Steinway's 600,000th piano, the Fibonacci

But skip their Manhattan showroom if you'd like to maintain any respect for the brand. The sales staff was obnoxious enough to make me walk out, checkbook in hand, over to the Bösendorfer store.

I think he was just thinking about numbers in general to get ideas, and Fibonacci was one that he knew by name, so it came to mind.

Maybe he's looking at the number 6 and seeing a spiral?

I feel they're just manufacturing statements for better advertisement.

The following sentence explains it. "The way in which [the fibonacci spiral] continues to grow but stay true to its form is very much like Steinway & Sons over these many years."

This was my first thought as I read the title. Was a missed opportunity at 514229 :)

Focusing on the details that differentiate it from a "standard" model seems reasonable. We all agree that it is a piano, and as such is capable of being played to make music. What, specifically, were you hoping for here?

The general "design" of a piano hasn't changed too much in over 300 years. And from a company that is known for making some of the best pianos, selling the way the piano sounds isn't much use. I remember a while back someone made a clear piano. I thought it was dumb, but how else are they going to differentiate? They can't make them easier to play (without adding player piano components) or increase the resolution of the sound.

True. Here are more photos: http://www.classicfm.com/instruments/piano/steinway-fibonacc...

I agree. I love piano music and large concert halls. A bit of a non-sequitur I love this piano video of Benjamin Grosvenor playing with David Gray interrupting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IPkNbuaSAg

I have no evidence, but that figure of 500/year can't possibly be correct. Maybe 500 of their largest, concert hall-size grand pianos, but not their entire line.

This process has been going on for over a century. Ever since the introduction of the phonograph, the social importance of sharing music around a piano has been in significant decline.

How long does a piano last? Surely the market is saturated at some point, especially for extremely expensive pianos like these.

Or is it that the completely-analog piano has become more niche? Digital pianos these days sound and feel fantastic when put up against their analog counterparts in the lower end of the price range (what you'd find in a typical home). And they require zero maintenance and can be moved with ease. There will always be a place for a "real" piano, but you no longer need one if you just want to learn and play. I personally have a digital stage piano. It's 20 lbs. without the stand, and I can sling it over my shoulder with ease. 9 times out of 10, when I try to play a piano in someone's home it's out of tune and has some sticky or unplayable keys. So I'd say that analog pianos aren't dying, but they have become relegated to the niche of people who either want them as furniture or people who are serious enough to maintain and care for them. For the rest of us, digital is the right choice.

It's 2,000 grand pianos / yr, 500 upright pianos / yr. 149. Around 1,000 grand pianos and 250 upright pianos are produced per year in the New York Factory. The Hamburg Steinway Factory produces a similar number of instruments.

http://www.steinwaypianos.com/159-facts-about-steinway-and-t...

Are you kidding? Probably about 1 in 3 people I know has taken piano lessons before, and about 1 in 10 people I know practices regularly, if I were to guess.

On the other hand I can understand why sales of pianos are dying. Young people these days are increasingly living in shared apartments, multi-family spaces with poor sound isolation, and constantly on the move around the world and needing to live light. Most people who practice solve the problem either with an electric piano or visiting a communal piano at a nearby school, university or elsewhere. Those communal pianos, if maintained well, tend to last several decades.

Maybe it's just that I can buy a top-of-the line yamaha motif that plays really well, can be carried to gigs, has dozens of other functions, and (most importantly) never needs tuning, all for fraction of the cost has something to do with that number?

I've owned several pianos... I won't again, if I can avoid it. Just keeping an instrument in tune is enough of a problem: there is one tuner in my area who can get the thing in tune, and I don't like how he does his intonation.

I understand that piano production is way down from the early 20th century, but it's not like there aren't other instruments which have replaced it.

And, further, unlike instruments like the Fender Rhodes piano or the Hammond tone-wheel organs, these things are both still being produced and will in demand for the foreseeable future.

I also play pedal steel, and it is a similar situation: they make a lot fewer instruments these days because there are a lot of alternatives, but there is still more demand than output.

I would love to have a piano-like instrument again, I just don't want to maintain a real piano anymore. Dating myself, I'd rather have an Ensoniq ASR-88 as the keyboard interface and soft-synths on a computer actually generating the audio.

Yes, I agree.

Puts on Comedian hat

There are far no items or instruments in this world that can instill a comparable fear and loathing in a child than a piano.

You'd think that with so many people typing on keys on computers or phones, some of them might actually make something beautiful with that energy.

Oh, an exclusive and highly prized piano? Well, I look forward to seeing it on CraigsList under the heading "Free Piano - MUST PICK UP!"

Comedian hat off

...and English: http://eu.steinway.com/en/news-events/press-releases/steinwa...

Thanks. That's a really obnoxious behavior.