Are Gulbransen pianos well known and how do they rate compared with mid-priced pianos?

How do Kawai pianos compare with other pianos, with regard to quality etc?

Also, regarding digital pianos, are they simply high priced keyboards? With regard to "feel", do they
compare favorably with acoustic pianos?

Don't know much about Gulbransen pianos. I do know Kawai pianos though - in my opinion, they are superior to Yamaha pianos. Yamaha pianos tend to become louder and too bright with age.

I'll second what FrederickChopin said about Kawai piano's. I also prefer them to Yamahas. The best way to see how a piano ages quickly is to put it in a practice room in a university music department. It will be played to death every day, and you;ll soon find out that Yamaha's get really tinny with age. It is interesting that Boston Piano's are Steinway parts/ design built by Kawai, and that Steinway chose Kawai as their partner in ths venture not Yamaha.

Yamaha pianos (Acoustic) are far superior to Kawai IMO. I have a Yamaha GB1 and it sounds and plays beautifully. Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Andrewsky, (the late great Glen Gould) all played and spoke highly of Yamaha acoustic pianos in addition of course to their regular performance Steinways.



Don't buy a digital piano unless you have to. They neither feel nor sound like an acoustic piano, even the expensive ones like Roland. I have a Roland HP3e digital piano (£ 1500 new) in addition to my Yamaha GB1 acoustic piano and the sound and feel of the Roland compared to the GB1 acoustic piano is alarmingly dissimilar.



If you can afford it go for a new acoustic or good secondhand one.

I prefer Kawai rather than Yamaha for acoustic pianos.

As for digital pianos, they don't sound or feel like the real thing, but they are getting nearer. Space considerations meant that I had to purchase a digital piano recently and I went for a Kawai. In my opinion it is excellent for what it is. The keyboard is wooden, the weighting very realistic and the sound the best I've heard from a digital - and far superior to a cheap acoustic.

It may well depend on budget - 2000 UK spent on a good digital piano will get you a better sounding instrument than the same amount spent on a cheap upright. Stay away from Roland digitals, though - I've never found them to be particularly good.

I agree!!! I have a yamaha U1 and i love it to pieces!!! I got my piano in February, and I played quite a few Kawai Pianos. They seemed very nice, in fact I was torn between my yamaha and a 2nd hand Kawai which had a very nice tone. My yamaha is second hand, its 20 years old but still has a brilliant tone

I'll go with Kawai's, but would rather have a Pleyel or Broadwood (as an alternative to Pleyel) instead of the two mentioned.

Both instruments are just bad copies...