10 Things To Know Before Buying An Upright Piano

We're discussing the Top 10 things to know before buying an upright piano! Many things can guide your decision on which piano is best for you. Budget or brands can always affect your decision throughout your process. We're going to give y'all some good tools to make the best decision!

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[dvereckis]

I just picked up a "free" piano. I drove 4 1/2 hours each way to go pick it up as I searched online for the best piano under 1000 km and this was an amazing model. The owner was only getting rid of it as he was givin a traditional grand and did not need it. The piano I was given is a 58" tall upright grand made by Haines Bros in 1904 with beautiful birdseye maple cabinet interior and deep brown carved curving exterior. As I live too far north in Manitoba to have any tuning services available to me, I bought a set of tuning tools and downloaded entropy piano tuner onto a laptop with an external corded mic and learnt a new skill. This piano is amazing and I love the history and style of a 1904 piano, in 1904 these 58" Hains pianos cost 2 1/2 times as much as an average house and are truly built to a different standard than todays pianos. I can't play piano myself but I have learnt to fix and tune them so my wife and kids can play and learn.

[sydneyhager]

I am just starting to play the piano. I have been taking lessons for about 3 months. I'm 67 and know nothing about them. Thank you so much for all this information. It answered every question I had about purchasing a piano. THANK YOU!!!

[dragonmama]

Talked so long I had to ditch before getting pricing. Which was why I hooked into this Alamo talky talky guy in the 1st place.

[pianomanic]

I mostly agree with you guys, however, I would say there is a LOT of opportunity to get a junk piano when shopping used, especially if you don't know anything about pianos. The reason your store doesn't get too many junk pianos is because you know what to look for and therefore don't pick up junk pianos.

[cabotcat]

Thank you guys for what you do. Always looking forward to your next video 👍

[katieharper]

Love these videos, guys! I have learned so much from you. Wish I were closer to San Antonio. This video informed me that a small piano I inherited a few years ago is actually a spinet, which explains why it is frustratingly difficult to play. Wish I had seen this video before paying to have it moved to my home. I played many years ago and thought I would take it up again, but did not realize that the action on a spinet would make my aging muscles have to work much harder! No room for a grand, sadly. Am leaning toward digital these days. Action has got to be better than this!

[SoulfulSpinning]

Always so informative. I have a well maintained Baldwin Hamilton from the late 1990’s made in the US. Is it worth anything as a trade in?

[kasparhauser]

Ted in a shirt! Did you shoot this after your wedding? ;-)

[GYS]

I'm interested in buying a new Schimmel C121 Elegance Manhattan Satin Black. Can't find a lot of info about C121 pianos. Do you have any feedback on these? In matte black it looks stunning too. A bit more expensive than a U1 but after having played with both I found the Schimmel way better in feeling and sound... (I'm in Belgium so, close to Germany, buying locally eheh)

[gregsturgill]

On average, how often should an upright piano by tuned? Once a year? Twice a year?

[nydarockk]

Brand new$3500 pearl river eu118 or 1981 $$5000 used U1

[michelprimeau]

Don't touch the spinet. It's not because it's smaller that it cost less for the maintenance. I don't know if there is a lot of technicians that are exited to work on spinet.
As for the console piano (continental without from legs), they have no casters to move it around because they were not stable. So be aware.
A grand for less than 10 000$ ? You have to go in the second hand market. Also, if you go with a silent piano (what an oxymoron!) it's very expensive on a grand.
If the piano doesn't sound great or is not tune at the store, that piano is dead to me. There are no piano store at least than 1 hour drive. I don't know when I'll be back.
All piano are not created equal. That is so true. That's why (for now) I'm not touching to any chinese piano (Palatino, Cristofori, Ritmuller, Pearl River... not even Hailun). We'll see in 10 years. They haven't shown that they can last over time (> 40 years). Yamaha and Kawai shown it. Even Korean piano (Samick and Young Chang) have a hard time to keep up (< 25years). Maybe their higher brand like Knabe or ED Seiler (made in Indonesia) can do it. European piano shown that they can last (Schimmel (not Fridolin), Bechstein, Petrof...). But European Piano are not affordable (> 15000$).
Choosing between the two, I would go with an European upright before a brand new low end grand.

[tlazohtlalia]

Unless you're looking for the pure junk for cinematic and or avant-garde purposes then don't pick a junk piano and go look for one