Just pondering...

I'm thinking about putting money aside for a good upright piano as a treat for myself when I (hopefully) hit G5. What I was wondering is, how much would I be looking at for something decent?

I remember the upright I played in my exam sounded lovely, I was quite shocked at the sound considering it was an upright. I have no clue how much something that good quality would cost, however. While I'd love a grand, I doubt I'll have room for one, and also, I think I'd rather have a new car when the time comes than splash *that* much cash on an instrument that I will only use to a fraction of its potential

Also, is there any sort of guide to annual maintenance costs (tuning etc) on acoustic pianos?

We recently bought a Kawai K6. Everyone who has played it says what a lovely piano it is. Even the piano tuner was in raptures about it. (Mind you they must see some tuly terrible ones!) I've noticed the piano teacher spends more time demonstrating since we had it, I think he just loves to play it.

I don't play really, (scraped a pass at grade 3, 30 years ago) so our elder daughter (then aged 13) chose it. I took her to some big piano showrooms and let her loose. I felt it was rather a big responsibility for someone so young, who hates to make decisions, but when we had more or less decided the piano teacher went along and gave his approval before we got our money out.

I spent ages reading piano forums of people discussing different brands and price ranges before going to look at them so that I would at least know which makes were well thought of and what to look for.

About the care, they should be tuned every six months. In fact with a new one that is necessary for the warranty.

Basic maintenance is tuning a couple of times a year - I pay about £50 a time.

I bought a new Grotrian-Steinweg 2-3 years ago - between 6 and 7K. Very pleased with it.

Likewise I decided I didn't have space for a grand - it would have been physically possible but not ideal.

I was thinking of getting a reconditioned Yamaha U3. They're about £6K new but a 30year old reconditioned one is under £2K. I'm not sure now. I'll have to look at the Kawai K6 now I've read this thread.

My thinking is that Grade 5 will probably take a couple of years, so I can budget to split the cost up and start saving now (ie: set up a bank transfer on payday into another account).

I'll probably keep the digital as well for late-night practice

Thanks for all the answers.. one other thing would be, is this sort of like the used car market in that if you want to spend what a new piano would cost, you can get something else a bit older that is superior "performance" wise? I suppose if so, you need to know what you're looking at and any pitfalls...

I have a Kawai BS-20 and is amazing. Personally I don't like Yamahas, but they are nice pianos.

My daughter tried Yamahas and just didn't like it. I know a lot of people love them. The only way is to try them out and see what you like the sound and feel of.

We bought a Kemble upright in January, and it has a lovely tone. Tried a number of Kawai pianos, but didn't get anything like the resonance of this one.

We also tried a Yamaha dealer, and didn't like the sound of any of their pianos.

When we went to a piano dealers, we outlined our requirements (then number 1 son working for Grade 7, number 2 son working towards grade 1 and myself having passed grade 4) and she suggested where we should start within her range. We didn't like the piano she suggested starting at (priced at just over £2K if I remember correctly) and worked upwards along the price range until we came to this one. It cost nearly £5K, but I don't regret it one bit - we're all noticing the difference a decent piano is making.

Tuning is £50 every six months but well worth it - and necessary for the guarantee as has been said earlier.

It may well be possible to get a good second-hand piano, but you definitely need someone who knows pianos to advise you - one reason we went for a new piano was because we don't have the knowledge to decide if a second-hand one would be good value or not.

Start saving - but don't necessarily wait until you've got your Grade 5 to improve your piano, the sooner the better!

I bought a W. Hoffmann less than a year ago for about 4k pounds. I simply connected with it when I tried it in the showroom. I waited for almost half a year before I bought it, because trying out other brands only made me yearn for it even more. It was grossly out of my budget, but I love it, and am looking at it right now.

There were problems which were fixed, and tuning is free for the first year, after which each would cost about 25 pounds. I am happy with it till now, though it has become like a friend that I worry about now and then: Is it too hot for my piano? Is it too dusty? Is it too moist? Will the grasshopper that just flew in breed in my piano? etc.

What I mean is, an acoustic piano will require more care than a digital. An acoustic changes over time. The wood will expand or contract, the hammers wear out, the strings will go off-tune, the pedals would require adjustment, little insects might crawl in, so on and so forth. Be prepared to spend a little more time and money on your acoustic piano, and it will reward you with amazing sessions of wonderful music-making.

The digital piano is very convenient in many ways, but the sound of an acoustic is simply incomparable (OK, digital enthusiasts might beg to differ, but at least my digital cannot compare to my acoustic).

Edit: I forgot to add that the prices mentioned are converted from Singapore dollars. Prices will vary in different countries.

We have a Petrof upright. It has a nice tone and is easy to play (I mean, it doesn't take too much effort to get the keys to sound), but I don't know how much it cost. It gets tuned every 6 months or so, about £50-60 each time.

I practice a lot on U1s and U3s and they are very nice pianos, with a pleasant even touch and an even more pleasant tone - mellower than the Yamaha C series of grand pianos. They are in a different league to the cheaper Yamaha uprights. On the other hand going further up the Yamaha range does not get you much more in terms of touch or sound. I would take a second hand U1 or U3 over most new uprights.

Both U1 and U3 are available with the Yamaha silent system. A friend has a U1S and that is a far better compromise for the aspiring classical pianist than a separate electronic keyboard. The synthesized sound is better, and the action does not simply feel like an acoustic - it is! Al you lose are: subtle pedal effects, the feeling of vibration through the keys, and possble some control over releasing the dampers to end the sound.

We payed £2200 for a Kemble Cambridge 10 about 7/8 years ago. It's very good indeed. Very bright. Would that appeal to you, or would you prefer a more mellow instrument?

Too bright hurts my ears, I think I prefer a mellower sound, but not so mellow that it sounds like the piano is under a duvet

I'm going to start putting a few hundred pounds away each month as of this payday - I'll add that to my "gadget" fund, which I haven't spent any of lately (you know you're getting a bit more mature when you stop spunking loads of money on useless boy's toys!)

That should accumulate nicely over the next year or so and once I move I'll start looking - lots of great suggestions here, at least I have a list of considerations!

Difficult to advise on piano's as i'm ceertainly not an expert. But, i recently bought a secondhand upright. I like the sound alot, as it is mellow, rather than "harsh" sound. If you do a search on the internet it will come up with what to look for in a piano, such as string length etc. I also know that what the piano is biult in make a difference to the sound --- of course. Mine is in rose wood, which is lovely. Also, you may well get more for your money buying secondhand. Mine would have been about 8-9K new, but paid considerable less. But, need to make sure it has been fully restored etc. I also particulary like German piano's, which mine is a Goetze, made in Berlin.

I am on my second piano, the first one I bought was £80 from ebay (cost £80 to move!!) got to grade 3 on that but my tuner said it really wasn't worth tuning when he came to look at it, so he helped me find a better one. I have now had my (George) 'Steck' Piano for over a year and I love it, such a rich beautiful tone. For a few days I had both pianos in my living room and it was amazing how different the sound from each of them was.

I think reconditioned pianos represent very good value for money. Mine was reconditioned 'to order'. This was a make (George Rogers) which was highly recommended by the reconditionner (although I had to wait about a year until he found a suitable one). It cost about £1K in 1981 so you can more than double that for todays prices, but nearly 30 years later it is still a fantastic piano to play and listen to.

I've looked at some new pianos this year, but found many uprights in the £6-7K range were not significantly better. I'm looking at spending some money on it this year to have another partial overhaul, and set it up for another few years. That should take it well past it's century!

Mole