(Source: Allegro Pianos)

Steinway has released a press release announcing that its historically-important Steinway Model O grand piano will be reintroduced this year - replacing the similarly sized Steinway Model L. While the very first Steinway and Sons Model O grand piano was produced more than a century ago in 1902, piano history buffs would recall that it was the very first grand piano to feature the Sketch 380 Sheraton case design, which is now the standard case design for all Steinway grand pianos.

Of course, a century old design does not imply that the internal technology will be similarly ancient. Rest assured that Steinway will be incorporating all the technical advances that have followed since the original production of the Model O in 1902, such as Accelerated Action (1931) and NY Improved Action (1992).

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Well, this isn’t so much guitar or piano related, but I thought this would be interesting. Someone has managed to transform the Guitar Hero controller into a real guitar. Well, a simplified electronic imitation of it at least.

The person responsible for this says, “… this new nerdstrument has distanced itself from a guitar. Strumming is not used to generate tones — fret button presses do this. The strum bar is instead used to change octaves. The controller’s start and select buttons are mapped to cycle through instrument voices.”

Uber. I think.

[News via joystiq]

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Yamaha’s Disklavier-series pianos have been on the forefront of the digital piano world for the past few years. Disklavier-series pianos are hybrid acoustic / digital pianos that offer a range of interactive capabilities - all of which arise from the use of state-of-the-art software. But Yamaha has decided to take the Mark IV Disklavier-series to a higher level (in terms of marketing at least), and have therefore, engaged Elton John in a co-branding venture.

About two weeks back, Yamaha unveiled the Elton John Limited Edition Signature Series Red Piano, based on John’s hit Vegas show, The Red Piano. Well, you might ask what’s so special about this US$60,000 piano. In their press release, Yamaha says this:

The special artist edition of the Mark IV Disklavier is the exact color of the piano that John plays in his Red Piano show and is autographed by the pop icon. In addition, the piano features five exclusive Elton John recordings including “Your Song,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Rocket Man,” “Take Me to the Pilot,” and “Candle in the Wind.” The songs are solo recordings of John singing and playing the piano. Therefore, whoever owns the piano, also gets a private concert. Only an extremely limited number 30 pianos will run in the first edition series and no more than 50 pianos will ever be sold.

Read the whole press release at Yamaha’s official web site.

I’ll leave you to ponder whether this imitation of the Red Piano is really worth US$60,000. Personally, I don’t really dig robotic pianos.

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The Ibanez RG-350 DX is an Ibanez RG-series electric guitar with specs including a Wizard II neck, Edge III bridge, 24 Jumbo frets, Sharktooth Inlay and a bound rosewood finger board. While there are those with negative opinions of the 3XX-series Ibanez guitars, the RG-350 DX is probably one of the best heavy guitars available for the price range it sells at.

For user opinions of the RG-350 DX, check out guitar.about.com’s User Reviews of it. At the time of writing of this post, there are two user reviews of the RG-350 DX there. Both give favourable reviews to the Ibanez RG-350 DX.

Also check out a Jemsite.com forum thread on the Ibanez RG-350 DX. Again, you’ll only see strong praise for the RG-350 DX.

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The Yamaha C110A is the budget Yamaha upright piano. If you are looking for a Yamaha and yet, are not willing to part with too much of your money, the C110A is probably a good choice. Chris Venables Pianos provides a few key factor ratings that might serve as a brief review of the Yamaha C110A. They say that the Yamaha C110A is, “The budget Yamaha upright. For the very low price, this is good value as you are buying into the Yamaha brand.The C110A does deliver very good touch control due to the quality action as used in the next 3 models.”

However, as in all reviews provided by piano merchants, there is a possible lack of impartiality. Therefore, I suggest cross-referencing with a wider set of reviews and testimonials.

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Welcome to GuPiano! Well, that’s zero creativity and zero innovation in blog naming for you. But at least you get what I’ll be posting around here, right?

So, get ready for the best blog-concert you’ll ever see (yeah, right…).