Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum From what size does a grand piano make sense?

The Yamaha M5J was sold some time ago, so keeping that is no option. Yes I like Yamaha, well I'm sort of a fanboy, but I will make sure to try some other brands before I commit to any purchase. I will probably, like the last time, buy a used piano to minimize the price and loss if I change my mind.

Adding to that my next acoustic piano probably will be bought 2014, the earliest,

I don't mean to be harsh, but your comments about being a fanboy and about your philosophy of spending are not helpful in getting a fix on what you want out of a piano - musically. Even if you sold the Yamaha a while ago, and especially if you're a fan of the brand, you should be able to express what you liked about that piano and what you hope your next piano can give you - musically - that the M was unable to deliver.

By 2124, you will have gone a considerable time with no acoustic piano. That, and your comments on spending on yourself, give me a sense that this is to be a trophy purchase, in which case the performance characteristics of the piano chosen may not be the determinant in making the choice.

With my playing ability you bet a Yamaha C3 is a trophy purchase - I'm not ashamed of that or that I've spent most of my life studying and working instead of playing the piano. And if you do a search and read posts on this site you will find that I because of my hearing will do most of my playing at low volume on a digital piano - making the a C3 even more of a show piece, that I nonetheless will enjoy looking at and experience every day.

And even if I hardly can play any songs, I love playing the piano, mostly playing what a kind person would call improvisation. And I do love the sound of a good piano, trying to get a little help from this site finding one.

Times have changed. Piano designers (and manufacturers) have taken another look at these instruments and the modern small grand piano is often quite nice. Despite what the traditionalist might tell us, there is a growing selection of relatively short—say 175 cm (5’ 9”) and below—grand pianos now available. You may have to look beyond the large, traditional manufacturers to find them, however. And some of them—to cite just one example, the Walter 175—will hold their own against traditional pianos that are significantly longer and larger (and, for that, more expensive).

It might seem odd to the purely objective observer but, in my experience, at least, most piano buyers do not make their buying decision between grands and verticals purely on the basis of tone performance. If this were the case large vertical pianos would outsell small grand pianos but, at least in the product line I’m most familiar with, they do not.

People buy small grand pianos for a variety of reasons; aesthetics being high among them. Action performance is also high on the list.

Many years back in the bad old days it was true that most small grand pianos—those shorter than, say, 160 cm (5’ 3”)—sounded pretty bad. Their scales were unbalanced and, in a misguided attempt to obtain more “power” excessively massive hammers were used. Not only was the lowest half-octave pretty much useless, the whole bass sections often sounded dull and tubby. The bass-to-tenor transitions were usually rough and uneven sounding. These were, by most every standard, un-musical atrocities that had rightfully earned their somewhat derisive Piano Shaped Object titles.

But, that was then and this is now.

Times have changed. Piano designers (and manufacturers) have taken another look at these instruments and the modern small grand piano is often quite nice. Despite what the traditionalist might tell us, there is a growing selection of relatively short—say 175 cm (5’ 9”) and below—grand pianos now available. You may have to look beyond the large, traditional manufacturers to find them, however. And some of them—to cite just one example, the Walter 175—will hold their own against traditional pianos that are significantly longer and larger (and, for that, more expensive).

As well, there are a growing number of 150 cm (4’ 11”) grand pianos that are earning reputations as credible musical instruments in spite of their diminutive length. And in spite of their often very low prices. There is a growing selection of very nice short grand pianos available for less than $10k. It might pay to broaden your search.

The market has changed and it is no longer accurate to simply write these pianos off solely because of their length.

ddf

>Actually I think it makes perfect sense for someone with modest playing ability to focus mainly on Yamaha. Yamaha make great pianos.

This sounds to me like "It makes perfect sense to eat only carrots because carrots are healthy".