Steinway & Sons along with Mason & Hamlin and Baldwin are easily the best known names in pianos built in North America. Today all three companies continue to build quality pianos using the traditional American piano materials. Of the three Steinway & Sons and Manson & Hamlin are still built by hand in The USA. Hollywood Piano is not an authorized dealer of new Steinways but has a great selection of pre-owned and used Steinway Pianos in our Burbank & Pasadena showrooms. We are the authorized dealer for the Los Angeles area of the other two major American piano brands Baldwin and Mason & Hamlin.
Hamburg Steinway & Sons Pianos vs. New York
Why are the new Hamburg Steinway pianos better? There are a number of reasons. First, craftsmanship in the German factory is at a much higher level today than in the New York factory. This was not always the case. Henry Engelhard (Steinweg) Steinway left Germany and the Steinweg Piano Company which he founded (Later known as Grotrian-Steinweg when Fredrich Grotrian joined Theodore Steinweg) and moved to New York founding Steinway & Sons anglicizing his name.
Hollywood Piano is the #1 Used Steinway Piano Store in Los Angeles
Hollywood Piano is famous world wide for our incredible collection of unique art case, re-manufactured and pre-owned Steinways. Steinways come from factories in Long Island City New York and Hamburg, Germany. Many concert pianist and technicians are of the opinion that the pianos from Hamburg are the finest pianos that the Steinway & Sons Company builds. A fact further reflected in the prices for their new German made pianos which are higher than those made in New York.
How good were these “Golden Age” pianos? We’ll let Steinway’s own words from their 2009 Annual Report speak for us: “Because Steinway pianos are built to last for generations, a relatively large market exists for used Steinways. It is difficult to estimate the significance of used piano sales because most are conducted in the private aftermarket. However, we believe that used Steinway pianos provide the most significant competition in the high end of the piano market.”
Hollywood Piano – Used & Rebuilt Steinway Pianos
Rebuilt Steinways that come from a time when someone with that famous last name was actually overseeing things rebuild marvelously if meticulously restored by expert craftsmen. It’s very important to understand who is doing the rebuilding work. Just as there are auto mechanics in almost every gas station, there are also “piano re-builders” working out of garages, basements, storage units and warehouses. The corner gas station mechanic might make 40K a year while a mechanic in a custom auto shop might make 6 figures. The same is true of Steinway re-builders. Unfortunately far too many are like the 40k a year mechanic versus the six figure mechanic. Unfortunately a lot of their pianos are inferior rebuilds that are lacking in quality of materials and craftsmanship and most importantly nine times out of ten, musicality. The bottom line is, when you get a high quality rebuilt Steinway piano finished by a quality piano company it will last a lifetime, perform on par or better than some new Steinways at prices that are thousands of dollars less. It’s no wonder that Steinway itself fears the competition of their pre-owned pianos.
In our opinion if we were to commission a poll today of high end piano re-builders nationwide and ask them which parts they’d rather rebuild a piano with, Steinway New York or Renner Germany the responses would be overwhelmingly for Renner. If you are rebuilding a modern Steinway piano one could and in some cases should use the New York parts as an option. But because the dimensions of the parts used in Steinway pianos has changed significantly over the decades If you put current “genuine New York Steinway” parts into a “Golden Age” piano you won’t necessarily get the best result. The New York factory only makes and sells the parts for the modern/current pianos. The Renner Company on the other hand makes a kit with different sizes of dimensionally correct Steinway & Sons piano parts covering all of the changes in specification, designs and models that Steinway has built over the last 160 plus years. The worst thing one could do to a vintage heirloom piano is rebuild it with brand new non-dimensionally correct New York parts. Come See Our Selection
The investment value of a Steinway will not only come from the name on the front but from how accurately the piano has been restored. At Hollywood Piano we offer three collections.
The Prestige Collection: On our high end “art case” pianos we strive to achieve a museum level quality of restoration seeking out the best materials that will serve the instrument, not the propaganda. Our goal is a piano that musically exceeds the original Henry Englehard Steinweg (Steinway) designs. These pianos are stunning to look at and a dream to play.
If you’re in the market for a Steinway, make sure that you come to take a look at our collections.Ask about Hollywood Piano’s superior rebuild 10 year warranty that is twice as long as the factory’s new piano warranty.
The Hollywood Piano Showroom has been the #1 Used Steinway Piano Dealer in Los Angeles for decades and continues to deliver quality pianos to clients throughout the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, Burbank, Pasadena, Orange County and Southern California. For residents of Los Angeles and Orange County there is one solution when it comes to finding the best in re-manufactured and used Steinways, tuning, grand piano accessories and related services. Hollywood Piano has been serving piano lovers with quality Los piano models for many years and has won numerous accolades and awards along the way. When it comes to buying a piano in LA, fixing an old one or even trying to find a buyer for your old grand piano, there is no better place than Hollywood Piano. Everything Steinway, check it out!
Hollywood Piano is not an authorized NEW Steinway & Son dealer and presents the following information as a service to the piano buying public.
