Hey, i am looking at making a purchase of a young chang miniature upright made in korea, its 15 years old and looks great. does anyone know if this is a good purchase. I know nothing about pianos and want to buy it as a birthday gift for my wife(she played for years until her piano was sold). the asking price is 1800 dollars do you think its a fair price?

Come on guys, someone tell me to either stay away or make the purchase. Please.

Relax. What do you expect - someone to jump to attention for you within 15 minutes of your posting?

We don't know what model of piano nor its condition. Personally I have never heard of Y.C. miniature piano. Your question is a bit like asking if a 2001 Toyota is worth $8000. It could be, but then maybe not.

You need to hire a local technician to look at the piano. If it is really good and you love it, go for it. But at that price it is not a steal, offers such as that should come up regularly.

Thanks for the reply, guess i am a bit anxious.

When you state miniature piano do you mean a small upright with a short keyboard of maybe 3.5 octaves or 5.3 octaves? Or do you mean a small upright piano? Sometimes people use the terms in different ways. A picture would assist with this, but in the end Jurgen’s suggestion is best. Someone who is in the area where you are located would be the best help you could receive.

If it is a miniature piano with a short keyboard $1800.00 is out of line by more than double.

Its a small upright E101 i believe is the model number. It has 85 keys. It says young chang on the fallboard and is made in korea. I am also looking at another which is a be 109 bergmann. i am torn between the two and would like any input to make a smart purchase if i should make any purchase at all or wait for the better deal to come along.

Examples of what I consider to be small uprights are the Baldwin 6000, Heintzman 140CK, Kawai K-8, Steingraeber 138, Steinway K-52, Yamaha YUS5. For me an upright of more reasonable size would be more like 145-152cm (57-60"). (I miss the low bass on my old 57" upright. It blew away every single new piano I have ever played, thanks to its new bass strings, even though the hammers were worn to the core. The two 1950s Hamiltons I now have, while they sound better once you get above about an octave below middle C, just don't have the deep richness in the bass that the big upright had.

Oh... and small grands are ones smaller than the Rubenstein R-371.

Dear 88: no offence, but we have all read your personal preference regarding piano size very many times.

Please, please, give us technicians a break and just consider that you have gotten your point across and it has been taken. No one is argueing with you. Your size posts are really very tiresome after a while, as well as repetitive.
If you feel there is a new person posting here with whom you absolutely NEED to share your size preference, please do it in a PM and spare us.


CEC: I would not consider buying any piano under 108 cm. If the 101 refers to the height in cm, pass on it.

E101 is the entry level Young Chang with 85 note instead of 88. $1800 sound a bit high in price at least in my market area. Yes Jurgen 101 odes refer to the height 101cm.