Baldwin Model L

About the Baldwin Model L

At 6'3" (75 inches long, 58 inches wide, 39 inches tall), the Model L sits at a sweet spot in grand piano sizing: large enough for a genuinely rich, resonant tone with powerful bass, compact enough to fit in most serious home setups. It's built around a solid spruce soundboard, sturdy rim construction and hand-notched bridgework, with an 88-key action finished in ebony sharps and white pyralin keys. As part of Baldwin's Artist series, it was manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, for most of its production history - Baldwin's own manufacturing moved to China only after the company's 2008 bankruptcy, well after the Model L had already built its reputation.

Where to buy

• Reverb Baldwin Model L Grand Piano Ebony Black Free In-Home Delivery 7.449 EUR Best price View details

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Sound character of the Baldwin Model L

The combination of a solid spruce soundboard, sturdy rim and hand-notched bridgework produces a magnificently rich, powerful tone with a warm "American" character and thunderous bass response - a sound profile that has made the Model L a particular favorite among jazz pianists.

What owners of the Baldwin Model L say

Sentiment among teachers, technicians and jazz players is strongly favorable, built around the Model L's rich, powerful tone and smooth action - qualities repeatedly described as matching or exceeding a similarly sized Steinway from comparable eras. The one honest caveat that surfaces consistently is era-dependent quality: pre-1980 production, especially from the 1970s, draws the most enthusiastic praise, while later Baldwin output is treated more cautiously following documented quality-control problems at the company. That nuance matters more for this piano than for most - the Model L name alone doesn't guarantee the same instrument across every decade it was built.

Playability & handling of the Baldwin Model L

Teachers and professionals have long valued the Model L for smooth action paired with a warm, distinctly "American" tone, which helped make it one of Baldwin's most successful designs and a common sight in serious teaching studios and music schools. Multiple piano-trade sources note that a well-built Baldwin grand could genuinely outperform a comparably sized, similarly aged Steinway in tone and response - a notable claim given Steinway's reputation - though that held true mainly up through around 1980, after which quality control issues and design changes at Baldwin took some shine off later production. 1970s-built Model L grands specifically are singled out as still being very fine instruments, and Del Fandrich, who served as Baldwin's Director of Research & Development in the 1980s, is on record naming the Model L his personal favorite among the company's designs.

Recommended accessories & strings for the Baldwin Model L

As a high-end acoustic grand, the main ongoing requirement is professional tuning and stable room humidity to protect the soundboard and action long-term. Given the quality variation across production decades, a used example is worth having checked by a qualified technician before purchase, with particular attention to the action and soundboard condition.

Technical data for the Baldwin Model L

Price history for the Baldwin Model L

Cheapest seen: 7.449 EUR  ·  Most expensive seen: 7.449 EUR

The history of the Baldwin Model L

Baldwin's Model L sits above the Model M in the brand's range, commonly used in university teaching studios and smaller concert venues.

About Baldwin as a manufacturer

Dwight Hamilton Baldwin, a reed-organ and violin teacher, opened a music store in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1862 and began dealing Decker Brothers pianos the same year; in 1866 he hired Lucien Wulsin as a clerk, who eventually became a partner in what was then known as D.H. Baldwin & Company. By the 1890s the firm had grown into the largest piano dealer in the Midwest. In 1889-90, Baldwin set out to build "the best piano that could be built," forming the Baldwin Piano Company alongside a reed-organ venture, and with inventor John Warren Macy produced its first piano in 1891 and its first grand in 1895. By 1913 the company was exporting to 32 countries with retail operations across major US cities. Baldwin survived two bankruptcies and kept manufacturing in the US until 2008, after which new Baldwin pianos shifted to Chinese production under a different design - meaning a Model L from the brand's stronger decades reflects an entirely different manufacturing era than a current new Baldwin.