Whenever I make changes to  Piano Buyer ’s “A Map of the Market for New Pianos” — the so-called Ratings Chart — I’m inevitably besieged by questions, comments, and complaints. Here, I’d like to go into a bit more depth about what the Map represents and how it’s formulated. Read More...

The purpose of this article is to comment on and clarify the information in  Piano Buyer  on determining the value of a used piano. (The  Piano Buyer  article has since been revised to include these comments.) Fair Market Value Fair market value  is the price at which an item would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither of whom is compelled to buy or sell, and each of whom has reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts. Read More...

From 1986 to 1988, I worked with electronic-music pioneer Robert Moog (rhymes with vogue), custom-building experimental keyboard instruments. In 1993, I wrote this account of our work together, and an abbreviated version was published around that time in  Piano & Keyboard  magazine, no longer in business. This is the first publication of the unabridged version. A Postscript with updated information about Moog and his family follows the article.—L.F. Read More...

The Bundesverband Klavier (BVK) — the German piano manufacturers’ association — has created a new “Made in Germany” certificate of quality to distinguish pianos that are 100% made in Germany from those that are claimed to be but are not. The BVK hopes that the new certificate will provide more security and clarity for customers, and help the German piano industry better compete with Asian makers of lower-priced pianos. Read More...

SALLY PHILLIPS
Guest Blog The American piano industry voluntarily abandoned ivory as a key-covering material and switched to plastic in the mid-1950s. By the 1980s, European makers had taken the same path. Since then, the piano-manufacturing industry has not been involved in the illegal use or importation of ivory; today, no new pianos contain ivory. Read More...

SALLY PHILLIPS
Guest Blog Update—October 2015 This past summer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its proposed revisions to rules regarding the sale of objects containing ivory in interstate or foreign commerce. Read More...