Is this a good quality piano? Considering buying it online after having a local piano tech take a look at it. they are asking $2700. Everything appears to be in perfect condition.

The YC made Webers can be nice instruments. You didn't say if it was a baby grand or upright, new or used.

However, buying online, sight unseen, is somewhat of a gamble. What if you get it paid-for and delievered and you absolutely hate the sound of it? Or, you could absolutely love the sound and touch... a tough call.

I suppose buying a piano online, sight unseen, is becoming more common, it would be hard for me to do, though I did consider it when I was looking. I just never could bring myself to follow through with it.

Good luck!

Rick

Well I don't play myself thought I definitely am particular about the sound. I like a deep, rich sound. Its been very difficult to track down a good piano at a reasonable cost! The Weber is an upright.

I am also very particular about sound which is why I can't really imagine having someone send me a piano I've never seen or heard.

In my recent shopping I played maybe fifteen or so vertical pianos and half a dozen grands. Some of them it only took a couple minutes to move on knowing the sound no way, no how suited me. Others were worth at least playing several songs on but only a handful of pianos in total were worth really spending a while evaluating.

In the end there were basically two uprights and two grands I would have even considered owning if the price were really attractive. And I ended up buying the only piano out of the 20+ that seemed remotely worth its cost. And here's the thing...every piano I played was in tip-top condition, perfectly in tune (one exception) and was a piano that I would have thought very likely something I'd like.

When you factor in the odds of a worn out, defective, or "lemon" piano someone might send you it just seems like maybe a one on five, one in ten kind of chance at best that you receive one that's worth owning, according to your own taste. I don't care if they're selling it for $2,000 or even $1,000 versus several times that much locally. A thousand bucks for a piano you don't want means taking a huge financial hit even after you invest dozens of hours trying to re-sell it to the next guy.

Back in 2002 Weber pianos were being built by Young Chang in both Korea and China. From everything I've read on the subject, the Chinese built Webers were significantly lower in quality than those built in Korea. The Korean built instruments were of "average" quality - although that could be acceptable for your purposes - assuming the piano is in pristine condition.

You need to get the Serial number off the piano to determine the county of origin. The Chinese built Weber uprights had serial numbers with three digits (i.e., W-109, 108, 121 and 131) while the Korean built uprights had serial numbers with two digits (i.e. WF-41, WC-46, W-48).

You really need to "try out" a piano before buying it. A "deep, rich sound" is hard to find - particularly in an upright.

My rented Sohmer has a fairly "deep, rich" tone but it also had 20+ year old hammers that are hard and grooved so there's a bright overtone component on top of the deepness and richness. I did not find any of them uprights in my shopping that matched that "deep, rich" quality although one was in the ballpark (it was also "quiet" and "muffled" to my ears and "overpriced" in any case).

So I agree with carey that's a tough thing to shop for in uprights, especially older reasonably priced ones that have dodgy hammer felts.

Maybe it would work out better if you let the person who is going to play the piano pick it out. It is really a rather personal choice.

The circumstances you describe do not recommend themselves to me--- personally, I wouldn't do it. Some people say it has worked out for them.

What recourse might you have if this proves unsatisfactory? If the answer is "None,"or "Limited," or "Too Expensive to Bother With," well, those are the chances you take when you spin the Wheel of Fortune.

I can't thank you all enough. I definitely see your points. The players are my kids who are 8 & 12 and have 1 to 2 years experience respectively. They just don't know enough to make a judgement call. I would like to start taking lessons myself, so I'm interested in the tone, but since I can't playing Yankee Doodle yet, I can't say anything about the feel either!

I'm always tempted to recommend renting, assuming your area has good options in that department. When I mentioned to a professional piano player of my acquaintance that I was renting a pretty decent 45" upright piano and how much (little) it was costing per month he was kind of amazed I'd even considered buying one instead!

Around here for even $2,500-$3,000 you're paying the equivalent of five or more years rental fees. And there are very few decent pianos hereabouts for $2,500-$3,000 more likely you're looking at half again that much for a nice new piano and the used ones tend to be less nice than my rental.

Brent,
I wouldn't mind renting to start, but I really do want an instrument that will develop sentimental value for my kids.

The NEW Webers are supposed to have a mellower tone as designed by Del Fandrich. I tried them and I like them a lot, but I don't think they are THAT mellow. Going from bright to mellow, I would rank it like this: Yamaha, Young Chang, Weber, Kawai, Ritmuller (and one day I should spend some more time on Hailuns to stick them somewhere in this scale ).

Since this is a pre-Del Weber, I would expect the tone to be on the brighter side. If you are serious, you really should go hear it in person. It could be brigher than you expect but you could still totally love it (like a nice Young Chang Pramberger, for example).

The NEW Webers, especially Albert Webers, are very nice instruments indeed. Unfortunately OP's model was an older model, I am not too familiar with them.

To follow gnubai's above comment about mellowness of tone - and only for those interested: [no plug intended..]

Gnuboi put Ritmuellers at end of spectrum. However, our experience with Ritmullers is not so much in terms of "mellow" but rather dynamically "rich", even interesting sound. The uprights and grand 170 definitely can get a certain *punch* not unlike some of the traditional German brands.

Near the end of this YouTube presentation, Udo Steingraeber describes his company's involvement and co-operation with these, Pearl River's premium line of pianos, alas all in German....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--toI1tVbS8

Norbert