🎹C. Bechstein B 212 Concert Grand Piano Review & Demo🎹

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Hi everybody and welcome to another piano review video at the Merriam Pianos YouTube channel. We’ve got a special review for you today as we’ll be doing a deep dive into the piano in our renown recording studio - the C. Bechstein B212.

The B212 is part of Bechstein’s top Masterpiece series. This is a 7 foot piano, fully built by hand in Germany.

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Piano Tone:

Bechstein’s are often described as having an orchestral sound. They consistently have one of the most colorful tonal profiles of any piano manufacturer, and there’s a lot of very specific design/material considerations that contribute to this. The B212 in particular has an amazing amount of color at every possible dynamic level. The amount of highly controlled upper harmonics at every dynamic is staggering.

What are the things that are contributing to this extremely colorful profile? Let’s start with the rim. On many pianos the rim is simply a key structural component, but the pianos of Bechstein’s Masterpiece series are all designed to have rims that go beyond serving as a mere structural component with a focus on cabinet activation. Fazioli is the only other manufacturer this focused on cabinet resonance. Bechstein achieves this through many layers of very precise laminations of different hardwoods, which together are able to extract a wide range of frequencies. These laminations continue around the front of the instrument to create a sort of full perimeter rim, which means it's super easy to get the entire structure resonating, even at low volumes.

Another key feature worth highlighting is the presence of a treble bell on the B212. This is something you’ll also see on larger German Steinways. The treble bell creates more tension on the soundboard to strengthen and maintain the soundboard crown, which results in greater projection.

A third feature we’ll highlight is the presence of a vertically laminated bridge, which is something you’ll only see in a few other elite manufacturer’s such as Hamburg Steinway, Fazioli and Shigeru Kawai. Vertical laminations in the bridge minimize energy loss and frequency bias, which means all of the energy from the strings is transmitted directly to the soundboard.

Ladtly, let's discuss the soundboard which is probably the most interesting thing of all. The soundboards in Bechstein’s masterpiece series are sourced from the Val Di-Fiemme in Italy - the same forrest Stradavarius sourced the wood for his violins. All of the trees harvested are grown at a minimum of 1,000 meters of elevation, which makes for more consistent growth rings. The soundboards are also tapered, and the soundboard planks are connected in a scissor formation, which doubles the surface area of the connection for increased strength. All of these contribute to the wonderfully colorful tone of this instrument.

Piano Action:

The B212 uses Bechstein’s Gold Action. Every B212 takes roughly 15 months and over 500 hours of manufacturing time, and the action regulation makes up a good chunk of this. Bechstein makes all of their own hammers, with specifically designed hammers for every single instrument they build.

The Gold Action could be described as feeling quite light actually, though we’ve weighed the action out and the feeling of lightness is actually an illusion. The perception of lightness is due to how effortless it is to get a super resonant tone even if playing very quietly. The control is wonderful - it’s super easy to voice chords and bring out whatever notes you want.

The repetition speed is fantastic, and it’s a very easy action to control at every dynamic range.

Piano Features:

The B212 comes standard in an ebony polish finish, but it’s available by special order in a huge variety of finishes, with lots of customization options.

Overall, the B212 is without a doubt one of the top 7 foot pianos in the world, and easily one of the best pianos coming out of Germany.

Thank you for watching! Long live the piano!

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