Shopping for grand piano and upright piano

Piano brands can be categorized by different pricing points. Very similar to shopping for car, shopping for grand or vertical piano takes research. Currently, the majority of
pianos are manufactured by the Asian countries, predominantly, Japan, Korea, and China.
European countries also manufactured piano, they range from high end to mid-level pianos. American has manufactured piano for a century now. A few of the famous brand are manufactured by the American.

A. High End Piano (This almost equals to Rolls-Royce of Piano)

Steinway (US manufactured)
Bosendorfer (Austria) - This grand piano has more than 88 notes.
Fazioli (Italy)
Bechstein (Germany)

B. Mid-Priced Piano (Most of the piano in this category are
manufactured by Japanese and American)

Yamaha (Japan)
Kawai (Japan)
Petrof (Czech)
Baldwin (US)
Boston (JV between Japanese and US)
Charles Walter (US)


C. Low-End Piano (Most of the piano in this category are
manufactured by the Korean and Chinese)

Young Chang (Korean)
Samick (Korean)
Pearl River (China)
Kimball (US)
Nordiska
Wurlitzer

There are many piano brands available to the general public. Some of the brands are manufactured by the same manufacturers. A good example is the boston piano. This piano is manufactured by Kawai manufacturer but designed by Steinway.

I highly recommend reading the "Piano Book" written by Larry Fine. The book provides extensive research and recommendation of many different piano brands. The author is a piano tuner/specialist and has serviced many different pianos out there.

If a person has limited budget for piano, I would recommend the Japanese manufactured piano because of its value and economy. Very much like the car industry which is
dominated by the Japanese manufacturer, the piano industry has grown to favor the Japanese-made piano.