![Kranich and bach upright grand piano](https://kumkoniak.com/116.png)
K & B were among the first to try player mechanisms in their grands. Many of their craftsmen came from Steinway or went to Steinway after apprenticing at K & B. They sound a lot like any good golden age brand would. Anyone ever seen or played a fully restored K & B six or seven foot grand? Yes, they made them around 1885-1915 in New York. They were all played long and hard and all considered old junk.īut why are K & B's the bottom of the heap? It couldn't have much to do with their scaling or casework, both of which were frequently exemplary.
![kranich and bach upright grand piano kranich and bach upright grand piano](https://s3.amazonaws.com/LivingPianos/pianos/kranich_58240/kranich_06.jpg)
What happened to all those many decades of use? I have found K & B's in the basements of churches and in countless out of the way taverns among other places. When their parts started to wear out they got a reputation for being junk. Old Kranich & Bach pianos actually sounded good enough that they were actively played. So why is a Kranich & Bach always considered such a dog? I venture part of a guess. Well, there have to be dozens of brands out there as old as K & B whose actions are just as shot that don't get the bad reputation of a K & B. One tech I knew used to call them "chronically broke" because when encountered, and most were and are very old, their action parts were usually thoroughly oxidized, brittle, and as a result broke easily and frequently.
![kranich and bach upright grand piano kranich and bach upright grand piano](https://pianomart.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/41104_44694_6078989879465_main.jpeg)
Kranich & Bach has been, for as long as I can remember, one of the most maligned brands of pianos, always associated with the very worst quality. Why anyone, wrong move Baldwin, ever decided to have more pianos made, cheap or otherwise, with that label on them is beyond me, unless it was to appeal to a certain reverse psychology "for those who know they aren't good enough or rich enough to afford a good piano, we have these." Wurlitzer must have made tens of thousands of those stupid little spinets that are all essentially junk pianos. There ought to be a thread about how a particular brand of piano gets to become associated with trash.
![Kranich and bach upright grand piano](https://kumkoniak.com/116.png)