I am looking to purchase on upright piano and my budget is $15,000. I play, but not often and not well. The piano is primarily for my three children, the oldest of whom is 8 years old. She is showing signs of taking the instrument seriously. And in any case, all three kids will take lessons so I'd like to have a decent instrument.
I live in New York City. Any suggestions on the search--either how to go about it, or particular brands and models in my price point to check out. I don't have any particular taste here (as I said, I am not an experienced player) and while I am happy to involve my daughter in the decision she's only 8 so not sure she can really add much to the conversation.
Any and all advice will be much appreciated.
I'm actually going through a similar search at the moment in the UK, looking to spend about £10,000 sterling on an upright, which probably puts me at a similar point in the market to $15,000 dollars in the U.S. I'm just jotting down a few of my own thoughts in case they help.
I would start by saying I probably have one key advantage over you in this process, in that I've been playing many years (albeit I'm not actually very good!). Jazz / Blues and even Rock tends to be my thing, so my preferences in music are about as far from calassical as you get. This all puts me in the advantageous place of understanding what I like and why.
Your budget is pretty generous for an upright, and gives you a big choice of very good instruments, but the very best will still be a step beyond. At that price point, your options fall into three groups if you're buying new imho.
1) Top (or close to) of the line asian uprights. I'm thinking primarily Yamaha YUS5 and Kawai K600 / K800 , but the larger Bostons should be in this kind of realm too.
2) Larger uprights from"2nd tier" European manafacturers. This could be companies like Petrof, or "2nd line" brands from top manafacturers like W.Hoffmann (a lower cost line of the Bechstein Group).
3)The smallest uprights from some of the top tier manafacturers. Grotriabn have a small instrument that should be withing your budget, and I think Schimmel do too.
These three groups have distince charecteristics from the others, ane within each group, diferent instruments will have their own charecteristics. The third group will probably be of the highest out and out quality along with the most complex tone, but this will come at the expense of power and projction, especially in the bass.
In my own search, I was quickly able to rule out "group 3". The style I play means that power, projection and a strong bass are very important. And while I need a clear, pure sound, the complexities of tone that come from a top level instrument are less important in the context of the music I like to play than they would be for a classical pianist. That for me meant the a very good large instrument was better than an exceptional small one.
If it's of interest, I've narrowed the choice down to a Yamaha YUS5, a Hoffman T128, and a Kawai K600. I suspect if I go new, the Yamaha will probably win out. It has some nice touches the other don't (such as Ivorite keytops), the sound suits what I like to do, and I felt very comfortable with the action (perhaps out of familiarity, as if I do buy a yammy, it will be me 3rd, or 4th if you include the digital I used to gig with. But I haven't ruled out the other 2 just yet.
I'm still looking at the used market for something "top tier" and may wait a couple of Months before signing up for a new instrument to see what comes up. But, used top level uprights are imho thin on the ground. There's nothing else (upright wise) to upgrade to if you have a large C.Bechstein or Bosendorfer upright (for example). And by definition, tyhey tend to be bought by good players who use them heavily. So top used uprights (rebuilds are another matter) will be rare, and in good shape they'll be even rarer. That's not to say you can't find a bargain, but you'll need to be patient, careful, and take good advice dfrom a tech unconnected with any sale.
But in all of this, imho you have a difficult dilema. I have been able to narrow down a wide choice of vastly different instruments because i know what I like based on years of playing. Someone with a similar budget, but different preferences would choose something completely diffeent. A 110cm Grotrian for example would be terrible for me, but perfect for a sophisticated classical pianist with the same budget. That same classical pianist might not enjoy the YUS5 that really did it for me.
At this stage, you probably don't know enough about your own preferences to know where you (or your children) would fit on that spectrum. You're also probably not at a stage where you need a piano that offers as much as any of those fine istruments. Indeed, you perhaps don't know how long term the piano infatuation will even be.
So my suggestion for what it's worth, is actually to not spend that kind of money on a piano at this stage at all. You could easily make an expensive mistake by buying an instrumebnt that is wrong for how your family develop musically, or indeed by buying an expensive piano that you find you have no use for in a couple of years.
Instead, I'd look for a good quality "nearly new" entry level piano like a Yamaha B3 or Kawai K3. People upgrade frwequently from these instruments so you'll get something barely used at a good saving. It will be more than good enough for a beginner, and when you (hopefully) upgrade, you will be able to do so witha much better knowledge of what your perfect long term piano will be than you have now. And by buying nearly new, you'llk have avoided the depreciation that comes with new, and will probably only lose a few hundred dollars when upgrade time comes.
That's my thoughts for what they're worth. Hopefully that's helped rather than confused you further