Discover Your Pianos Current Market Value So You Can Sell It For The Best Possible Price. Ammer, Gebr.Nordheimer Piano Serial Number Search. Acrosonic Adam, Friedrich Adam, Gerhand Adam, Max Ajello & Sons, Giuliano Albert & Co., E. Aarhus Pianofabrik Brodr.Caspersen Ackermann, F. In the form below, select your brand and enter your serial number. Find out the year of production for your piano with the help of the serial number.

Here are the TOP FIVE places to locate the serial number of.This manufacturing explosion was scarcely interrupted by the Civil War. Discover Your Pianos Current Market Value So You Can Sell It For The Best Possible Price. In about 1866 they built their first pianos with much success.Nordheimer Piano Serial Number Search. For the first 2 decades, the firm worked as importers and retailers of pianos, organs and melodeons. The firm was located at 122 King Street, Toronto.

For those living in far-flung areas of the U.S., however, help was coming, wearing a white hat. 1900), the explosion sparkled to a close, moving westward no farther because the population dropped off sharply beyond Chicago and transportation of materials further west would drive up the price beyond what the economies of the area could bear. Starting in the Northeast (Boston, upstate New York, and especially New York City), piano manufacturing moved westward through Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio toward Chicago.About the time it reached the mid-West (ca.

Makers of mail-order piano include: Beckwith, Beethoven, Schmoller & Mueller, and D.F. The next flyer emerged as an eight-page pamphlet, and soon the enterprise blossomed into a catalog of several hundred pages, complete with woodcut illustrations. He decided that to reach more people than he could visit single-handedly, he would print some fliers listing some of his most popular items. For these people, traveling salesmen satisfied - though barely - shopping needs.One of these salesmen was Montgomery Ward. The ever-enterprising Benjamin Franklin offered a catalog in 1744, listing almost 600 books, which he offered 'satisfaction guaranteed.' After the Civil War, the population began to move west once more, swelled greatly by the refugee families from the South and unemployed soldiers from both sides of the conflict.

Venerable piano brands reappeared, but nearly always made in a much poorer quality in order to put them within reach of the average family. Parents wanted things for their children that they had never had вЂ“ such as piano lessons. Bill to further their educations, family incomes began to rise. The stock market crash of 1929 shook the foundations of the industry, and the Great Depression that followed nearly buried it.After the Second World War, when soldiers came home and took advantage of the G.I. Picture Great Aunt Bessie pumping away furiously with her feet while the congregation of 20 raw-boned farmers and cowboys, beside by their stalwart women-folk and almost-bedraggled children, bellowed praise as best they could.The fleuressence of American piano firms abated about 1920.

Sometimes a company (Yamaha, Kawai) has factories of different 'qualities,' so piano quality is affected by the factory that made the particular piano you are looking at/seeking.The Ryuyo and Hamamatsu Yamaha factories are the most famous example. Instruments from the same manufacturer differ from year to year, and within a given year! In the same way some cars are just lemons.It also may make a difference in which factory the instrumentWas made. Please note that these are my personal opinions. Meanwhile, in Europe, some of the most revered companies staunchly held on through World Wars I and II, while others were forced to close, either because of the lagging European economy or the loss of facilities to wartime devastation.Below, in addition to comments on specific piano brands, you will find information on 'stencil brands,' 'gray market pianos,' factory locations, serial numbers, entry level pianos, types and dimensions, antique pianos, and what's important in making your selection.Here are my general thoughts on piano brands: which ones are good, which ones to stay away from.

For now, view Chinese pianos with a weather eye.) The Russians, Belarusians, and Poles also are making pianos now. (How quickly is the question. A decade or two ago, this was true of Korean pianos and Japanese pianos before that, so expect Chinese instrumentsTo improve in quality. It's nearly always a Chinese piano (or one made for a Chinese company in Indonesia or Malaysia.)As of this date (2006), Chinese pianos are usually of inferior quality. Just because it's aGerman name doesn't mean it was made in Germany or by German expatriates or at a factory founded outside of Germany by Germans or with German 'specifications.' Inquire. Thus, pianos coming from the two factories will be of different quality.German-sounding names are often chosen by non-German manufacturers because Germany has such a good reputation for piano-building, at least in the past.

A piano store (usually a nation-wide or at least a regional piano company) buys these from a factory and slaps their store name on it.Sometimes the factory owns the rights to the name of a venerable brand no longer being produced. With grocery store brands, however, while noticeably different in quality, are not necessarily poor quality.Here's how stencil brands work. These are like the house brands at a grocery store, except with stencil brand pianos, the quality is usually pretty poor. Things changes all the time in the piano business, so do your due diligence before purchase to avoid buyer's remorse or a poor choice.Stencil brand pianos (sometimes called store brands) are common in the U.S. Nearly always, these are factories for Chinese firms.To the best of my knowledge, the following information is accurate.

None I have played rates better than ok. Some are awful some are pretty poor a few make it up to ok. These are then sold to the retailer.Therefore, many 'different brands' of pianos - at varying price points - are actually from the same factory! And could, in fact, be the very same piano, except for the brand name and some superficial differences such as wood used in the case!These pianos vary greatly in quality.

The price of this work may offset any savings on the piano itself, however. These companies may have been out of business for 100 years before their names were resurrected and 'their' piano 'reintroduced.'Note also that many stencil brands, whether they are purchased names or not, have 'German names,' drawing on the tradition of high quality in German pianos, as I noted earlier.Some stencil brands can be made to sound decent (but not terribly good!) if serviced first by a tech and regulated (volume of all notes made the same, basically, though some other things are done to the piano). I'm sure you see the connection here.Many (if not most) stencil brands are names bought from (mostly old) companies that are out of business and that once built good instruments.

If you are buying a piano to show, of course the shell is important. Know that when you buy a piano to play, you are buying the egg, not its shell. Nearly always stencil brand pianos are not very good and probably a pretty bad buy.I should note, however, that the cabinetry of stencil brands is often very good: high-gloss finishes, for example. The manufacturer may be masking a very poor quality instrument with an implied veneer of fine craftsmanship. Especially pianos with German names, take care.

I would be happy to pass along any information from readers on names of gray market instruments.Some factories buy parts from all over the world. Obviously, they are very, very poor quality if they are used as nothing more than 'packing material'.The term is also applied to pianos that are to be sold by non-'authorized dealers.' In this case, you have no idea what quality the instrument is unless you can find specifics on it.I'll add info here on affected brands as I can find it. Despite your initial sympathy to give these feral instruments a place in your home, stay away from them. Simply to fill containers on the container ships! Oh, dear! If nothing else, what an ignoble fate for our beloved instrument!Such pianos are sometimes called 'gray market' pianos.