Entries by David Andersen Pianos
On Grief, Loss, and Angela Hewitt’s Fazioli
In early February, I was contacted by the Washington Post to contribute to an article chronicling the loss of Angela Hewitt’s longtime musical companion of 17 years, a handmade one-of-a-kind Fazioli Concert Grand Model F278, customized specifically for Ms. Hewitt. You can read the entire article HERE. Which leads us to… Every professional […]
Hamburg Steinway vs. New York Steinway: The REAL differences
Everyone knows the brand name Steinway. It’s like Mercedes-Benz, or Google. There’s a dozen other fabulous, expensive pianos made in the world—and only a single digit percentage—perhaps 5%—know any other piano brand at all, with the possible exception of that Asian brand that begins with a Y… There’s another difference that piano people, but few […]
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW, PART 1
PERSONAL REFERRAL A crucial key for finding people to work on your piano, and, in my opinion for finding anybody you pay to help you in your life. I would no more pick a doctor or a lawyer or a plumber or a car mechanic out of the phone book or a flyer than I […]
Do Pianos Improve With Age? Part 1
This is truly a fascinating question. To answer it properly would take pages and pages of dense, technical writing, and none of us want that, so I’ll try to make my views clear quickly and simply. There are a whole group of parts of the piano that definitely do NOT improve with age—the strings, the […]
CHOOSING A TECH – BY DAVID ANDERSEN
This is perhaps the most important decision you make in your life with your piano—a gifted, experienced, honest, reliable technician has the power to exponentially enhance the beauty of your instrument, your enjoyment of it, and gratitude for it. I can’t stress this enough. There is usually one or two, and perhaps a handful (in […]
Genuine Steinway Parts
If you’ve glanced through my website, you will know that I am a big fan of Steinway pianos. They comprise a significant percentage of my personal tuning and maintenance clients, and an overwhelming majority of my restoration clients. 75% of the pianos I sell are used Steinways. There are two reasons for this: first, Steinway did […]
WHAT EXACTLY IS A “GRAY-MARKET” YAMAHA?
There have been thousands of words written, on various piano forums, about the pianos that are made in Japan—in the same factory, and with the exact same production line as pianos that are exported—and sold to Japanese buyers domestically. They are disparagingly called “gray-market” pianos, and they are not supported or recommended by the Yamaha […]
The Power of Tuning, Voicing, & Regulation…
…is massive. It is both physical, tangible, and psycho-acoustic illusion: your brain likes the radical improvement so much it sounds better than better—it sounds MAGIC. As I’ve said so may times before, finding a piano technician with the skills to both diagnose and execute this work at a high level is rare. If you find one, hold […]
The Truth About Pressure Ridges
I have maintained literally hundreds of pianos over the last four decades whose soundboards have had little pooched-up lines along some of the glue joints. Many piano owners see these little pushed-up places, and they become very concerned; they think the piano is ruined, that it’s a lemon, that the warranty should declare the board […]
Dmitri Ratser in concert
Hi, folks Below please find something I wrote about this stunning artist 10 years ago—the first time I heard him play live; it all still fits like a glove. DO NOT MISS THIS; sitting eight or ten feet away from one of the greatest players on Earth is a unique, mind-blowing experience. I had one […]
What is True Custom Steinway Restoration? (PART TWO)
PART TWO: The Rest of the Story—how we got the job Remember the “magic” rental piano, the Steinway concert grand that used to be at the Todd-AO scoring and soundstage, that I spoke about in my last blog post? The one that the management of the Eastwood Scoring Stage rented every time they needed a piano, because the […]
What is True Custom Steinway Restoration?
Well, I’ll give you an example. We built a whole new action and back action, or damper action, for the Steinway “D” concert grand that has been living on the Clint Eastwood Scoring Stage, at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, since 1928. It was sent back to the factory for a full restoration—new action, new keys, […]
Weird Magic: How the room affects piano sound and feel
I just had another stark “experience replaces belief” thing happen. Last week I sat down and played a 1993 Steinway “L,” really listened to it, felt it, “grokked” it, as I’ve learned to do so quickly after 40 years. Normal living room, carpet underneath, nice spacious house, nice mix of hard and soft surfaces. The piano sounded […]
