Son's piano teacher has said that our current acoustic piano (a Kemble Minx which has had a hard life) is starting to hold up his progress, so we are looking to replace with something better.

I personally favour an acoustic (piano teacher has recommended Yamaha U3 series), but am not particularly familiar with the modern digitals and how they feel / perform versus an acoustic, and my dad (who loves to shove his oar in , and is a huge fan of anything electronic) keeps badgering me with info about Clavinovas and how they are "indistinguishable" from an acoustic etc etc (I should say that my dad can't play piano at all, so I am naturally sceptical about his input!)

Does anyone who is a decent pianist (ie better than me - I gave up after Grade 4! ) and who has experience of playing both a good quality digital and a good quality acoustic have any views one way or the other?

All opinions gratefully received! It's a lot of money to spend (whichever way we go), so it would be really helpful to have input from those with more experience and discernment than I have.

Thanks!

Good Morning - Definitely go for an accoustic. I have an accoustic and a reasonable digital and there is a big difference between the two with regards touch. According to a previous teacher of mine who taught at one of the Yamaha centres volume control on a digital is dependent on how fast you press the key, not on how hard you hit it. Consequently you will not get the range of touch and control with a digital that you can with an accoustic. You also get a much fuller sound with an accoustic.

When we were looking for ours I spent a while trawling through specialist piano forums, where the merits of the various types were discussed at length. I'm a similar level to you piano wise (or lower), so didn't feel qualified to choose, but after a few hours reading discussions of the relative merits of one make against another I at least felt that I had some idea what questions I should be asking and what to make sure my daughter looked for when playing them. We went for a Kawai K6 in the end as she far preferred it to the Yamahas, but it's a matter of personal preference. Find somewhere that has several makes in stock, so that your son can try them in direct comparison and go from one to another and back again. Also make sure he takes a variety of music with him so that he can try different things. It's a big decision, so well worth travelling to find a big piano store with plenty of choice.

I'd be inclined to go for an acoustic in your position. You seem prepared for the financial outlay and already have the space allocated.
I will defend digitals where space is a problem or the neighbours cantankerous (headphones, volume controls etc)- I am sure they are perfectly adequate up to diploma levels, but by then junior will start grumbling and wanting something more akin to his teacher's instrument.

Having said that, junior might have his head turned by all the technical wizardry available with a digital, once he has tried a couple and listened to the salesperson's pitch.

If you want to become a pianist - especially a classical pianist - then Acoustic is better. I use both - but differently.

Touch is still noticeably different than the best imitations, you can control the release of the dampers (not modelled on any electic piano I know) and you can create a far greater variety of sounds by the way you "attack"the key. There is a particular way of playing a sharp staccato that creates a sound you just cannot get on a digital. You have a Una corda pedal, and you can feel vibration through the keys. Biggest difference is in the damper pedal. You get genuine sympathetic vibration of other strings. On most digitals the pedal merely sustains the actual notes that are pressed. Also most digitals do not emulate most of the advanced pedalling techniques that you can use on an acoustic. These include "clearing the treble", half or quarter pedalling, flutter pedalling, rapid dimintion of a chord volume, followed by re-taking notes silently.

The differences are more important for music from the late Classical period and later, less so for early classical and baroque.

Advantages of digital are - always in tune, possibility of turning volume down or playing with headphones, portable, built in metronome, built in recorder for instant feedback, and probably cheaper than a good acoustic.

The U3 is a good recommendation. Also the U1 is very similar in sound and quality, but a bit smaller and less expensive. They both have a pleasant, if slightly light, action, and an attractive sound. [ I do most of my practice (>50%) on U1s and U3s, and most of the rest split between Yamaha grands, cheaper Yamah uprights and a Yamaha P80 digital. ]

Both of them are avaiable with Yamaha's "Silent" option (U3S, U1S) that stops the hammers from hitting the strings and puts a synthesized tone out over the headphones. It is not really silent - the keyboard itself makes a clatter that will disturb anyone in the same room - but it protects the neighbours.

