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I am considering buying a piano for my 16th birthday, and i have a budget of up to and around £1,000.
I have researched a few options, and I have come up with either the Kawai CN25 for £1025 or a second hand Kawai K-15e for £1200 which i am planning to try and haggle down to as low a price as possible.

I am looking for a good quality, good feeling piano and don't really care about extra features such as sounds on a digital, but as I enjoy playing late and need to be quiet I'm leaning towards a digital anyway. So far I haven't actually tried playing on an acoustic so I don't quite know the difference between the feel between the two.

Could anyone give me any advise on what to go for?

Get an acoustic!

Thanks but why do you think an acoustic would be better?

You are on the bit of the site which deals with acoustic pianos, so you were always going to get that answer.

An acoustic piano is an organic musical instrument. You grow to love it. It changes and surprises you. You have to give it care and attention.

If you want to celebrate your 16th birthday by buying plastic and transistors, which will be binned before you are 21, don't let me stop you.

I knew digital pianos aged and became outdated quickly, but i didn't realise it really made that much of a difference.
Seeing as I haven't played on an acoustic piano before, I will be going to a piano dealer to try out some of the uprights they have to offer and also some of the digitals they have to offer, so I will be able to compare them myself then.

I will see as to which is better, but knowing that it really makes so much of a difference, I might consider getting the second hand kawai.

However, I am still open to suggestions.

Happy birthday!
If you can, do try a few acoustic uprights when possible, so you can start to get a feel for the difference in touch and tone between the acoustic and digital instruments.

Make sure to try the acoustic with the mute rail/practice pedal (middle pedal) deployed, so you can see whether that's suitable for late-night practice.

Do be sure to budget properly for tuning 1-2 times a year, as well as adjustments to voicing and regulation. You'd probably have to call around to see what that costs where you live, but a badly-maintained acoustic piano is no fun to play...so we often recommend digital pianos to people with very limited budgets for this reason.

I hadn't thought much about the tuning aspect of buying an acoustic piano. I don't think it would be too expensive to tune it once a year or so, but I'll take it into account.

Here in the US, a basic tuning would run the equivalent of 75-105 pounds, depending on where you live (major metros, or concert service specialists can run even higher). Other work is often (regulation, voicing, repairs) billed hourly or per job.

I've looked up piano tuning in my area, and from what I can see most places offer tuning for around the price of £60-90, so tuning a piano once a year shouldn't be too much of a problem. I've read up that most places recommend tuning a piano every 6-7 months, but I've seen that it should be fine to only tune it around once a year.
The piano dealer I'll be going to soon offers both the Kawai CN25 and some Yamaha uprights, so I'll be able to find out which one I prefer.

The person I am buying the piano from said that the piano has been regularly tuned and is in good condition, so it should not need tuning anytime soon.

if you need to play at late hours, there are many upright pianos with a middle pedal that muffles the hammers and strings with a felt barrier. in my experience there is no modestly priced digital that responds to your touch and technique as well as a modestly priced upright acoustic will.

I think you are going to need to try out both digital and acoustic pianos in order to make a decision. My fear is that your price range is going to limit you and that an acoustic piano in that price range isn't going to sound very good. The action may be quite worn as well. Only you can make this decision, but it will also be fun trying out the various instruments. Then, go with you gut and have fun playing and/or learning to play.

When you move a piano into a new space it needs to be tuned approx 2-3 weeks after moving and usually again 2-3 times in the first year if you want to maintain tuning stability. Also if you are buying used it is very important to have a professional technician inspect the piano as there may be problems that are undetectable to you or the previous owner.
Most people here will recommend an acoustic piano, but remember, a digital is always the more affordable option and quite often suits the needs of amateurs/beginners just fine(not making any assumptions about your level though:)
Many people say that you can't make 'real' music on a digital. That's baloney. I've been a professional pianist for over 20 years and at least 30% of the time I play shows on a 'professional grade' digital piano and if I'm 'in the zone' musically magic still happens on the digital piano. Yes, I love playing my acoustic piano above all else, but I'd also rather play a good digital over a poorly tuned/poorly regulated acoustic any day. Good luck with
your search.

i would go for a 2nd hand upright. I have been in the same position as you are now, and bought a cheap yamahan YDP162 (also 2nd hand). After a few month, you get so bored of the sounds that come with it. In the meanwhile i looked for a 2nd hand, and found one for +-1000€.

I't a joy to play

Get the acoustic. Even high-end digitals and hybrids don't have the realism. Everyone who has both acoustic and digital prefers playing on the acoustic most of the time, even if it doesn't have the concert grand action or if its out of tune slightly.



I think even a short upright can sound pretty good after you get used to it (which takes like 30 minutes). They are definitely more fun to bang on than a digital. Look for one in good condition that isn't so "worn".

If you don't need the latest bells and whistles, your best bet may be a used digital. Get a good one with weighted keys and velocity sensitivity. I got my used Yamaha for a little over half your budget, so you should be able to do very well if you put your time and effort into looking.

If you get a digital under your budget, save the rest and continue saving. Then when the time comes, you'll be able to get an acoustic in addition to the digital.

Try a lot of both in all price ranges and take your time before you part with your money.

Thanks for all the replies, I'll be going to a piano dealer this weekend and comparing some of the digitals to the uprights. I hope I will be able to make the right decision but any help is still welcome.

Does anyone have any experience with either the Kawai CN series, specifically the CN25 digital piano (or anything around the same price range of £1,000), or the Kawai K-15e upright piano?

will share a recent experience. over the summer, considered replacing my older model roland digital with a portable to travel with. the roland is my early hours (midnight to 0600) practice tool, and for now decided to get another acoustic to put in the room isolated from neighbors and from where my spouse sleeps for that purpose, such is my preference for an upright over a digital. that said, with no portable digital, relied on a piano being kept in a vacation rental where we spent a few days and nights. it was an institutional style studio upright, once made in the tens of thousands and found in school practice rooms for decades across the u.s. ; have played on many very similar to it, but it badly needed tuning and regulation. accustomed to many years of relying on out of tune practice room pianos, managed to get some hours of use from the landlady's piano during our holiday.

my appreciation of the roland at home greatly increased from the experience. however, the physical demands of producing music without electronic boosting/enhancement are much more beneficial to maintaining technique, and most digitals can't produce (or simulate) the resonating sustain of real pianos. of course, lousy acoustic pianos don't have much sustain, either. the grand we have o.t.o.h. has such sustain that pedaling is often optional and superfluous, and the big heavy upright we're soon moving in has a similar capacity. your decision might simply come down to how much time and effort you choose to invest in looking for a good upright in your budget.