DOWN BEAT Magazine — June 2001

Essex EGP 161 Grand Piano: Superb Resonance

Steinway & Sons has designed a new line of affordable pianos. Manufactured by Young Chang in South Korea, the Essex line provides pianists with some excellent options at the low end of the mid-price range. During a recent visit to the Beautiful Sound in Burr Ridge, Ill., I played the Essex EGP 161, a 5'3" grand.

Like Boston pianos, also designed by Steinway, the Essex has a soundboard made of solid Sitka spruce, known for its superb resonance. A low-tension scaling system and wide tail on the Essex 161 allows for a bigger soundboard that tapers in different registers, resulting in better projection and longer sustain than instruments with uniformly thick soundboards. The reduced string tension also creates a refreshing full-bodied bass tone in the Essex, which demonstrates none of the over-brightness common among smaller grands.

The EPG 161 has a medium-heavy feel, with enough resistance in the keys to inspire authoritative playing. The keys themselves have a nice surface friction that helps you keep your place on the keyboard using your finger's eye, so to speak.

The Essex boasts numerous other Steinway features: hardwood key buttons, all-wood action parts, beveled flanges, pear-shaped hammers, solid copper-wound bass strings, full sostenuto in grands/soft pedal in uprights, solid brass hardware and longer key length.

One especially cool element of the EGP 161 is its Art Deco styling, a throwback to the Jazz Age. Two other Essex models — the EUP 107 and EUP 111 uprights — feature this same sleek 1920s design. The EGP 161 is available in ebony polish, ebony satin, walnut satin, mahogany polish, mahogany satin, cherry satin, white polish, ivory polish and oak satin. The EUR 111 comes in ebony polish, mahogany polish, cherry, ash, walnut and mahogany. The EUR 107, which Ahmad Jamal used for practice during a week of recent gigs at Chicago's Jazz Showcase, comes in ebony polish only.

by Ed Enright