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Hi, I'm new here and I'm looking for advice on buying a grand piano. I have the opportunity to purchase a used Samick for $7000. I don't know the model but it is 5'6" long and has had very light use.

I'm not familiar with the Samick brand name and am wondering how it rates compared with other brands.

For many years I have had an upright Yamaha and have been happy with the sound and action. How will the Samick compare? I noticed on pianoratings.com that the Samick is rated 1/2 star lower than the Yamaha C series.

Thank you for your help.

Mrs. Wright,

Welcome to Piano World and Happy Holidays!

For what it is worth, Larry Fine (the author of the much vaunted, on this forum, Piano Book) rates Samick grands in Tier 4C. Other pianos in this tier include Hailuns, Palatinos, Steigerman Premiums, Bergmann (by Young Chang), Kohler & Campbell, Essex, Weber and Pearl River. Certain of these have very loyal followings on this forum.

Samicks are made in Indonesia (I believe). While Samicks are not the most highly ranked pianos, with proper servicing by a technician and a good home environment (especially humidity control), this piano may serve you very well.

By all means, however, have a qualified technician inspect it before you buy it.

Good luck to you!

Mrs. Wright,

Samick makes excellent pianos at a very good value. Some of the "brands" they make may or may not come close to the same feel, tone, and touch of your Yamaha. I wouldn't hesitate in considering one, but would definitely have a technician look at it before committing to buy used. I also would shop a bit and try to negociate the price. I believe you will find that price to be a bit high compared to what you can find new.

Good luck with your search, and let us know what you find.

To Deerwood guy,
Samick is actually made in Korea. I would say it is a decent piano indeed for the price they are asking for.

I just got a Samick myself very recently. I am finding that I am very happy with it.

I've played Samicks that are very good...but limited in their color and sustain. Good for the beginner to intermediate player. $7,000 seems steep for a private owner piano.

As far as pianoratings.com, any person that places a Hallet & Davis over Schimmel, Yamaha S-series pianos, and Shigeru Kawai is a little misguided, or he/she played an extraordinarily-prepped Hallet & Davis and generalized to the whole brand. Its only one person giving their opinion.

Mrswright,
Regardless of how Samic products compare in the market, the last thing you'd like to do is put ANY trust in the sort of "ratings" you'd find on the web for such pianos.

It is apparently hard enough to rate pianos when the attempt is done objectively, by professionals and reflecting the various opinions and consensus in the industry.
The only reputable and reliable source to be used as a guideline for such evaluations is “the piano book”, and the yearly 2007 – 2008 supplement, by Larry Fine, and even his ratings are criticized.

Sadly, it seems that in recent years it became fashionable, for dealers who may have low integrity and ethics, to prey on unsuspecting consumers by trying to present bogus "ratings" or "Piano Buying Guides" which are found on the web or distributed for free (or a penny).

In these bogus ratings, the authors are attempting to present an "objective opinion" while positioning the brands they paddle, far above where the industry consensus would agree with, and far above their true competition.
The purpose of the "buying guide" is practically the same, when the common conclusion one is supposed to reach, after reading these, is that the purchase of the author's inventory is the "wise and right" decision…a “bargain” of a sort.


Usually, the charlatan owning the web page behind the bogus “ratings, is using the Larry Fine’s rating, to make his own look credible, and “inserting” into them the lines he wants to promote, but of course, completely misplaced.
Also, the competition to the dealer’s line, is clearly rated lower than the pianos he is trying to push…
Such websites/buying guides try to appear as “objective”, giving no indication that they are actually brought up by a specific dealer, and their purpose is to promote his pianos.

This is largely what makes such “ratings” no better than a scam, in my opinion.

