The Vault is only accessible by biometric fingerprint to 4 people at the Steinway factory. Inside the Steinway Vault Have you heard of the Steinway Vault? Deep in the basement of the factory in New York City, the Vault houses just a handful of precious pianos worth between $200,000 and $2,500,000! But you won’t be seeing these on the next public tour. But there are many names of pianos not on this list. Piano Price Point analyzes the pianos from today’s major manufacturers. I’ve been in the piano business for several decades and I am still surprised by the number of piano brands that I’ve never encountered. Historically there are approximately twelve thousand brands of pianos! It is entirely possible to encounter brands that you’ve never heard of before. What is a House Brand Piano? If I would ask you to name 20 brands of pianos, how would you answer? Could you name 5 or possibly 10? Maybe you can easily name 20. The NAMM show has always been a place for displaying new models Parts have been refined, scale designs have become smoother, actions feel more succinct and cabinets, streamlined. While many could argue that pianos don’t really change from year to year, if you pay attention, you’ll find that they’ve changed drastically this last decade. Looking back on the last decade, a lot has changed in the world of piano manufacturing since I started attending the NAMM show (National Association of Music Merchants). NAMM 2020 Trade Show ~ Pianos in Review I suspect in the year 2020, we’re going to be hearing a lot of the phrase “Hindsight is 20/20”.