Grades of Pianos, Also Called Tiers

It can sometimes be difficult to make a piano selection when you consider all the choices. From the basic design, color, and finish to the feel of the action and type of wood used for the soundboard, pianos come in a wide variety of options from a wide variety of manufacturers.

With 300 years of improvements, today's pianos are complex machines made from about 10,000 parts. Author Larry Fine has identified two distinct grades or "tiers" of pianos which has proven to be a very useful place to start for serious buyers.

Group 1: Performance Grade Pianos

The finest pianos are hand made to carefully chosen designs and critically selected materials. They utilize the very best materials, and the manufacturing process emphasizes a great deal of hand labor and refinement of details. Pianos in this group are suitable for the most advanced and demanding professional and artistic users. At Encore Pianos, we sell Blüthner, Steingraeber, Petrof, Steinway and Kemble products which fall into this Group 1 Performance category.

Performance Grade subgrades

All of these instruments are built to a standard favoring high-performance design features, materials, and workmanship. They are suitable for home, institutional, and professional and artistic uses. Greater hand labor is put into refining touch and tone during manufacture. Among the hand full of the Highest Quality Performance pianos, they are all made in Europe and include Bluthner and Steingraeber which we have in stock for you to see and play. There are also a few brands in the High Quality Performance pianos and Steinway is included in this grade. Steinway pianos do not come from the factory completely finished. They ask that dealers spend many hours regulating and voicing the pianos. Many Steinway dealers do not do this work on pianos except when buyers ask for the work. Each and every used or rebuilt Steinway that we sell has had this work done by our techs. Among the Good Quality hand made Performance Pianos are a few brands including Petrof, and Kemble which we sell. We view the new Petrofs as very much improved and believe that they deserve a higher grade than before. Petrofs also have very high value for a performance grade piano.

Kemble pianos are made by Yamaha in England and Japan and are the finest grade of Yamaha pianos.

Group 2: Consumer Grade Pianos

This group of pianos includes mass produced pianos which have from very good down to acceptable levels of quality and attention to detail. Most pianos sold today are in this category, and beginning to moderate levels of pianists are happy with this group of pianos. Beware of pianos in this group that have not been carefully prepared by the dealer for sale. Most of these pianos do not come from the factory well prepared and must go through extensive technical work before having the quality of sound and touch one would expect.

Also beware of used pianos in this group which have many years of use in schools. You'll find such instruments typically on the internet and in some retail stores which have been polished up and look great. Savvy buyers must realize that a 20 or 30 year old piano, which has been heavily used, is not comparable to a new piano of the same brand. They usually require many expensive repairs and do not play or sound like new pianos. There are several dealers in the DFW area and all big cities selling these used pianos which are called "gray market" pianos. Do not judge a piano by its cover.

Grades of Consumer Quality Pianos: They can range from Upper Level to Mid Range and Entry Level Pianos

These pianos are typically made in Asia. Most consumer grade brands of pianos today are made in mass production factories in Asia. Most of the famous brands such as Yamaha, Kawai, Steinway, Young Chang, Samack, Hailun, Irmler, and others have factories or employ factories in several countries. Japan used to be the leader in production, then Korea and now China and Indonesia. Pianos in this group are typically more oriented toward economy than performance. They can vary greatly in quality and playability, and buyers need to carefully chose where they purchase these pianos to ensure they have been prepared and regulated well by the dealer. Much more than tuning is really needed but rarely delivered. Since a piano requires much dealer preparation and service, and shopping for a piano is difficult, choosing a dealer is really more important than choosing a brand of piano.

If you are considering buying a used piano from an individual, then it is important to be friends with a Registered Piano Technician who will inspect a piano before you buy it and service it if you do buy it. You can find a Tech in our piano community section.

Most of the large piano manufactures in Asia sell several brands and make their pianos in several factories. For instance Yamaha has closed their factories in the USA, Taiwan, and England. Yet they still have factories in Japan, China, and Indonesia. Many of these pianos are made in new factories with true mass production. Some of the very best of these pianos are a combination of production facilities. The pianos may have parts from Europe or they may be finished in Europe. For instance the Irmler Professional pianos have cases and cores made in China by a Bluthner owned factory and then the pianos are finished with German actions, strings, and hammers in the German Bluthner factory by highly skilled German piano craftsmen.

When shopping for these grades of pianos please remember that pianos are made of many thousands of parts and require extensive labor to build, assemble and finish. We suggest that a consumer should never buy the low priced, low quality pianos. Too many compromises have been made in the quality of wood, the aging of the woods, the quality of the strings and hammers, and the quality and amount of finish work. Would you buy the very cheapest car? Would you buy the very cheapest furniture? We would never suggest a consumer buy the very cheapest and we do not stock or sell the cheapest brands or models. If you want the very cheapest musical instrument then please go to Walmart or some "Midnight Madness" sale or "College Sale". If you are such a shopper, then buy the furniture or piano by how it looks in a sale. ( However, remember that any price quoted to you in a sale can also be gotten after the sale or before the sale.) But if you want a quality piano which will last for many years and which is real quality and value, then please come to our store.