anything special, 
> unusual about them? Any comments? My general understanding is that 
> they are pretty nice pianos. Yes? Thanks.
>  
> Terry Farrell