I am buying a house recently, the owner of the house also want to sell a Suzuki Grand piano to me along with the house.

Although I do need a piano for my 6 year old daughter for piano study, however, I never know that Suzuki also makes piano until I saw this one.

I would like to hear some opinions see if this Suzuki piano is good for beginners for piano study? How much does it worth? and how does it compare to a Yamaha Upright like U3?

Thanks in advance

I think the Suzuki pianos are sold primarily but not exclusively through Costco. They make a few small to medium models. If the piano is under 5' long, you would almost certainly be better off with a good quality new or used studio upright. At 5'+, it's worth going to the next step of evaluation.

To be suitable for a beginner, you should check not only it's condition, but also the evenness of the action and tone. Without a regular dealer for tech help and support, or even guidance for the owners, almost all pianos sold through Costco are under serviced. Without that service, it is very hard to evaluate either its suitability, musicality, or value.

If it does check out, you will be in commanding position to negotiate aggressively with the seller.

Suzuki currently makes grand pianos in the 5'-6' range. They used to have a 7-footer but no longer offer it. Any of these pianos should be new enough not to have major issues unless they are abused.

These are typical entry-level Asian-made grand pianos. On the used market they should be worth a few thousand dollars. (The 7' model sold for about $10K even when it was available.)

Suzuki pianos are not known as being fantastic instruments unless a LOT of prep work is done on them. Even then, they are usually not a lot more than adequate.

Thanks all for the comments.

If this thing wasn't already sitting in the house, I would never consider Suzuki as a choice.

Having said that, if this thing can meet my needs, it would save me a lot of time and hassle to hunt for another piano. I may ask a piano technician to check it out too.

By the way, what was the price when this thing was sold new at Costco? I couldn't find much information about it on google.

Thanks again for all your help.

This surprises me a little. I Googled "Suzuki Pianos" and got lots of hits...

What model/size is the Suzuki baby grand?

The 5'2" Suzuki sells for about $7,500. The 4'10" sells for about $6,500. I didn't see a 6' model, but you can figure it sells for about $8,500 or so. As someone else mentioned, the 7' model used to be advertized for about $10,500.

I actually considered possibly purchasing one of the 7' models back when I was looking for a 7 footer, but I never could find one to look at and try out in person. I find it really difficult to purchase any piano sight unseen and unplayed.

Good luck!

Rick

From the website that i can see (and am looking at), Suzuki offers a 5'1", and a 5'7". The pianos are handcrafted, and use a carbon composite/wood action, Röslau strings, hand wound copper bass strings, spruce soundboard, 16 ply rock hard maple, And German wool felt, wet sand castes plate.

Here's the site that i explored:
http://www.suzukipianos.com/GR-57/

Don't see a seven footer.

I'm not advertising, just giving info that I saw on the webpage.

Thanks for the price information.

They also offer a 48" upright, as a saw a bit later.

The process Sam lays out makes sense to me.

1) check out the size
2) if it's longer than 5', get it inspected
3) if the inspection checks out, make a lowball offer.

It's hard to make general comments about Suzuki piano quality because Suzuki is OEM. They don't make pianos. They contract for pianos and have contracted with different Chinese makers. They shop for a low bid price because low price is what they need to satisfy Costco's requirements, which are more about low unit cost, markup, rate or return, and disposal of returned units than musical potential.

Find out when and when the guy bought the piano and the exact size. Size will help to figure out the source. If it's one sourced from Dongbei, it could have more potential than one from Artfield. I say 'potential' becaus it seems unlikely that that many pianos sold through Costco ever get set up properly.

One thing is clear. The guy doesn't want to keep that piano. You could probably pick it up very cheap if you get past Sam's first two steps.

To all, especially turandot and PianoWorksATL, thanks for the great suggestions!

I'm going to give you the best suggestion IMO.
Don't bother or think in buying a Susuki Piano.
Tell the owner of the house that if it comes with the house fine otherwise let them take it. Your original question about how it compares to a U3? A U3 is a much, much better piano.

Thanks, for your suggestion.

Seems Suzuki is really bad name for Piano.

It depends on who you ask…

The Suzuki baby grand piano left in your new-to-you house by the previous owner may well be a decent starter instrument for your daughter. If you can get it pretty cheap, as has been suggested, it may well be a good piano for your purposes.

Tell the owner you’ve read that the Suzuki piano is a low end entry level instrument and offer them $1K and see what they say. Chances are, in this economy, you got the house at a bargain… maybe you can get the piano at a bargain too.

It’s a shame that some brands of pianos are put to death here on Piano World for little or no reason. They are found guilty of being junk by the accuser who never even sees or plays the instrument. Some acoustic pianos can cost tens of thousands of dollars and then some, and may not necessarily sound and play much better than the Suzuki.

Just my meager .02.

Rick

I tune 1/2 dozen or these pianos on a regular basis. The quality varies, but all had regulation and/or voicing issues out of the box. Cabinet fit issues such as fall board alignment or lid alignment sometimes needs attention. I tuned a 7 footer today, that was a warranty tuning in 2006 and hasn't been tuned since. I yanked it up 60 cents to A=440, but had only tuned a few notes when keys were hanging up on the backchecks on test blows. I made good use of my long screwdriver, gently adjusting backchecks as I tuned. 3 of the notes lift two dampers at once - and the action is a bit too far left. This action is due for a good regulation, (some issues are from day one) but the QRS player system made it play quite well, even with the regulation issues. I suggested a regulation, and another tuning - playing manually is not fun. But....since the player plays ok, I'll bet the regulation will wait, as will the next tuning. Will it be another 5 years? maybe...........

Offer $500 and plan on spending $750 on some action adjustment, pitch raise, tuning, and voicing, and it would be worth it. I wouldn't spend more than $1250 total on this piano.

I've only serviced one Suzuki grand (around 5'), and it was very low quality. Key height was off in a few sections by 1/4", apparently due to balance rail shrinkage. There was no serial number on the piano. Material selection, workmanship, and design were all very low.

And remember, if you buy them at Costco, you have to get three at a time, shrink-wrapped together...

--Cy--