Hello everyone,

I'm from the Boston area, and by the summer time, I hope to have a piano budget of about $10,000. I'm aiming to get a used, small/medium grand piano. Does anyone have any experiences about buying small/medium grand pianos with this kind of budget? I've tried out several instruments that fit this type, and have been surprisingly disappointed (mostly Hardman, Young Chang, Kawai). I play about 2 hours/day on average, currently playing on a Samick console which I am quickly outgrowing. Haydn sonatas are a bit demanding on a sluggish console! Any help greatly appreciated!

p.s. - sorry if this is an old topic, I'm a forum newbie.

-kdr152004

People here seem to like the Hailun grands. I don't know prices in your area, but in mine a new hailun 5' grand costs $9k

I purchased my piano (Ritmuller GH170R) for 10k in Oct 2010 in NC. There were several good options in that range, then; however, I felt the Rit was substantially better than anything else I could find in that price range. Still love it. However, I'm also told the 10k price I paid was 20-40% lower than what most dealers will sell the same piano for.

I'd also note there are some excellent uprights under 10k, if you're willing to consider them.

Do a search at Pianomart.com

You can choose your upper price limit and geographic location. Then arrange the list in descending order by year. If you can find a piano 5-10 years old it can be as good as new(although you need to have it inspected) and save you a significant amount over new because the biggest drop for price for used pianos occurs at the beginning.

Also, contact as many piano techs as you can because they are often aware of some piano for sale.

I would try to get one little bigger than 5'.

Yes, recent piano used might be the best bang for the dollar.

Piano stores in the Boston area are few.

Willing to travel a bit? Ct? RI? NY?

Watch the sales area here on PW, PM as suggested above, and Craigslist. Ask your local techs if they know of any, etc.

BTW, many of us started our search at $10,000. Many of us then spent more!

I scoured every "For Sale" list that I could find on the internet, and I got myself a 5 year old Estonia 168, hardly played, for $6000. Patience and perseverance always pay off.

I am not an expert pianist but when I was looking for a grand I tried several brands including Kawai (RX Blak), Yamaha (mostly C series), Schimmel, and even a few Steinways. Then I saw an ad on Craigslist for a Young Chang Pramberger JP series. I tried a JP-228 first then settled for a 2002 JP-208 (6’10”; never used). I paid 6.6K for it (delivered). Well, it is not a Schimmel and surely not a Stainway, but after a good tuning and some minor adjustments I think it rivals all Yamahas and Kawais I have tried.

It took me 1 month to find a good deal on my new car and about 3 months of pretty intensive research to find my piano (just to put things in perspective). To echo ChatNoir “patience and perseverance always pay off”. Do not settle for anything less than what you really like. Good luck!

thanks, i think i am gonna spend less time on the forum, and more time in piano stores, trying out potential instruments.

US$10k will most definitely get you something more than just decent. I got my Atlas AG-5 for RM14500 (about US$4815) and it's one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Of course, mine was a sudden find. I wasn't even really looking for a piano at the time. I just saw an ad in the newspapers advertising a RM10k Yamaha Baby Grand one day and decided that I might as well take a look at it since the size was just about right for my dad's new house. (5ft 8 inches) When I played it though... Ugh, it sounded so horrible I wanted to tear my ears off so I would never have to hear it again.

It just so happened that this dusty old 6ft 1 inch Atlas grand was sitting exactly opposite of it. I was a bit doubtful that it would live up to my expectations at first. I never even knew a brand called Atlas actually existed until that day but the shop owner recommended it so I gave it a shot.

And that's how I found the "one". Granted, it was 30yrs old and the sustain is not so great in the keys F through C of the highest octave but the rest of it was amazing. None of the other grands in the shop could compare with it. In fact, none of the grands I have ever played could hold a candle to it. I nearly cried when I first played it. It had a much sweeter tone than any of the Yamahas or Kawais I have ever heard. I also fell in love with the bass immediately. The keys are slightly weightier than those of a Yamaha of similar size but sluggish would be the last word I would ever use to describe it. I'm learning to play Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody on it and it's giving me no problems. The fact that it was made is Hamamatsu, Japan also managed to score points with dad. You know, national pride and all that...

