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Q. How can I find out the age and value of a used piano? What piano should I buy and how much will it cost?
A. Purchase Tips for New and Used
- New Pianos -
A new piano can cost anywhere from $2000 for an inexpensive starter upright to over $80,000 for a Steinway concert grand. Thus, a piano purchase constitutes a major investment and should be done with care and as much preparation as you can do. Unfortunately, just as in car showrooms, many salespersons in piano showrooms are not knowledgeable as you may need them to be and will sometimes try to steer you in the direction that leads to the largest commission for them. Your best defense in this situation is preparation and knowledge. It may well be worth your money to pay a piano technician to go with you to the showroom to help you evaluate the choices and prices. Investigate carefully the seller's warranty and ability to back the warranty locally. Check if you can "trade-up" a starter piano for full credit later on a better piano. Find out if you can return the piano to the seller for a full refund if you find the piano doesn't work for your needs after you get it home. Consider both the space you have available and the acoustics of the room you plan to place the piano in. A bright-sounding piano might be great for a heavily carpeted and curtained room, but sound terrible in an acoustically brighter room. An excellent and relatively inexpensive book that the new or used piano buyer should consult is Larry Fine's The Piano Book. Person Music has an excellent "Dealing with Dealers" page that talks about some of the marketing tricks you should watch out for when you buy a piano.
- Used Pianos -
Grand Pianos: It is worth the extra time and effort to seek a grand piano made prior to World War II, and, if it has not been reconditioned/rebuilt, have this done be a qualified and known company. Brand names to look for: Steinway, Mason and Hamlin, Baldwin, Chickering. A good place to start looking for the older pianos is by contacting reputable dealers in pianos and making your desires known or consistently looking in the newspapers for these pianos. In addition, estate sales can be a good source of piano treasures. A rebuilt classic piano is generally substantially cheaper than a brand new piano and, if properly rebuilt, the rebuilt piano may well be a best instrument for you considering cost versus say a digital solution. Rebuilt pianos of name manufacturers like those above have been increasing in value at as much as 50% per year recently, so they represent a good financial, as well as musical, investment.
Smaller pianos: Brand names we would recommend looking at include the above-mentioned pianos as well as Walters, Sohmer, Boston. When purchasing a piano through a newspaper ad or other private parties, it would be worth your while before making any final purchase to get a technician to look at the piano, especially the guts of the instrument: the pinblock, soundboard, strings, felts, pedals, etc. A piano that might look like a dream might need some major work done. If you are looking to play it immediately, then you would need to keep looking.
A good piano technician is a great source of information when considering buying a used or new piano. Consulting a technican before a sizeable purchase is advised.
Piano Costs:
Another great source of information on piano costs is Larry Fine’s Supplement to The Piano Book. Supplies prices for most piano brands and models, as well as advice on how to estimate actual street prices, this an annual supplement to the ‘The Piano Book’. For those in the market for a new or used piano, this supplement is a great resource.
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Q. Can a digital keyboard serve in place of an acoustic piano?
A. In a word no. To capture, as much of the acoustical piano feel as possible, we suggest, in the ideal situation, a digital keyboard with the full 88 touch-sensitive keys and at least the damper pedal. Expect to pay $500 - $1000 or more for a keyboard of this type. Such a keyboard could reasonably be expected to satisfy your needs for the first year of lessons. Keep in mind that you can get an inexpensive starter acoustic piano for about $2000, so your decision to purchase an expensive digital keyboard should be based more on its ability to be interfaced to a computer than the money you might save in the short term. In the end, you will find that a digital keyboard is an adjunct to, rather than a substitute for, an acoustic piano.
If you are not sure of your or your children's level of interest in learning to play, or you want to try piano training software on your computer, or you simply don't want to spend a lot of money, a smaller, more inexpensive keyboard can suffice for a few months. These keyboards can be purchased for under $200. Typically, they will have 4 or 5 octaves (about half a full keyboard) and may or may not be touch sensitive. Some will have a rudimentary damper pedal. If you are considering this kind of keyboard, make sure that it is "MIDI compatible" and that it has MIDI in and MIDI out ports on the back, or alternatively, a single port for connection to the MIDI port of your sound card.
In addition, remember you can always save money by buying used keyboards.
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