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Music is a journey. And every journey begins with a single step.
Ritmüller has committed to building the world’s best pianos on every level. When you shop for a piano, consider how much every Ritmüller has to offer.
While many pianos are now made in facilities foreign to their headquarters, Ritmüller has for our entire history controlled every step of the manufacturing process, from the selection of woods, to the crafting of actions, soundboards, wet sand-cast plates, and every other integral part of the piano. This control ensures a consistently high quality piano true to the exact scale-design.
While others often use less costly woods “select hardwoods” in their “consumer grade” pianos,
Ritmüller uses only the best woods for each application in every piano we make.
Our Grand Piano rims are made from Walnut, a dense hardwood that allows for our lower tension scale design. Lower tension scale design results in a warmer, richer tone with longer sustain, and is used in the world’s finest pianos. Our bridges and pin-blocks are crafted from Rock Maple, and our tapered soundboards are created from close grained, high quality northern Spruce (100%). The use of high quality woods is critical when making high quality musical instruments.
Ritmüller takes pride in using state-of-the-art kilns to dry our woods. However, there is much more to “seasoning” woods than that. Both before and after the kiln drying, woods are expertly cured to specific moisture contents, which reduces the natural tendency for wood to swell and contract with humidity fluctuation. With over 8,000 moving parts, a piano’s woods must be “seasoned” to ensure reliability wherever the piano ends up living!
The plate is a foundation of a piano, the strength that supports the incredible tension placed on the instrument by its strings. Ritmüller uses high-quality “pig iron” which is melted in foundries and poured in wet sand molds. We use this method for every piano we make.
Wet Sand Cast plates provide more mass for strength, and do not produce undesirable harmonic feedback like “vacuum processed” plates. Wet sand cast plates are used in the world’s finest pianos.
The soundboard of a piano is its voice. The careful selection of wood and the design of each piano’s soundboard are crucial in creating a piano’s tone. Ritmüller’s 100% close-grained spruce soundboards are tapered, allowing improved flexibility. The freedom of movement from our tapered soundboards provides for greater dynamic range and improved sustain.
Ritmüller pianos use “cut-thread” tuning pins, a superior method to “stamping” the thread as some manufacturers do. “Cut-thread” tuning pins provide more precision and control to the technician, allowing for a better and longer lasting tuning.
Before the final completion of the instruments, our pianos are carefully checked for quality and sound by specialists. No instrument is allowed to leave the factory without these quality checks.
Our finish is applied using a patented “Static UV Application” process, which gives our pianos a more durable and fade-resistant topcoat.
