Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum My piano is home! (and thanks, everyone)

It's here!
The picture on the right shows the new-to-me 1950 Baldwin M sitting in its new home, my home! It was delivered yesterday, and I've exhausted my limited repertoire of simple stuff, several times. I'll need to migrate to the Adult Learners forum now...

And get my daughter's lessons going, of course!

Why a Baldwin M ?
Initially, Baldwin wasn't a name that resonated with me, although I didn't have any particular reasons, pro or con. Not knowing much when I started, Steinway and Yamaha were the only "names" on my radar. So, I was looking at Yamaha G1s and G2s, and wondering about Steinways, which I noticed were available pretty regularly on the Rick Jones Piano website for under $20,000. Not wanting to fall for the mystique of the Steinway brand, though, I made this post to see what $20K could otherwise buy.

Visiting the Rick Jones web site frequently, and dreaming, I came across this Baldwin, and it intrigued me. It was priced at about $9800, which put it in the range of the Yamahas I'd seen there. So I did a little searching on the model and came across a number of positive posts about it, like this Pianoworld post in which Apple and Rich Galassini praised it. In fact, Rich posted more than once that he preferred it to the Steinway S, and that made an impression on me!

The Hunt!
Given the positive stuff I read about the Baldwin, I decided to dig in a bit more and see if people still felt that way about it. I posted "Baldwin M" and people by-and-large seemed to still feel very positive about it, so I was sold on it! After a couple of road trips to see some, I started to wonder if I'd become obsessed with that particular model: "Baldwin M, take two" (I was tempted to title this "Baldwin M, take three").

There was some "discussion" in "take two" about whether I could actually find a specimen in the range I was aiming for (3 to 4 thousand). I looked at several, and made an eight-hour round-trip to see this one for which the sellers were asking $4500. It was in great shape, save for a few chips and scratches, and I considered making an offer, but just before I went to look at it another M came up on Craigslist for only $2000, and I thought I owed it to myself to check it out. I was entertaining thoughts of driving a hard bargain on the $4500 offering (the owner said they'd "negotiate") and haggling on the $2000 one for "parts" and to learn to work on it for fun. The $4500 piano was by far the best I'd seen in a private home, but surprisingly the $2000 piano was in very nearly as good condition, and I much preferred its darker and aged finish!

The Deal
So, my persistence and patience paid off! After haggling a bit on price and shipping, I spent just a hair over $2100. Of course, I put a lot of time into it as well, but I enjoyed doing the research and hunting it down. I think I got a pretty good piano for a pretty good price.

Thanks
On top of enjoying the hunt, I've enjoyed the time I've spent on Pianoworld, learning and getting to "know" some folks. I'd be remiss if I didn't offer thanks to a lot people, so in roughly chronological order:

• BDB, who was the first to reply to my very first post, suggested that my money could buy something better than a Steinway, and offered continued feedback and questions answered along the way. As an aside, and as an engineer, I like his take on physics and other things too.
• Minnesota Marty, also replying to my very first post, and many along the way, including advocating for the Baldwin M. Always positive and always offering pragmatic advice.
• Rich Galassini, who initially convinced me the Baldwin M was a good piano, and was supportive and offered up other advice and recommendations for technicians and movers in this area.
• Apple, who also praised the Baldwin M.
• Ed McMorrow, RPT, who was encouraging and offered up some good inspection tips (I'm a tenacious do-it-yourselfer, and the more I learned, the less I needed to hire a tech to rule out any given piano). I also was intrigued by his discussion on physics.
• Jolly, who was encouraging and also asked some provocative questions. I'm a contrarian by nature, so I appreciate hearing the stuff that others might consider "negative."
• Rickster, who convincingly leads the way on finding a bargain!
• Steve Cohen, for lots of general advice, agreeing that a reasonable piano can be had for a good price, and for recommending D&E Movers--those guys were awesome. Responsive, on time, in and out in a flash--they made it look easy.

Thanks everybody!

Very nice piano! Enjoy playing it.
Nice hunt as well and sounds like a very good deal.

Having recently bought my first piano I should also "move" to the Adult beginner forum (though I like watching all these nice piano's and reading about them very much).
I'm having my first lesson next Monday. Having played 20 years ago (stopped when I was 10) I didn't think I would pick it up very easy. I have however advanced through the first three books before the teacher has arrived Hope I didn't learn myself to much bad things.

