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Piano Buying Information

If you want some good information on what to look for when buying a piano, have a look at http://www.pianotuner.org.uk/pta2.htm which is the advice given on the Piano Tuners' Association website.

For further discussion once you have absorbed all that, you are very welcome to ring me and ask anything more you may want to know.  The questions are all with you, I will do my best to answer them.

 

Some Recommendations

Consider the following:

A person who has an item for which they have no further use but is a charitable type, may well pass on a piano to Oxfam.  A person who suddenly has a yearning for a piano may well go there to source an instrument “cheap”.  May I suggest, that if you do this because:

1. You are a beginner therefore ‘cheap’ = ‘starter piano’
2. You feel it is good karma to support a charity
3. You have money you have no further use for...

that you exercise your kindness by sending a cheque to Oxfam in the post and don’t go in the shop.

Pianos which end up in there are usually somewhat past their sell-by date and are not going to assist in the furtherance of your trek down the road to Carnegie Hall.  Many will be house clearances, perhaps untouched and mostly un-tuned for many a year, which have sat in a damp or unheated houses, then suddenly are taken into a centrally-heated home and played wildly, heavily, badly, often by small unattended children – it’s a recipe for disaster on several levels.

 

 

A piano is a delicate mechanical instrument which at the outset, should cost a fair bit of money and should therefore be treated as an expensive investment.  Whether you spend only about £1500 on a new Chinese instrument (such as the S.Ritter upright - see my special offer) or several thousand on a lovely new Yamaha, Steingraeber or similar quality piano, it is a large amount to you and as such must therefore be treated with care and affection.

A general rule of thumb when buying, buy the most expensive you can afford.  If you start your child off on a piano from a second-hand junk shop, you can’t expect them to flourish if they have to fight the piano when it comes to practising.  A reconditioned piano can be a less expensive alternative (see piano sales) than a new one, but a new one is more rewarding in terms of feedback plus it will often look much better in the home.  The Yamaha pianos mentioned on my piano sales page are very much in that bracket of ‘ideal purchase’ to give your child – or YOU if you are the player, a good instrument to practise on and the rewards are many.

There is the oft touted phrase of “I only want a cheap one to begin with” which can lead to intense frustration on the player’s part as they have to contend with sloppy actions, keys that don’t play, pitch way below A440 and other things going wrong.  A tuner doesn’t like to hear from the customer saying, “Oh I got a real bargain, from the charity shop” because unless it’s been looked over first by a qualified tuner there’s no telling what history lies behind the top door!  A phone call to the tuner BEFORE you buy, (NOT the piano teacher please) to ask if they will go to look on your behalf, is a very wise move.  I will do this for you for only £15 and it could save you a lot of money and heartache.  I did go recently to view a Bechstein at Oxfam, and it was in terrible condition, so even a well known name can be bonfire material.  That’s worth bearing in mind.