Bluthner was the only maker of the 3 that allowed me to take photos. As Christian said, one can take all the photos one wants, you still won’t be able to build a Bluthner, and he’s right. The factory is a familiar sight of individual craftspeople working on individual pianos, with a mixture of machines for doing various steps, primarily wood working such as planing and trimming. Rim Construction There are, in my mind, 3 unique structural features of the Bluthner. The first is the sectioned inner and outer rim. Bluthner uses a laminated rim, as is common in piano building. To those new to this, laminated simply means layers of red beech glued together in a mold. This is a very familiar and traditional method of making a piano rim. However, instead of being bent all in one piece, they are built in sections and then joined together. The

Wednesday morning was a visit to Bluthner, where Christian Bluthner met us with his customary hospitality. This was the hardest day for my son, who had to endure a number of hours of piano related talk before getting on to the good part, but he was a trooper. I’m not short, Christian is tall!