In the case of the ridiculous ratings on “pianoratings.com it is quite clear that that site owner is representing (or has represented in the recent past once these “ratings” were compliled”), pianos by the Bechstein group (including the Hoffmann), Sauter, Schultze Pollmann, Baldwin, Charles Walters, Hallett Davis, and J. Strauss…

I would guess, by observing the positioning of the pianos in these “ratings”(extremely gross misplacement of pianos in the low end), that this particular dealer is focused on the low end of the market, and these, along with the Baldwins are probably his core business…
Such “ratings” given by dealers on web sites or “buying guides”, may change depending on the lines the dealer is carrying or pushing at the time, and I would advise any consumer to put no trust in them.

I find it disturbing that consumers, such as you, may fall into this trap and trust or give any weight to such activity, which should teach more about the dealer paddling these pianos and website, his integrity and business conduct, than about the pianos rated there.

Ori is right on.

Do any of you computor-literate people know how to find out who owns pianorating$.com?

And while your at it, who sells J. Strauss pianos?

An interesting website alexa.com provides traffic ratings as one way of assessing how popular a website is. I don't know much about this website so interpret it as you will.

For the sake of this thread the site mentioned has a web ranking of about 4,100,000. By contrast pianoworld is about 55,000. I believe ebay, cnn, yahoo, msn etc are in the top ten.

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/pianoratings.com

Using a site like alexa.com may be one way to assess the usefulness of a website as having relevant or sought out info.

I agree

I just did some checking and from all appearances the owner of pianorating$.com is making an effort to mask his/her identity. That, in my book, is another huge red flag.

On piano buying guides.. Nobody should ever take any ratings guide at face value without looking into how the research was done, who did it and how the data was gathered, what the market sample was, and what the author's interest is.

Ken

Hi Mrswright,

If I may add my .02 regarding your question, yes, Samick pianos and their stencils are good pianos as a general rule (IMHO).

When I was searching for a nice pre-owned grand, I came across a late 80’s model DH Baldwin G-170 Grand made by Samick that I thought was a nice piano. (I was going to buy it but the seller changed his mind; however, that is another story …. see http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/1/17333.html ).

Also, I agree with the others that $7000 is very high for a pre-owned Samick, regardless of condition. Around this time last year, I was quoted a price of $7800 for a new Bergmann 6’ grand and $8500 for a new Nordiska 5’5” grand.

By-the-way, you will get a boat-load of opinions and advice, but the main thing is to buy a piano you really like and can afford.


Best regards,

Rickster

pianorating$.com

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I am a fan of Samick products and have watched closely the evolution of their pianos for over 20 years. Samick is a Korean company, but all pianos bearing the SAMICK logo are built in their factory outside of Jakarta, Indonesia for the last several years.

This piano you have interest in is a used piano. Give us the serial number and we can tell you how old. As all manufacturing concerns the Samicks of 20 years ago are not the quality of those today. Age and condition is just as important as brand in used pianos.

Thank you everyone, for your very helpful remarks.

You may know all this already but may I share these questions and my experience.

Its particular condition and care are important facts to find out. How old is it? Was it maintained? Was it in an environment with seasonal swings in humidity?

{deleted discussion, turns out the piano I described was not a Samick piano but a Hyundai}

Samick has (or had, I don't know) a line called Samick World that are indeed VERY nice pianos. I have a cousin who got rid of an old Steinway and got one and has never been sorry. It is very high quality, is beautiful, sounds great and plays wonderful. I was very impressed.

Isn't Larry Fine's grade of 4C the bottom of the barrel?

We have a Howard, which was a brand built in Korea by Samick in about 1988. It was Baldwin's second line at that time, and uses a lot of Baldwin parts. Ours is a 5'8" grand.

We had some trouble with it the first few months with sticking keys, but technician visits were covered by warranty. Since then, for 20 years we have had no trouble at all.

It sounds nice and is very attractive.

I would buy one new so if there are any technical problems the warranty will cover it. Incidentally, even the most expensive pianos can have teething problems in the first couple of months after they are delivered.

The Samick SGxx does not have the same action as the WFG or WSG (the"World Series"). I've played a WFG185 which, next to Steinway, was the most pleasurable piano I have ever played. It sold used for $12,000. The SG is not bad, just don't pay $7,000 for it.