Assessment of a Bluthner style 10 grand piano 231cm with a replacement action cf. Patent action.

[@Kref3]

Lovely instrument. It should be noted, that not all Blüthners of that period came with the patent action. I own a Style X like this one from 1908 with Jubilee plate and Aliquot and mine is equipped with its original action, which is a double repetition action made by Schwander. The only difference between my action and other double rep actions is that the hammers have no rolls underneath. There is a leather covered cam underneath instead, that is actually part of the wood of the shank. As far as I know, Blüthner always realized a lot of special wishes including both types of actions in most pianos. The dealer who sold the piano actually did tell me that almost all pianos of smaller models (VII and VIII and below) are equipped with patent actions but that the bigger models quite often are equipped with the double repetition action. I really don't know if that was so or not, but I can imagine that these bigger pianos were used more often by professionals than the smaller ones and that professionals might have prefered the "normal" action that at that time already was installed in most other bigger concert instruments, so it would make some sense.

[@edwardhurst4069]

All your videos are excellent - very much appreciated. I rescue the occasional piano from certain death and currently have a 1901 7’ Aliquot Bluthner in hand. 🙂🍃

[@cliveparaschis]

Gorgeous bass

[@p1anosteve]

Very beautiful and desirable piano if you have the space. The casework imperfections are not at all much of a concern and i'm sure can be improved. More important is the restoration and restringing bringing it too first class tone and action performance.

[@hakanlindroos6277]

My favorite grand piano😍, except for the mondernizations!

[@unequally-tempered]

The Bluthner does looks as though it's trying to be a tiger . . . The Rosewood one looks like a Broadwood. Being of similar size to a Steinway Model C or Bechstein Model III this should be very interesting and having had the action changed clearly the instrument was intended to compete on that level. Abel hammers - hooray! Should be luscious. The efficacy of the 4 string system really depends on how the aliquots are tuned but there's debate in the tuning world as to how very exact unisons should be tuned and the fashion is for ultra-exact unisons. This is admired by techs but I believe makes the instrument sound dead and musicians often like a bit of "life" in the unisons. Bechsteins often had strings in the treble that want to be false, and the challenge is getting them together and in view of the famous Wigmore Bechstein with the logarithmic bridge pins, I suspect that Bechstein were aiming for some vibrato, and likewise Bluthner might not have been aiming for resonance but for vibrato and thus "life" to the sound. And these instruments are alive. Nice playing in particular on this video.

[@MCHEATH]

Properly set up rapid repetition should not be a problem.

[@beethovensg]

Why, in G-d's name, would you look at case work first, if you are a serious artist? Oh, you're not.

[@katherinyu9346]

So harsh!

[@beethovensg]

@katherinyu9346 you mean ' logical' I'm sure. Truth has no friends sometimes. I want to know about its sound- quality, preparedness, and mechanisms. So does a guy like Stevie Wonder. We don't have all day to spend on YT.