Grand Piano Serial Numbers Where Are They Found?.
#Sherman clay aeolian player piano serial number
If you cannot find the serial number in any of the locations listed on this page, please watch the video below, to help find more piano serial number locations. 5) Printed on one the keys - behind the nameboard, inside the piano (newer or imported pianos). 3) Stamped on the back of the piano near the top of the wood frame.Ĥ) Printed on one of the hammers, found on either end of the piano (newer or imported pianos). To the right or the left, or in the middle.Ģ) Under the opened lid on the ledge, stamped on a little plaque, to the right or to the left. The lid, look along the top front area of the plate. Here are the TOP FIVE places to locate the serial number of your spinet, console, studio, or upright piano:ġ) On the piano’s cast iron plate. Serial numbers may also include a letter as well. Piano serial numbers usually have five to seven digits, but may haveįewer or more, depending on the manufacturer and age of your piano. At present there is probably less than a few hundred makers in the whole world, with China most likely having more piano factories than any other country.Piano Serial Numbers: Location, location, location. Thousands of piano manufacturers have come and gone since the beginnings of this magnificent instrument. Most pianos then and now are sold to average income families. But high quality means a higher price tag. Now of course, a few dealers were not using this practice, and were just using their name on the pianos in order to advertise their company.Īlthough, quality piano makers like Steinway and Baldwin also probably hated seeing all those cheap bad pianos being pawned off on the public. So it makes sense that they would order cheaply built instruments. One reason being that these pianos were usually much lower quality, and who wants their name on junk? As for the people using a stencil name, they were quite often very deceitful. It seems that the companies building the stencil pianos refused to place their names anywhere on the instruments. And force the makers to put their name on their pianos. And during the first 20 years of the 1900's well known makers like Baldwin and Steinway tried to get the government to pass a law to stop this disturbing practice. Nowadays there are enough trade name laws that make it very difficult to get away with this. Most of these bogus attempts to rip off the actual makers name happened in the early part of the twentieth century. One example of an actual stencil is Steinvey, which looks almost like Steinway.
Some piano dealers were that devious(and maybe some still are). Sometimes these names were misspellings of famous companies with the intentions of capitalizing on the famous name. A stencil piano is one made by various piano makers for companies or individuals who place or stencil their name on the front of the piano.
We have also made an effort to avoid stencil piano names on this list.
And keep in mind that while this list is quite long it still does not contain all piano brands that have been made since the history of the piano began around 1700. Most likely though at least 75% or more of these names will never be seen again on a piano. It's possible that in the future some will be used again. Many names are owned by various existing piano companies that are not currently (2012) using some of them on their instruments. Many piano company names on this list are no longer used and the makers in some cases have been out of business for years. This listing contains hundreds of pianos in it's long history of manufacturing. There is also a huge number of piano brand names. This page contains a huge list of piano makers and manufacturers.