<HTML>In a message dated 2/7/2002 10:21:53 AM Eastern Standard Time, hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">At 19:17 02/06/2002 -0500, you wrote: >I have worked on one of these. Sound-wise and in all other respects its >sounded equally as bad as Wurlitzer, H. Cable, Lester, etc... bad.  The >customer told me that the Krakauer brand was owned by Steinway and Sons. > >Jim Rickson I think the only thing of Krakauer that Steinway owned was a view of it's factory across the East River</BLOCKQUOTE> Of course, you all know that Steinway didn't own them, and their employees didn't have anything to do with building any of them, and that the only difference between a used car salesman and some piano salesmen is that the used car salesman *knows* when he's lying.......  ;-)   But to label all the American built Krakauers as bad would be a mistake, since they did build some extremely well made pianos during their years in business. If you've seen one of the Krakauer consoles built in Berlin Ohio during the 60s - 80s, you should be aware that these were top notch for a console. They were actually better built than the consoles Steinway built. I don't know if you can see the Steinway factory from Berlin Ohio, but you could apparently talk to Jasper Indiana from there, because Kimball ended up owning the company, and that's when things changed. They ran it in Ohio for a couple of years and then closed it, letting the name sit. When they got out of the piano business, they sold the Conn and Krakauer names to a Chinese company they had initially intended to partner with in China, as well as all their factory equipment.  The name of the company is Artfield Pianos, not Artcraft, as someone thought. The Krakauers being built in China are entry level, thats for certain. But for an entry level Chinese built piano, they are in the "above average" category. They hold tune very good, the actions work good, some problems with bass strings not wound properly so they buzz in a few,  and sound and play about as good as 90% of the consoles that were built in the US after WWII - better than some of them in fact. But their biggest plus is their cabinetry. Since they own all of Kimball's old furniture designs and machinery, they look just like the top of the line Kimball consoles (no matter what the opinion of a Kimball, you must admit they were pretty).  For a piano where 95% of everyone who buys them are buying the furniture on it more than they are the piano in it, the Chinese Krakauer is not a bad piano. It's consistently well made for an entry level piano, very attractive so that Mom is happy, not a lot of action problems, and it's relatively cheap. Just thought I'd toss in my 2 cents worth. It's important to remember who buys consoles. It isn't too often that someone asks you to help them select a "high grade performance level hand crafted work of art" and then says "and I only have 3 thousand to spend, and it must match my queen anne living room suite."  You have to let them find the furniture they want, and then hope the insides are made good enough to hold up. From my experience with them I think the Krakauers will hold up just fine for the segment of the market that buys that kind of piano. Larry Fletcher Pianos Inc, Atlanta Dealer/technician PTG Chapter 301 </HTML>