Schoenbach Grand Piano opinions...

Any opinions on the Schoenbach Grand Piano? My local Brook Mays piano store has a 1-year old used 5'6' Grand in Polished Emory for a decent price (about 1/2 that of a similar Yamaha Grand). I understand that the piano is made in China and obviously isn't a Yamaha, but wondered if people had any information or opinion on the piano. We are buying for Christmas to put in our living room and so that our 7 and 4 year old daughters can begin to learn on it. As an aside, the Brook Mays store gave us a lifetime trade-up promise towards another grand at full paid price and a 5 year guarantee (parts and labor). We have listened to it in the store with the sales person playing on both it and a Yamaha and can't tell much difference, but we aren't professionals either. We did hear a difference between it and the Yamaha uprights that costs about the same or a bit more, which is why we are leaning towards it....

Thanks in advance, Paul Jenkins

As a follow up, I received a few responses on this query via private email and thought I'd share the information...

The Brook Mays store brand of 'Schoenbach' is made by the Beijing Piano Co in China. The piano is actually a 5'8' model, not a 5'6' in my original post. The Beijing Piano Co makes pianos for Wurlitzer in addition to other stores similar to Brook Mays in DFW. I'm not sure what Wurlitzer model they specifically make, but it appears to be the same as the Model C173 (although the specs don't list where each model is made...).

Thanks to all for the private emails related to the pluses and minuses of Chinese made grand pianos. Hopefully I am getting one of the better Chinese makes/models, I guess time will tell...

Thanks, Paul