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I recently had to move my first piano from my sister's house. It was bought in 94-95 . I don't know what the brand is and there is no logo / brand visible. The keyboard lid is empty. There are some Cyrillic letters somewhere, but no other info unfortunately, does anyone have a clue what could be the origin of this piano ?

Thanx

Was it pre-owned when purchased in 1994-95?

No , it came new at the house. So I guess it was manufactured during the early 90's

Just curious - do you live in the USA? I'm assuming no one in the family kept the original sales receipt.

I'm certainly no expert, but in my view when a piano has no identifying brand/make logos/markings that is not a good sign. I have seen some nice looking older pianos that have been refinished and the brand logo on the fallboard was removed, and there was no other identifying, embossed lettering on the inside. I think that happens frequently.

I can't tell what it is based on the pics, but maybe some of the experts here can. It is not a bad looking piano, with a practice pedal.

How does sound and play!

Good luck!

Rick

No I live in Greece, it wasn't uncommon during that era to buy pianos from Eastern Europe . It's difficult to trace back the store it was bought, I'll try my luck if my father remembers anything when i visit him in 2 weeks but I doubt it in his age.

I always thought it had a sign/logo in there , but when I finally opened it's inwards I couldn't find any clue about it's origin. Strange

It actually plays decent Rick , needs some tuning after all this years but it was kept in pretty good condition. It was a nice addition to have here at my studio and have my kids practice as well , we have a clavinova at the house. I can't tell if this is a refurbished piano , I cant see any signs of restoration.

Possible a "Belarus".

Thank you Steve, the name reminds me of something I've heard in the past! I started Googling about it and it could be one of those who knows. I think these are considered to be from trash to mediocre pianos? I remember mine being decent , it's not properly tuned yet to enjoy it.

See photos in this ad for a Belarus upright.

Copy and past the link into your browser.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/384134729429?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338678874&toolid=20006&4236=%26customid%3Ds%253AGS%253Bgc%253A3a1d92aeb013193baac5f3a69bc79333%253Bpt%253A1%253Bchoc%253A1&customid=s%3AGS%3Bgc%3A3a1d92aeb013193baac5f3a69bc79333%3Bpt%3A1%3Bchoc%3A2&msclkid=3a1d92aeb013193baac5f3a69bc79333

The case certainly looks identical to that of your piano - except there is no name on the fallboard on yours.

Yes Carey it does indeed look like mine, does these sell for 120 dollars? WOW

Here's one for $750

https://www.ebay.com/itm/161606425810?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200818143230%26meid%3D4fc99d94538b42c9b7827571a0f9944a%26pid%3D101224%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D124635308043%26itm%3D161606425810%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DDefaultOrganic&_trksid=p2047675.c101224.m-1

And another for $840

https://www.ebay.com/itm/124635308043?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338678874&toolid=20006&4236=%26customid%3Ds%253AGS%253Bgc%253A64ff98a781301f71c099f9afb3543c7e%253Bpt%253A1%253Bchoc%253A1&customid=s%3AGS%3Bgc%3A64ff98a781301f71c099f9afb3543c7e%3Bpt%3A1%3Bchoc%3A2&msclkid=64ff98a781301f71c099f9afb3543c7e

These are all by private sellers - so the price would be less than a dealer. But generally these instruments do not command high prices.

These are typical Soviet made upright pianos. Some of them were actually sold in the UK, and they had names like "Ukrainia" and "Moskva". They were quite close in design to some Petrof pianos of the day, but the build quality was extremely low. There was one in a school where I taught and while it wasn't the worst sounding piano, it was terrible to play. Some of them were imported to the UK and given German sounding names, and perhaps these models did come from the DDR, but they were terrible.

Could be. Or a Zimmermann, perhaps?

The writing on the bottom of the cabinet did look a little like Russian writing.

As for it playing nice, I'd just keep it and enjoy it. Maybe have it tuned at some point.

All the best!

Rick

A design of this piano is more in line with the "UKRAINA" upright piano which did Chernigov in piano factory after 1985. I have often worked with that brand pianos. Most were of very poor quality. They kept the pitch poorly. However, on the iron there is an embossed Russian letter "B", which corresponds to brand "BELARUS",
regards,

here "UKRAINA" simple as your piano, I'm think

Just a quick update,

a piano technician came this morning over the studio . He told me that this is a Russian piano , irrelevant of the brand as most of them were made in the same poor conditions and specs. He mentioned that in many cases pianos like this were made by prisoners with no experience.

As this piano needs a lot of work apart from the tuning to be playable again, it also has 3 broken strings which is a bad sign. He gave me an estimate of 450 euros to tune it and fix the engine but warned me that this is a low quality piano and would have better saved my 230 euros to transport it.
Do you think I should bite the bullet, fix it and possibly sell it, while not certain as this has no resale value whatsoever, or just save for a better quality one, and gift this one as is?

give off it's piano for free ,

and vocational school students too,