Dad and I knew that if we bought it immediately without even doing any market research, mum would skin us and paint the walls with our innards so we told the shop owner to hold on to it for a day or two. That night we spent hours searching for anything we could find on the brand Atlas. This site was a big help. Most of what we found was from here. I also went to a Yamaha showroom that same evening to try out their grands. The pianos closest in size to the Atlas had nothing on it but cost RM72900 something (about US$24210). Made sense to get the Atlas. We went back to the shop the next morning and made the first payment. Mum was pretty angry at first but we've managed to bring her around. Even my usually "too-busy-for-things-as-like-music" dad loves it so much he's thinking of taking piano classes.

Sorry for being so long-winded. Now, I don't know whether you'll be able to find one in Boston since Atlas apparently didn't make a lot of grands, but on the off-chance that you do, think, really think about it.

I would start always checking the used market in dealerships.. being open minded to Baldwins, Yamahas, kawaiis... be open minded to the new Asian instruments. I'd move beyond the 5 foot parameter.. try to find something over 5' 6"... i particularly like Baldwins (used) in that price range.

way to go ChatNoir.. you are very lucky.

There's a 5'5" piano that you can get with either Baldwin or Hallet, Davis nameplate (same piano from the Dongbei factory) for in the neighborhood of $6,000-$7,000 new and an 6' 1" version of the same piano for maybe $7,000-$7,500 or so, if not even less. I would class those as comfortably within the "decent" range. In fact the 5'5" version is what we purchased recently and I like it a lot.

I also considered an older (1978-ish) Yamaha 5'8" that had been completely refurbished with new hammers and some action parts replaced. It was around half your budget and except for being a bit older than I was comfortable with it was easily "decent". In fact I liked the action and feel of it very much (the Yamaha tone was not exactly to my liking, though).

So with $10,000 to spend you can definitely get what I'd called decent in a new piano and with some luck and patient shopping $10,000 will buy you a boatload of tone and quality if you're willing to go used.

I agree with Brent H. You can buy a nice grand/baby-grand piano with a $10K or less budget, if you look hard enough and long enough.

Of course, the shopping itself can be fun and frustrating...

Good luck.

Rick

Reading Issues, I like the long stories like that. As of now, my plans are to visit piano dealerships for new Boston, Kawai, and Yamaha uprights, and to also search for used grands, the bigger the better.

I got a very nice piano for a little bit more than 10k but it's quite an endeavor. Considered all kinds of pianos from upright to baby grand, new to pre-owned, Japanese, American to Euporean and finally determined to get a premium used baby-grand for the quality and affordability.

Of course I didn't find anything satisfying from local(Boston area). Then I went out to internet, craigslist, pianomart, pianoworld, ebay, you name it. And I found several interesting Schimmels from craigslist. One is from Indianapolis but the seller never minded me and might thought it’s a scam. There was another one in Minneapolis, 10 year old GP169T, the same as the later Konzert series K169T. The seller was asking for $15k and I negotiated it down to $11k. Of course I did all my due diligence check, had a local independent techinician check it out first, then flew into the town to close the deal. Moving the piano back was quite a headache. It invovled a nationwide moving company and two local movers on both ends. The piano arrived three weeks later unfortunately with a noticable scratch (still something in my tolerate range).

In short I spent less than $13k ($11k for piano, $1200 for moving, $500 for airfare, hotel, technician etc) for a 10 year old Schimmel 169 in very good condition. And we love this piano ever since it arrived.

-- The End --

ttt03, sound like you're happy with you're outcome. What do you by "of course" you didn't find anything in the Boston area..... there are plenty of dealers around. Did you go to any of the big ones like Boston Organ and Piano, Londonderry Piano?

I visited many different local dealers, Boston Organ and Piano, M. Steinert & Sons, Londonderry, Darrell and some stores specialized in used piano like East Cambridge Piano. There are a lot of choices. But the asking price is always more than I was willing to pay. Remember we both are in the similar 10k range. Actually two comparable schimmels were sold before/after mine at a much higher price, one is 1997 SP182 at $18000, and another is ~2005 K169 at $24000.