Bondy Piano

433 West 45th Street,

CLINTON "Hell's Kitchen"

New York, NY 10036

(212) 279-6683

Peter Bondy (owner)

A tiny store run by a man who believes in his product and can prove it. Yamaha, Kawai, Baldwin and more...

The New York City Piano Store Tour

Saturday, February 19, 2000

FOR THOSE OUT THERE IN THE NEW YORK METRO AREA WHO ARE INTERESTED IN BALDWIN, YAMAHA OR KAWAI, I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU TALK TO PETER BONDY FIRST. He'll be your best bet to finding the right piano from these manufacturers and can make them into instruments of real depth and character. His prices are very competitive too.

Well, all good things had to come to an end. Our little piano store tour concluded with our visit to Peter Bondy's shop in the area west of Broadway called "Hell's Kitchen" and now fashionably called "Clinton" by nobody. The Bondy's run two stores, a larger one in Berlin, Germany and this one in New York. Occasionally they bring over something interesting from Europe like this Grotrian Steinweg continental style upright pictured above. As I've said in other places, a continental style has the benefit that they are easy to get in and out from. This one had a wonderful Renner action and was in great prep. It might still be there but I doubt it. He's probably got something else wonderful in there now.

Peter Bondy proved to be a piano technician who likes working on Baldwin, Yamaha and Kawai pianos. He didn't like rebuilt pianos much although he admitted that he'd probably seen more of them that hadn't been rebuilt very well and admitted that there were excellent craftsmen working around town to rebuild pianos. But that's not his real interest. Peter Bondy likes to take a new or recently made piano and bring it up to its top potential. The insides of his pianos are immaculate. He showed me what Yamaha was doing already in response to worldwide demand for a less sharp sounding piano. But even the late model Yamahas could be made into different sounding instruments than they had originally been.

We took a picture of something else Peter had but had already sold, the back end of a Yamaha UX series upright. They don't make them anymore because they were in many respects too expensive for Yamaha to make. He strongly suggested that anyone who wanted a Yamaha upright should look for a UX series piano as they have somewhat mellower tone and a slightly nicer action and set of hammers.

The other thing he had to show us was a nice Baldwin grand that was on its way to a jazz club. I think it was an SF10. This is Peter's kind of work. It was a superb piano exemplifying the Baldwin style; solid, strong, verging on the metallic.

If you are interested in any of these brands and may not want to pay the money some other places want for a fully prepared piano, please contact Peter Bondy. He'll give you the latest information on Yamaha, Baldwin and Kawai pianos.