For sale - lovely Pramberger Model JP185 6' 1" grand in Polish Ebony finish with pommele-figured bubinga mahogany music desk, fallboard face, and cheek blocks. Built in 2002 and purchased new locally in November 2004. One owner. Is in excellent condition, inside and out.

Background: Joseph Pramberger, one of the top piano designers and engineers at Steinway & Sons in recent years, who also rose to the position of head of manufacturing at Steinway, was descended from a long dynasty of piano builders, beginning with his ancestor Joseph Johann Pramberger, born in 1779 in Tyrol, Austria. Joseph's father, Anton, also worked at Steinway for 25 years as a pattern maker, designing and perfecting the equipment needed to build the Steinway pianos. Several other members of the Pramberger family had also worked at Steinway, from 1913 on. In 1987, after nearly 30 years at Steinway, Joseph Pramberger left to start his own piano company, Pramberger Piano, Ltd., and in 1995 he partnered with Young Chang of Korea, helping to re-design their piano line. (Young Chang, one of the worlds' largest piano manufacturers, has built pianos for some of the worlds top piano brands, -including in recent years the "Essex" line of pianos for Steinway and Sons.)

The dramatic innovations and improvements that Joseph Pramberger brought to the Young Chang instruments greatly enhanced the tone quality and responsiveness of their pianos, and resulted in Young Chang introducing a new tier of premium quality instruments which they called the Pramberger Series. This culminated in the year 2000 with the launching of Joseph's own piano line, the Pramberger Platinum Series, which were pianos intended to be "World Class" performance pianos, -and to be able to compete with the "best of the best". These Pramberger Platinum pianos were the highest quality performance pianos that Young Chang produced at the time, and were made from 2000 to around 2005. Joseph Pramberger passed away in December of 2003, and his estate subsequently sold the Pramberger name to the Samick Piano Company, also of Korea, who now produces the Pramberger "Platinum" brand. (But Joseph Pramberger's design and patents for the piano remained with Young Chang.)

The Young Chang Pramberger Platinum pianos that were made from 2000 thru 2005 (-which this piano is one of-), were unique in that they featured high quality Renner actions and action parts, made by Renner in Stuttgart, Germany. (Renner actions are usually featured in the highest quality performance pianos made by the world's top piano manufacturers, including Steinway & Sons.) These pianos also featured things like higher quality hammers, and better quality soundboard materials and construction. They were definitely designed and built to be higher end instruments.

The Young Chang Pramberger Platinum pianos, which were made in Korea (which this piano is one of) -were considered by piano technicians and dealers to be of higher quality than the later Samick-built Pramberger series instruments, which were made in Indonesia. Some piano technicians compared the Young Chang Pramberger Platinum grands favorably with pianos like Yamaha's "C" or conservatory series grands, or to Kawai's RX and later GX series grands. Larry Fine, in his Fall 2012 update to his Piano Book, considers the Samick Pramberger Platinum series instruments to be at about the same quality level as Steinway's Kawai-produced "Boston" series instruments, -so the Korean/Young Chang-built Pramberger Platinum instruments (which this one is) would definitely be considered a cut above that.

The case/cabinet is high gloss ebony, with some really striking dark reddish-brown, pommele -figured bubinga mahogany veneers on the fallboard face and the music desk and cheek blocks. Hardware - pedals, casters, locks, etc. are all brass.

This really is a lovely instrument, with a very refined/responsive action, -and a really warm, lush and singing tone quality. Bass is big and impressive. It really does compete well with many of the other high level performance pianos on the market today. If you are looking for a really nice, responsive piano in this price range, well-built and durable, with a great tone quality, and some really quality action parts and hammers, this piano is a great value. It's a 6' 1" (-Steinway Model A size-) so it's definitely big enough, and with a large enough soundboard, and long enough bass strings, to give you a great tone. And at 6' 1", it's definitely substantial enough to be considered a "serious" piano. Similar quality and size new pianos for comparison would be the Boston GP-193, the Albert Weber AW-185, the Kawai GX-3, the Yamaha C3X, and the Baldwin BP-190, with list prices running from around $30,000 to $55,000.

Piano comes with adjustable artist bench with matching finish and padded black upholstered top. Piano has just recently been cleaned, serviced, tuned, regulated, so all it needs is to be taken home and played. Case and finish are in excellent condition, as are all the (internal) tone generating components. Soundboard has excellent crown and no visible problems, no hairline cracks or anything of that nature. It is as pristine as the day it was new. Tuning pins are nice and snug, pinblock is in great shape. Piano is structurally, musically, and cosmetically in excellent condition.

Please contact me (Ken) at email link given, or feel free to to phone or text message me at the phone number given, in order to set up a time to come see and try out this gorgeous instrument.

Asking $9500. or Best Offer.