Taking the emotion out of buying a new piano

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

My dad tried to give away their piano and I almost disowned him. I feel ya.

 

I came home from school one day and the piano was gone!

 

In all honesty, I had been taking lessons, then stopped for awhile, because by age 13 or 14 or so when you're the only one you know taking lessons, it gets kind of lonely.... I never intended the respite to be permanent! But my parents apparently made the choice for me because they found someone willing to come in and take the piano away. It was an old upright which had been my mom's, but I never once saw her play it, not one time. Maybe the sight of it around the house made her feel guilty?

[Joe Muscara]

I probably put my wife through hell when I was shopping for my grand. I gave up several times and would end up checking CL again before I knew it. Then I found the Kawai RX-2 that I bought and not only was it in excellent shape (the tech I hired to check it out was not someone I normally would have used because the piano was over an hour away and they didn't want to make the trip), but it was valued at $15k and the guy was asking for < $9k, IOW, he wanted me to pay off the rest of his note and it was mine. It was a miniature of the kind of deal Dave Ferris got.

 

It's been seven years and I still love the thing to death. I think Kawai makes excellent pianos and they're worth checking out. Jim A mentioned Boston, and they're built by Kawai last I checked. They're not exactly the same, but they have similarities. The Boston uses all wood parts because Steinway still won't touch "plastic" anymore. But the action in Kawai pianos are ABS and generally excellent.

 

My point in bringing up the story is to say that piano shopping can be a bit of work, especially if you're including used pianos from individuals. I travelled all over the Houston area and beyond to check out different ones. Be patient.

 

I'm wondering if there's any way you can keep that upright somewhere. It might look good in one part of the house while you put the grand where you need it.

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

 

As far as looking for a new piano, here are three words of advice. Avoid Pearl River.

 

 

Not the best eh? Too funny.... The only experience I've had with Pearl River is the one I play at the nursing home... I play it, and one of the residents plays it, and occasionally (pre-virus) they'd have a visitor come in and play it (and he's really good) but somehow every time I sit down and try to play it, there's a key stuck! Not always the same one either. Hardly a confidence builder! Makes me wonder what kind of abuse the other residents are heaping on this thing.

[danstein]

"I could practice on the 100 year old upright but at this point I kind of need a grand piano to get to the next level"

 

This is the key phrase (pun intended LOL). Once you reach a certain level (particularly in terms of classical piano or anything requiring extreme precision of touch/expression) there is a significant difference between the action of any upright - no matter how good - and a decent grand piano. There are mechanical differences, not to mention the physics of an action that moves parallel to gravity (upright) vs perpendicular (grand). A properly regulated grand action gives you a degree of control and expressiveness that even the best upright just can't match. It sounds like you have reached - or would like to reach - that level, and I applaud and encourage your decision to become a grand piano owner.

 

I agree with the previous poster who talked about developing a relationship with your instrument. As keyboard players, we often have to accept sub-par instruments in many situations - gigging on crappy synth-action keyboards, out-of-tune bar pianos, busted wheezy organs, etc. There can be a certain satisfaction in learning to work with what's available, but having a treasured and well-loved instrument at home and being able to spend time learning it in a deep and intimate way is a great thing, and it can really deepen your love and understanding of music to build that relationship.

[Outkaster]

As a follow up to this thread I purchased a G3 Yamaha Grand piano from a couple that are moving this spring out of town. They work at the university campus I am part of and I got it for a steal. They gave me three grand off their asking price which was nice and it didn't cost that much to move as I thought it would initially. They were the original owners and the woman was a classical pianist and quit to have kids apparently. I just got it tuned and it blows any keyboard away I have ever owned.