🎹Piano Buying Tips: 10 Common Mistakes People Make When Buying A Piano🎹

0:00 - Intro
1:13 - Opening Playing Demo
1:48 - Used Is Better Value Than New
5:16 - Buying Based On A Discount
8:41 - Underestimating The Piano's Volume
11:26 - Not Measuring Piano Size Correctly
13:21 - Allowing For Acclimatization
16:23 - Not Considering The Mechanical Sounds Of A Silent System
18:39 - Buying Based On A Country's "Sound"
22:52 - Assuming All Grands Are Better Than Uprights
25:21 - Not Considering Uprights Under 48 Inches
28:41 - Shopping Dynamics

#Piano #Shopping #Music

Welcome to the Merriam Pianos YouTube channel. In today’s video, we’ll be highlighting some of the common mistakes people make when purchasing a piano, and what you can do to avoid said mistakes.

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Mistake #1: Assumption that Used is a Better Value than New

There are also many situations when the overall piano marketplace has already factored in the value of new vs used, and the actual street price a new piano can be had for represents an equal or better value than used.

Pianos are really an example of the classic “You get what you pay for” heuristic. A used Yamaha U1 in a certain age category has a particular market price point based on how it performs compared to a new U1 or a used U1 of different age.

All pianos degrade over time, so there’s no such thing as a 20-year-old piano that is as good as a new piano, aside from the extremely rare scenarios.

Mistake #2: Allure of Large Percentage Discount Off of the List Price

This is an old sales technique that stretches across many industries, and the piano industry certainly isn’t immune.

MSRP is dictated solely by the manufacturer and is not measured against any type of objective standard.

There’s almost an inverse relationship between a piano’s reputation for quality vs how high or low the MSRP will be. The better and more established the piano, the closer MSRP will be to the actual street price of a piano. Some instruments actually have no daylight between MSRP and actual street price.

Lesser known and lesser quality brands will often dramatically inflate the MSRP to create an artificial equivalence with more established brands, and to create the illusion of a huge discount between MSRP and street price.

Mistake #3: Do Not Underestimate How Loud a Piano Is

There are a number of times each year when we get a call from a recent customer who was originally thrilled by a piano purchase but is now overwhelmed by how loud the piano sounds in their home.

Whether it’s a neighbor or even family members, people can often underestimate just how loud the piano is going to be in their home.

Be sure to consider the size of the instrument before buying.

Mistake #4: Piano Won’t Fit

This one comes up a lot when folks are looking to place their piano in a basement, or up on the second floor of a home.

We can’t stress this enough, make sure you measure ahead of time. If you’ve got an inch or less of clearance, odds are your walls or the piano might get banged up.

Mistake #5: Acoustic Pianos Need to Acclimate to Their New Environment

Pianos are made of many materials that react to changes in temperature and humidity. When a piano arrives at your home for the first time, it’s going to take some time to settle in and acclimate.

Keys might be sticky or stiff, dampers might be off, and there could be temporary distortion. Certainly, notify your piano dealer if this occurs, but odds are your piano is going to go through something like this before the piano settles in and the issues go away.

Mistake #6: Acoustic Piano Actions Are Loud

With the increasing popularity of silent acoustic pianos, some people are dismayed to find out how loud mechanically an acoustic piano action is once everything else is silenced.

If the expectation is 100% silence, you might be quite disappointed, as there’s just no way around the mechanical noise of an acoustic piano action, so definitely take note of this if you’re looking at a silent piano.

Mistake #7: Don’t Let Preconceived Notions Get in Your Way

Some customers think only a European piano tone will satisfy them when in reality, there’s an incredible amount of variety in the tone of pianos made in Germany for example.

Instead, countries generally have quality standards that most manufacturers adhere to, which is the big determining factor in sound quality.

Mistake #8: Grand Aren’t Automatically Better Than Uprights

There are many instances where the quality of materials and design on an upright will produce a more preferable experience to a grand of the same price.

[adamyohan]

Stu is a great guy. I keep coming back to this channel because of his beautiful playing and his clean presentation of the content.

[stonesurfdog]

This video is a master class in how do a an effective sales pitch. First off he knows his audience, and almost every point he makes, builds rapport with that audience. Each point is concise and tells a compelling story...but most importantly (in terms of maximizing the sale), with just about each and every point he focuses (like a laser) on the "benefits" of spending more money on a piano (in particular new pianos), not less. Beautifully done!

[moonspaceblue]

Stu I couldn't agree more with your last point. I was personally there. My non-piano playing very dominant spouse chose a digital piano over an acoustic one and it never ever resonated with me. After separating the first thing I did was that I sold that digital piano for the acoustic piano of my dreams. This was the best decision I have ever made.

[jamesroseby]

I would like to sincerely thank Stu and his Merriam Music videos that gave my wife and I confidence in selecting a new piano. Even though we are in Australia, we found your videos filled with knowledge and great tips and the comparisons between types and brands insightful and relevant. We made the final choice after my wife sat at that piano for half an hour playing her favourites.We settled on a new mahogany, Japanese made, Kawai K300 upright accoustic for its feel, its sound as well as its size and presentation. My wife is thrilled with the purchase. Thank you again for the help. Please know it has been greatly appreciated. What a tremendous service you provide.👍🙏

[kevinellis]

Every piano buyer should watch this video. This is the most honest video I have ever heard. Great video Stu!!

[MrMoppedheizer]

A VERY important mistake is missing:

"For beginners, an instrument that is as inexpensive as possible is sufficient (perhaps he will soon stop playing and the money will be gone...)"

A beginner needs the best instrument he can afford, only then he will learn to enjoy the music experience!

