Want To Get An Upright Piano What Am I Looking For ?

DrBob

We’re looking to get an upright piano for the house, all four of us play musical instruments in some capacity and it feels like a piano is inevitable. 

A cursory glance of Facebook marketplace tells me there are a welter of them out there ranging in price from free to £600 which seems incredible value for the amount of stuff in a piano but what am I looking for ? It strikes me as being similar to those V12 Mercs & BMW’s that are remarkably cheap to buy but break your heart the first time to get them serviced 

axisus

Warning - pianos are bloody loud. If you have neighbours you will probably annoy them. When I play either my sisters upright or my mums baby grand I just have to play with the soft pedal permanently pressed down or it feels conspicuously loud.

I bought a secondhand Clavinova about 5 years ago and it has been bloody brilliant. Play as loud or quiet as you want or just stick headphones in if it's after midnight. 

I know that you don't want a clav, but honestly I could never go back to a noisemaker. You can also change sounds if you want, play to a metronone or (cheesy) backing (but it's still fun!) and send out via midi for recording.

Toms_Dad

Beware of cheap pianos on various sites. When the tuner comes to our house he often relates tales of people who have bought a cheap second hand piano, but the wood has warped under the piano wire tension and it can’t hold tune. 

I would strongly recommend going to a reputable shop, most of whom offer used pianos for sale.
I also agree about the loudness. Think carefully about where you put it. Our house is quite open plan, so when the upright piano is in use it’s impossible to watch the telly.
in your case think about 4 piano practices a night, and what that means for everyone’s viewing habits!
We recently acquired a digital piano for Toms_Brother to take to uni, which of course comes with volume control and a headphone option. Provided you go for 88 weighted keys and 128 note or more polyphony, the playing experience will be very good.

more

As it has been pointed out ,  most of the cheep traditional  Pianos being offered for sale are over a hundred years old, and are no good.  You don't mention a beget , you can buy a new Roland digital piano for around  £1500 upwards  .   Most piano dealers offer part exchange, so will have second hand ones on offer ,I have seen them on Ebay for £500 . 

sweepy

A big +1 for a Clavinova, something like a CLP550 can be had very reasonably, twin pedals and proper keys 

paulmapp8306

If you want a traditional upright,  with decent tone, and in good condition used, go to a retailer.   They ALWAYS have a great election iof used ones from reputable brands.   £4k upwards though....  Under that its cheap junk.  And has been said - there loud and resonant (great if your neighbours can handle the volume).  

If you dont want to spend that much, or be that loud - then an electric Piano - in a traditional upright styling is the way to go.  Kawai or Yamaha and your golden.  The Rolands arnt as good at that "acoustic" sound - there lineage has always been stage pianos (and I love Rolands stage stuff).      I personally love the Kawais - i think the keybed is a notch above Yams - but the yams are great as well.

axisus

Another thing on old pianos - My mums baby grand I just had tuned recently. The guy had to do a relative tuning at a lower pitch as the parts were so old there was a risk of things breaking. If parts had broken (eg a tuning peg snapping off) it would be a big hassle to fix apparently. Worth bearing in mind with older instruments. 

Benm39

If you do decide to purchase a piano rather than a digital instrument,  it's well worth spending a few quid to have it assessed pre purchase by a trusted piano tuner/tech as they can tell you what state it's in...as others have said you can otherwise end up with something that's expensive to put right

Stratavarious

We have a clavinova but the kids will only play the upright grand.  We don’t complain about the noise as they both play great, but an acoustic piano is loud.

Yamaha do some nice uprights. 

Budget for work, tuning, felts, etc. if old… and moving it! 

+1 on going to a piano dealer.

maw4neu

My best mate Steve won one on eBay . . When he finally got it home, and believe me that was a story in itself, it went through his floor in the Front Room . . . As it wasnt my house it was funny . . .  Steve was fucking furious ! ! !  . . . That was a great day but not good for him :-)

ICBM

+1 to all of the above. The reason old uprights are often free to collect is because they're an absolute pig to move - unless you know several strong people who will help you, you'll have to pay someone - and often need expensive repair work, hence are actually worth nothing... or less than nothing.

My parents had what they thought was a not bad one - Edwardian, I can't remember the maker's name, but it was one with a minor reputation - and they had it looked at by an expert who recommended they donate it to a local music school who might be able to overhaul it economically in-house, but that was the sum total value of it.

VimFuego

Having moved several piano's I can attest to the above. Not only are they heavy, but they don't have many places to put your hands and they're fairly fragile (to dropping at least). People were always shocked at how little they got for something that probably cost them x000's 20 odd years ago.

Benm39

Unlike say Violins,  pianos do not get better with age,  they're basically 20tons of tension trying to pull themselves apart from the moment they're 'born'. Unless well maintained they basically just turn into piano shaped objects past a certain point. 

AK99

If you have four current players in the house - chances are all four will get some degree of use out of it in the near term, and one or two may stick with it for a much longer period. If that were the case, there's a stronger argument for paying out a little (or perhaps even a lot) more for a good one- from a proper retailer as suggested.

Electric pianos aren't a bad option - especially ones with full range keyboards, and properly weighted keys. If anybody's contemplating doing some formal Grade exams at some point, you do need those features really once you move beyond the preliminary grades.

If you have your mind set up on a traditional one though, I'd recommend avoiding anything on the cheap and nasty side for all of the reasons outlined above, If you buy a decent one, you'll have something that plays and sounds well, will give you more pleasure every tome you play it (and indeed make you more likely to want to play it) - and will most likely be able to be sold on at a later stage to recover a decent chunk of the initial outlay if required (either through trading up or selling off).

I'd rather cough up more initially on that basis for a good one and factor in depreciation costs, than try to source a cheap / lower-quality one on a low budget. 

thomasw88

I’d find a reputable piano tuner and ask him/her to source you one.

There are some very good pianos out there but as others have said a lot of donkeys as well.

you want one with a metal frame fo sure.

our one was really cheap but is excellent.  It was recommended to me by a piano tuner I know who had tuned it at the auction house.  It’s not a beauty to look at but it sounds and plays great.

A real piano is simply more enjoyable to play rather than a keyboard imo.

exocet

I bought a 2nd hand / refurbished Yamaha Upright about 5 years ago for just under £4k via an online retailer who had a showroom that was open to public upon request. I visited the showroom where they had around 10 pianos - all same model but they all varied in tone / action etc. The price included delivery and tuning after a 2 week "settle in" period. I've had no issues with it since but do have it tuned one a year.

viz

Make sure it’s overstrung and underdamped. 

https://youtu.be/jVxx5m0etRQ

Also, metal frame, not more than 50 years old, and older than 100 I’d really steer away from, proper reputable make, then if you can’t try it out, it’s up to luck really. 

Benm39

This is a worthwhile read if you're contemplating a secondhand piano and don't have a piano tuner/technician who can check an instrument for you pre purchase...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Piano-Book-Buying-Owning-Used/dp/1929145012

A fascinating insight into a very complicated instrument too!

dcg

It may be of no interest, but I have a remarkable Yamaha SU131S on eBay at the moment; far from cheap, but it offers concert piano performance in a handmade 131cms upright...

merlin

Three rulers of buying an upright.

1. Steel frame
2. Overstrung
3. Under-dampened. 

robinbowes

merlin said:

Three rulers of buying an upright.

1. Steel frame
2. Overstrung
3. Under-dampened. 

4. At concert pitch