The Biggest Grand Piano
The biggest grand piano in the world is the Challen Concert Grand. It is 11 feet long and weighs one ton. 
The string tension is over 30 tons. However, some manufacturers are in the process of building a 13 ft long piano, which would be the largest in the world.
Other Piano Sizes
The concert grand is at least 8' 11" while the half concert grand is 7'4" long. The parlour grand is 6'8" long and the drawing room grand is 6'4" long. The professional grand has a length of 6' while the living room grand is 5'10".
Compared with the biggest grand piano, a baby grand piano is only 5’8" long. The upright piano is 51" and up. A vertical piano measures 36" – 51" and the studio 44" or taller. The spinet is 36" to 38".
Other Facts about Pianos
One of the most expensive pianos of all time is the Vicorian Steinway grand piano sold at Christie's Auction House for over a million dollars. The buyer was the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute of Williamstown, Massachusetts.
The average size piano has 230 strings. Every string has 165 lbs of tension for a total of 18 tons. The biggest grand piano as stated earlier, has twice that with a tension of 30 tons. The model D Steinway grand piano weighs 1,400 lbs.
Piano Construction
The working components of a piano alone have over 7,500 parts. All of these parts play a role in making the hammers strike the strings when you hit the keys. To keep the piano in shape, it has to be tuned at least twice yearly. A newly bought piano has to be tuned four times the first year.
Historical Facts about the Piano
Many piano prototypes have appeared through the centuries. But the one with the hammer escapement mechanism was created by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731), an Italian, in 1700.
The word piano is an abbreviation of piano et forte (soft and loud), Cristofori’s name for the instrument. The spinet piano was invented by Samuel Blythe in 1789 in Salem, Massachusetts. The word grand was first applied to pianos back in 1777.
Since the 1900s, over 5,000 companies have manufactured millions of pianos. There are more than 10 million in the US alone. With its ever increasing popularity, expect more pianos to come up and challenge for the title of the world’s biggest grand piano.