[komoriszilard]

Very useful advices!
The biggest mistake I made was trying out top-of-the-line pianos, and since then they have been the benchmark... 😆🤭😅

[ApexCommercial]

Stu, you have helped me immensely. If you were closer I would have purchased from you. I ended up buying a Yamaha C2X as a result of one of your videos. I appreciate the 10 common mistakes and they are all so true. Thanks for being a great advisor to the piano community. BTW, you are a great pianist, I wish I could play as well and aspire to become better each day.

[DfyLimitations]

I love how well spoken you are and personable Stu! You provide so much good info and all without any biases. I feel like you give me the information I need to make my own decision, so thank you very much for all the effort you put into these videos!

[edwardyu]

Another great video Stu! Pretty surprised to hear that a grand will be twice as much to achieve the same level of an upright, in a good way. I got an upright new, and from day one, the salesmen told me, it’s a good purchase to begin with but I will eventually want an grand one day! After this video I feel much better to pick an upright, and not feeling I am compromising

[seancregomusic]

It’s great to hear a real pro give the exact same advice I’ve been giving myself for years! The thing about 6’ pianos being the cutoff comes from Steinway a long time ago; they said pianos aren’t really grand pianos until 6’ and longer. This has stuck in people’s minds. Whether or not that was accurate back then is moot as scale and soundboard designs have advanced quite a bit since then. That being said, getting too much shorter than 6’ still has quite a bearing on the sound. While I love my 5’8” PETROF, I definitely feel its shortness sometimes. But, my choices were limited on budget and space.

And spot on about some uprights being better than grands. My Walter upright was better than a lot of grands, but I do like my PETROF grand a lot better (apples and oranges, I suppose).

[furioercolessi]

With respect to the sound made by the piano propagating towards the rest of the house or the neighbors, it may be wise to recall that there are often possibilities to mitigate the problem through acoustic insulation work. Insulation may be rather expensive, so rather than spending the whole budget on the piano it may be wise to stay a little lower and keep aside something to improve the insulation (I am currently going through these considerations myself!)

[Zoco]

When I was younger, I used to feel a little intimidated in a showroom. Instead of focusing entirely on the instruments, I worried about how my playing seemed to the salesmen. I play several different instruments (not just piano) and this happened with each of them.

I'll bet that many customers feel shy and embarassed about playing/testing instruments. I suggest that to break the ice, we should get the salesman to demonstrate one or two models first. Then we can quickly see how short these demos are. Why? Well it's often because the salesman feels he doesn't need to learn the whole piece to demonstrate "x" aspect of a particular instrument's capabilities. Nor do we have to learn a whole piece perfectly to test an instrument. Usually, the salesman will disappear for a while. This is so we can continue trying the instruments without feeling too shy. Let's do that! We can bring sheet music if we like. Minuet in G? Basic boogie blues? Whatever!

I remember trying an instrument in a very sober looking showroom, and feeling stupid because of the jazzy (non classical) thing I was playing. Then I realised that two of the salesmen were humming along with me. Let's enjoy the instruments and forget about who is listening, and lose ourselves in what really matters.

PS If you're trying a digital piano, do bring your own headphones! That's so you can try the pianos without onboard speaker bias (part of the time) and without always being overheard, and you can test the clarity of the headphone signal, all with the headphones you know and trust. One Casio I tried was terrible through headphones. I can only imagine that it had developed a fault in the showroom. It was their last one. I'm glad I didn't buy it!

[Nick-izzo]

Always appreciate these videos, even if I am not currently shopping for a new piano.

I never really realized how loud my piano gets until I tried to play without disturbing my family. When you're on playing at night while kids are asleep, you would swear the piano decides to scream, shout, and imitate a fire alarm, regardless of how quietly you try to play. This lead me to invest in a Roland FP30x (BTW thank you to Stu again for his videos on that instrument!) for night time playing.

I know from watching your other videos you have said that a good upright can be better than a grand, but I was surprised to hear you say the price essentially doubles to go to a grand of equivalent quality. I need to get to a showroom to check this out. You have me very interested in learning more about uprights.

Last comment, another person commented about being intimidated when going to a showroom to try a piano and feeling embarrassed about your playing ability. I admit this has kept me from just stopping in at the showroom near me to just sit down and listen for some of the really great things I have picked up from this channel

[GYS]

I'm glad I checked all these mistakes off when I was shopping for my first acoustic piano. Was hesitating between a Schimmel C121 (upright - 14.000€) or Estonia 168 (grand - 30.000€), eventually chose the Schimmel because it was more reasonable for my level. I loved the feeling and the sound of the Schimmel compared to even a Yamaha U1. It was so great to play on it. Now I'm waiting for the delivery... 3 months to go :(

[davidhamilton]

As a drummer, bassist, and guitarist who is looking to get started in piano/keys, I was very happy to find your channel. This video resonates (hehe) on quite a few levels, and even though my upcoming purchase will be local and most likely a synthesizer, you have covered some very important points.
Muchos gracias!

[stevesmith]

I love these videos. I just bought a Baldwin L 6’3” from the 1930s. I wanted American made and that big Baldwin sound. We absolutely love it.

[MarianoPerez]

The last one is very true. My wife nearly convinced me to get the wrong piano lol. She said just get "the "fancy 80k steinway, go big or go home." But she also ended up liking the Kawai I fell in love with, so it worked itself out 😄.

[tm_swift]

Great video! As a British person, I'm comforted by your interchangeable use of imperial and metric measurements.

[craigallen]

I discovered Stu and his piano videos a week ago. He is fantastic and I love his reviews and his playing skill.