Any acomplished pianists/techs here?
 

I need help finding and purchasing a piano.

This guy walks into a bar and sits down in front of the bartender. He orders a drink. While waiting for the drink, he reaches into one pocket and pulls out a 7 inch piano. He reaches into another pocket and pulls out a 10 inch man. The 10 inch man goes up to the piano and promptly starts playing. Beautiful music fills the bar.
The bartender goes up to the guy and asks where he got the musician. The guy replied that there was a genie just down the block who would grant just one wish.
The bartender went outside and down the block. There was a huge crowd around the genie. The bartender waited a really long time. Finally, it was his turn. The genie greeted him, "Hello, I am a genie and I will grant you one wish."
The bartender said, "I want a million bucks." All of a sudden, there were a million ducks! They were quacking and following the bartender. The bartender tried to scatter the ducks, but they all came right back.
The bartender went back to the bar, went up the the guy with the miniture piano player, and said, "What a lousy genie. I asked for a million bucks and got a million ducks!"
The guy at the bar looked at the bartender and said, "You don't really believe that I asked for a 10 inch pianist, do you?"

Joking aside, my father has a Yamaha baby grand which is also self playing. It has a MIDI player so you listen to real piano, it's worth checking out.

The large upright Yamaha pianos are wonderful...they produce beautiful sound, are priced slightly below $10,000, and is an excellent piano if you are buying it for children who are gonna be using it for practicing and lessons...another good brand to also consider is Kawai...If you want a grand piano, Yamaha is still great, and if you want something a little more "refined", you can opt for a Steinway...if you want to save some money, try to buy a good used piano...one thing great about used pianos is that the older pianos had keys still made from ivory...the newer models you see in the stores usually have keys made from some calcium compound to mimic ivory...the feel is a little odd...

Make sure you spend a lot of time in the store or at the dealer thoroughly trying out all the pianos you are considering. I practice on a Yamaha upright here at school and while it does have decent sound, it is either loud or very loud and the action isn't very sensitive at all. We have a Steinway baby grand at home and it's great. It has a nice touch, has ivory keys, and, when you open it up, it sounds really great. Make sure you try the one that you take home, no two are made exactly alike.

Kuan, my wife was a piano teacher for quite a few years, and when we were looking to buy another piano a few years ago, in addition to the Yamaha upright we already had, we decided on another Yamaha; a baby grand. There was a bigger sized Kawai that was on sale for about the same price at the store, but, she still liked the sound of the Yamaha. For the price and resale value, its hard to beat a Yamaha. It is not a "player" piano however, and if we were looking to get another paino, the only thing we would do differently is we would get one that was also self playing. Good luck with your piano search, my friend............ :)

The very best thing you can do is purchase (and read!) a copy of "The Piano Book" by Larry Fine. If you are buying a relatively new piano, you should also get the 2003 supplement.

The book will give you enough of an education that you can weed out most of them on your own, then you can hire a tech to look a only the really great ones.

Play all the pianos you can get your hands on. If you've decided on a model, so much the better. Play a bunch of them because they all have different personalities, especially Steinways. Oh, and if you're considering a Steinway, you owe yourself a visit to Steinway hall in New York City. I was able to play about a dozen Model B's (7 foot grand) including I think 8 of them at Steinway Hall before finally finding a truly remarkable one on Long Island.

Mine is a 1973 model with the Teflon action that is supposedly terrible but has never caused a problem for me. The tone is far superior to any of the new ones I played.

Edit: try to find yourself a good tech locally. They often know about good pianos for sale.

Thanks for the replies guys. I flip through Fine's book every now and then at the bookstore. I grew up on a Petrof grand. Gotta love the European sound, didn't like "bad" pinblock which eventually got replace. I'd like to get a grand around Steinway B size. Hell I might even get a "B" if I could find one around here that I liked. So far no luck. But... I heard an Estonia the other day. I'd never heard of Estonias before but apparently they're gaining in popularity. Beautiful separation of voices in the upper registers, good strong fundamental and sustain in the bass, wonderful super straight grained Euro-spruce soundboard. Trouble is, I don't know anyone who owns one. The price frightens me plus the fact that it was made in a former Soviet Republic. Can you actually produce a good piano and sell it for 17k?

My 1995 edition of Larry's book is generally complimentary of the Estonias. Might be worth checking into.

Regarding a Steinway, my teacher searched for one in central Florida for 10 years before she gave up and bought a Baldwin. I decided to go to the source - New York. Found a couple B's for sale in the NYC area through Pianomart. When I called the Steinway factory's restoration department to have a tech go look at one, he told me about the one on Long Island that I ended up buying. If you're going to spend that much money, you might as well invest a few hundred bucks up front to get the opportunity to see a bunch of them.

I don't know much about European models, but the American and Japanese pianos seem to do alright by me.

I'm sure you'll run across this at some point (if it hasn't crossed your mind already), but room placement and environment care can also significantly affect the sound and tuning as well. Stay away from open windows, bright sun, HVAC outlets, etc. Humidity control is important, but also a hassle for most houses.

I've played since I was a kid and along with the synthesizers and sequencers scattered around my studio, I own a Schaefer & Sons baby grand.

I bought it used for $6K some years ago (it was taken as a trade for a baby grand Yamaha player) and although I like the heavy action (I play HARD), the selling point was the lacquered rosewood finish! It's stunning and unusual, goes well with the decor, and I got tired of seeing the shiny black ones in other homes.

Truth is, unless you are a serious musician, you might want to consider a lesser brand other than Steinway, Young Chang, etc. and factor in aesthetics. It's a huge piece of furniture, so when you aren't playing it, it still has to look good.

My neighbor inherited a Steinway upright and spent $19K having it restored. It doesn't look or sound like the effort was well spent, but I guess the bragging rights of owning a Steinway was worth it for him. :rolleyes:

But truthfully, REAL musicians can make ANY piano sound good.

And since I do most of my work in the studio, the piano sat unused for many years...I suspect this is the case in a lot of households.

Fortunately, my daughter has taken up piano, so sounds are now emanating from the "parlor" on a regular basis these days...;)