Steinway & Sons
Steinway is the oldest piano brand still operating in the United States. The company has changed ownership a few times through the years with the current ownership belonging to Conn-Selmer, our nation’s largest manufacturer and distributor of band and orchestral instruments. Steinway operates factories in the United States and Germany. The Samick Musical Instruments Co. has been steadily buying Steinway stock and at last check held the largest single ownership with 33% of Steinway’s stock.
Pianos with the Steinway & Sons logo are built in the New York factory which has recently installed some modern piano manufacturing equipment.Pianos with the Boston logo are manufactured by Kawai. They generally have a wider tail and a wooden vs plastic action compared to their Kawai counterparts. It is interesting to note that Steinway does not elect to use the wide tail in their own pianos.
The leader piano line is Essex. In an attempt to get into a lower price point the Pearl River piano company in China builds these pianos along with some production by newly reformed Young Chang.
Και μια ακόμη αμερικανική εταιρία.
Kimball
Kimball is one of the oldest and well known U.S. piano manufacturers. At one time they were the largest keyboard instrument manufacturer. They began manufacturing pianos in 1886 and continued into 1996. At that time Kimball ceased to manufacture pianos but is still a large viable company today. Known as Kimball International their office and hospitality furniture is very well known as well as operating a large contract electronics segment.
Kimball pianos were all manufactured in the United States with the exception being some later model console pianos that were assembled in Mexico. Interesting to note that the made in Mexico instruments were short lived due to the fact that consumers didn’t want a piano, with a U.S. brand name, that wasn’t manufactured in the United States.