Enjoy! and think about piano lessons for YOURSELF as well as for your daughter.

Congratulations, and enjoy your new piano!!!!

Congratulations! Next time I'm in the market for a piano, can I hire you? I recently bought my first grand piano as well, but I don't think I had near the energy to have the same 'hunt' as you did. Great photo and great job!

Congratulations on your new piano!

Bravo on the way you conducted your search!

It is so nice to hear back on a successful piano quest and the way you outlined your whole process is a lesson for all newcomers to Piano World. You did well!

Your piano looks lovely in its new home. There is no doubt that your entire family will enjoy it for years to come, and even though you will be exploring the 'playing' threads, don't forget to visit your friends at Piano Forum.

Cheers,

Congratulations on acquiring a fine piano. I like the wood finish so much better than the usual black.

As a way of thanking PW-why not make a donation as a token of appreciation. Say $200?

Hire the most skilled and professional piano tech you are comfortable with-and treat your piano to regular professional care.
Cheers ED

Nice piano, well done. I do like the brown finish yes, can we employ you for our next purchase. I did play a Baldwin baby grand at a piano shop recently and it was by far the most interesting. Enjoy your new piano.

Congratulations, Retsacnal!

I'll bet it sounds as good as it looks!

I hope you and your family enjoy it for many years to come!

Rick

Congratulations! Play her in good health.
Andy

Retsacnal,

You have a nice instrument. I am happy you found the piano of your dreams. You can't go wrong with Baldwin! You will have a lifetime of piano playing pleasure.
Congrats!

Gary

Thanks, wimpiano! I'm in a similar situation: took lessons for for a few years when I was a kid, but quit in the 5th grade. I'm hoping it's like riding the proverbial bike... ;-)

Thanks. I'm considering lessons too, but our lives are so hectic. I teach half time and am working on a PhD on top of a little consulting. My daughters are pretty active--lots of drop offs and pick ups. I seldom have two weeks with the same schedule... :-(

When I was a kid, my piano teacher came to the house--I'm hoping to find someone that will come to ours to work with my daughter, because it will impact my schedule a bit less that way since I wouldn't necessarily have to be home).

For myself, I'm wondering if I can work on a self-study sort of program, and get periodic coaching/critiquing to keep myself on track.

I keep saying "me," "I," "my piano" above--and believe me I'm excited about it, but the main driver is to support my daughter's musical growth.

Thanks again, Marty, for all the kind words and the support along the way!

Thanks, Ed. I'm giving some thought as to how I can support Pianoworld beyond my own "traffic" and morale support.

<--- In fact, it should say "platinum" over there now!

I like a nice wood finish too. I know with guitars, if you want to expose the wood grain, more care must be taken with construction, and the selection of pieces. It's also more difficult to conceal flaws in the wood, etc, than it is with an opaque finish. Consequently, those guitars tend to have higher values. I think I've seen comments to that effect regarding pianos too. It's strange to me then that black pianos seem to command a higher price, but I guess when people think of a grand piano they think "black." Black pianos certainly look nice, but we wanted something a little less stark in the house, and I think it looks pretty nice. In fact, maybe the dark brown is a nice compromise.

Thanks, Rick! I'm not going to claim it's "perfect." It sounds great to me, but I'm sure in time as our ears improve it'll probably need some TLC.

In fact, it seems to have survived the move in tune. There are a couple iffy sounding notes, so I pulled out a chromatic tuner to check. I was also curious if maybe it was in relative tune, but drifted away from A=440. Most of the keys turned out to be right on the money! Some a cent or two off. And it seems to be adjusted (stretched?) moving up and down the keyboard.

The notes that are off are all sharp--which seemed strange to me--I don't think I saw a single flat pitch.

I hope so too. One of the reasons we went with a smaller piano is that we'll likely be downsizing at some point in the future. When our girls finish high school we may move closer in than our current suburban location, so we'll likely end up in a smaller place.

Mr. McMorrow,

Your suggestion of a donation to Piano World is an excellent one.

Would you care to follow suit? Or, perchance purchase a listing in the professional classifieds?

Congratulations, Retsacnal, on your new piano! Some years ago I got to play a Baldwin M that was near a classroom I taught in on a regular basis, and I was impressed by its warm sound. Sounds to me that you got quite the bargain at $2100!

Please do come join us in AB forum, but it's okay to keep a foot over here, too.