Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Should I buy used small upright or big upright?

Just want to ask to choose a small piano and big piano. I have visited to used piano shops and tested the piano for Yamaha U1 and small piano Yamaha M108 over 30 years old selling at 3.8k and 2k Singapore dollars. Both of the condition are good and sound good.

The shop advised me no need to spend so much money buy U1, get a smaller piano as my constraint is I do not want noisy loud piano in my flat not suitable. The smaller piano is good to play as hobby at night as if I really need to practice for exam can go music school rent a big upright china piano is good enough to get the touch and feel, is this true?

Honestly, I doubt there's much of a volume difference between the two uprights. When it comes to piano buying, my philosophy is: buy the largest piano you can afford.

If you really need something that's quiet, maybe a digital would be a better option? You could always turn down the volume or play with headphones. Not so easy to do on an acoustic.

Yes, I agree. A larger upright will be much more enjoyable to play and better for your music exam preparation. The size of an acoustic upright will make little difference if you are concerned about disturbing neighbours.

Kind regards,

Robert.

I doing at end of grade 4, starting abrsm grade 5, my teacher is asking not to use digital, need to get a real piano for practicing as digital no matter how good is like toy, cannot get the touch and sound.

So not much noise loudness different between a U1 and M108 Yamaha. Yamaha U3 and U1 also not much different.

The Yamaha U-series pianos have a middle pedal that activates a mute rail, which significantly lowers the volume of the piano for quiet practise. I don't when Yamaha implemented that feature, but I'm pretty sure that it has been offered for at least 30 years. The M-series and P-series do not have this feature, so if you're concerned about disturbing neighbors a U-1 or U-3 would be a much better choice.

I love my Baldwin Hamilton studio upright- 45"- but it IS loud. The action is fine for now, but a couple of small problems catch up to a couple of the keys when I use the damper pedal and they go dead.

Just tuned it again a few nights back, and no problems with that.

It's made me think though that perhaps there should be pianos with a graded damper setting- place the action lever at a closer position for less volume, and then set it back to full volume at the movement of a locking lever.

Just brought a used U3 Yamaha piano at 2.3k less than USD 2k from a shop, everything is good except it had repaint before so front part a bit ugly. But the sound and touch is solid. Serial number was taken as it was manufactured in 1967, 3 years warranty with delivery and 2 free tuning.

I have called cash converter house call service and they agreed to take it away at S$500 for my roland digital piano F130R. Then later buy a used 61 key portable keyboard will do for some other purpose. If practice at midnight, just press down the muting middle pedal at least can practice a bit also good

It's all in the voicing of the hammers. I sometimes play a little Daewoo stencil console with rock-hard hammers. It's louder than my concert grand, which is nicely voiced for a large living room.

But if you have neighbor problems in an apartment, no acoustic piano will ever be quiet enough. Digital with headphones is the way to go.

You can use de mute rail, of course, and also put some thick foam in the back of the piano, between posts. Even inside the piano, some thin absorbing panels glued with blue tack.
But if you really don't want to disturb your neighbours, please don't play at midnight. That's very rude.
Some pics of my setup (testing it).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2amIeYfwGQsREQxbld4ZjRyTDg/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2amIeYfwGQsOUJKbU44NlVwOUk/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2amIeYfwGQsMnVRNzFNYXlmWlk/view?usp=sharing

Must admit to liking/preferring little pianos. They seem to have an even tone without boomy bits or undue resonances. And they look cute. . .