When my Beautiful Wife (a classical pianist) and I were married, 41 years ago, she had a Steinway upright (I think late 1890s to 1900)which she'd had for many years.   Then a piano friend went to Austria and needed to leave his 1917(?) Steinway grand somewhere, so we had two pianos, hers in the family room and his in the living room.

Then we traded her upright for a fairly recent Yamaha, and had two grands in the living room. Then the friend's grand was reclaimed, but after a while another piano friend went to the Phillipines for a time, and we had two grands (one Steinway, one Yamaha) in the living room again, for a few years.

Then, about 1995 my wife was lusting for a Steinway. We contacted a piano broker in Chicago, and spent a day in Chicago with him, going from music company to piano dealer to rebuilder. My wife was in seventh heaven.

We ended trading her Yamaha for a totally rebuilt 1922 Steinway grand. When I say "totally rebuilt", I mean that we ended up with what amounted to a new piano inside with only the completely refinished 1922 case and cast iron frame left from before. Wondrous tone, wondrous action!

My B.W. was and is in love with it, and other pianists and the twice-yearly tuner rave about its tone and action. And I'm pleased to say that every so often I get great affectionate resurgences of love and appreciation from my B.W. for having got it for her.

Dave Oesterreich