Wot Mad Tom says.

From a completely emotional point of view...I cannot express the joy I felt when my lovely U1 turned up. I never touched my digital again.

You haven't said your sons grade level but I guessing - because the music teacher is recommending you spend about £2.5k on a piano - that he is moving into the higher grades. In that league, I don't think I'd consider any digital unless there was a problem with practice annoying neighbours, or others in the house - and then I would investigate a silent acoustic!

If you can afford, and have space for an accoustic, go for that. When I was looking for a digital piano for my daughter's so they could have something to play on while I was teaching I tried alot of digitals, and it really was a case of not what I liked the most, but what irritated me the least, and the amount of money for the various machines was an added grievance.

He has gone to Grade 4 within a year of starting piano lessons. I'd been hoping our old piano would last him a bit longer - but his rate of progress has about matched its rate of decline, and it is really starting to be a problem (eg sticking keys, limited dynamic range - a problem with most compacts, as I now know from researching the question).

Just to add to my previous post, Yamaha U3 and U1 are well made and can stay in good shape for a long time (unlike some Yamaha uprights lower down the price range) so a second hand one saves a fortune over the new price. There could be an excellent deal if you can find a lightly used example that is not too many years old.

To avoid are really old ones (from the 70's and early 80's - unless they have been properly re-conditioned and/or very well cared for) and recent models that have been hammered for 12 hours a day in a music school or conservatoire.

I only have a digital piano, but would kill for an acoustic. My friends is beautiful to play. I can definitely feel and hear a difference. Shame I can't get one...neighbors in the flat below

A C O U S T I C


No brainer. Shop around. Ask your tuner - he/she may know of some bargains. Enjoy the hunt!

I have an acoustic and a digital piano and you can 'feel' the sound on the acoustic whereas the digital sound is rather sterile IMHO

I wouldn't go as far as to say that.

Had a look in our music shop and plonked a few acoustics and have to say I wouldn't have had any of them as a gift - not even the shiny Kawai in the window (I have played a nice Kawai at the exam centre in Headingley, before anyone jumps on me, pity the piano in the recital room wasn't as nice!)

I shall hang on to my old faithful Akai digital until I meet my personal Holy Grail - beams will pour down on it from the sky and angelic choirs will sing and the Akai will go phut after many years of very good service.

Hope you find a satisfactory instrument, but do take time over it.

Thanks to all posters for their input, especially Mad Tom (detail like the material you gave about the pedalling is really useful: much appreciated). We will stick with our hunt for a suitable acoustic - likely to be a reconditioned Yamaha U3 if we can find one which seems to have been well cared for.

Many thanks again!

Glad you've decided on acoustic. Hope you find a decent Yamaha - I've still got mine from about 1978 and it must have been lovingly cared for (!) because it's still going strong - the really bottom notes are just getting a bit muddy now (piano tuner keeps telling me: he thinks I might buy a new Yamaha from him, but we need to research pianos a bit more widely than that.)

Just an update with thanks again to those who posted previously. Have found and bought a mid 1970s Yamaha U3 which has been fully reconditioned and from playing and poking around inside it seems to be in excellent shape. Delivery on Saturday - can't wait !!

As an aside, I can thoroughly recommend that anyone who is wanting to explore the second-hand piano market gets hold of a copy of "The Piano Book" by Larry Fine and reads it in detail beforehand. For anyone not familiar with the book, he has a checklist which you can use to suss out whether there are likely to be any really significant problems with the instrument, and whilst it won't make you into an expert, I know I felt a lot more confident in deciding between the various instruments on offer, and certainly I felt that my assessment was more objective and less likely to be swayed by superficial matters.

Glad you found something suitable; hope Junior has many happy hours on it and comes on apace.

I've never played the type you mention but others on here seem to have found them highly satisfactory.