I'm currently searching for a new piano, as I have outgrown my digital. My teacher is insisting on getting a grand as I am progressing rather quickly and will have to upgrade anyway. I'm a poor university student and I found this http://www.tradingpost.com.au/Musical-In...ue&AdOnTop= for 4k but I've never heard of Grand Daewoo and I'm a bit suspicious since they didn't include the age or much detail. Should I give them a call or not even bother?

I note you are in Australia, and finding your ideal piano may well be more difficult than elsewhere.

Any teacher insisting a pupil gets a grand would have me running away immediately.

Someone may correct me but I've never heard of a teacher insisting a pupil purchases a grand, at least not in Europe.

Advising that a reputable make of a certain size grand would be nice if the funds were available, would make a lot more sense. And yes, your caution is wise especially as no age, size or other details have been given.
Although I’ve seen and tried many Korean grand pianos, I’m not too familar with the Daewoo Royal or it’s size. You also need to know how much use this piano has had, frequent tuning? etc.
IMHO your teacher is not considerate or supportive, especially in view of your personal situation. He/she should have at least advised you to audition recent, good uprights as well. Yamaha or Kawai are particularly recommended, but there are others.
Uprights are generally more affordable too, and many of the larger (>120cms) ones are as good if not better than a very small baby grand - many of which just don't get the dealer preparation they need to render them particularly playable.

By all means find out more about this Daewoo, and get to try it, if just for the experience, but be advised this type of instrument is often purchased by those who have minor to moderate expectations of a piano, or who may be more concerned with furniture than making music.
And most important, take your time! Do not be rushed into making a purchase either by a teacher or salesperson.

I probably shouldn’t be offering advice, but, like everyone here, I do have an opinion.

The piano in the photo looks well taken care of (on the outside, at least). Daewoo is a huge corporation and is associated with many different products and industries (none of which are shabby). I have not played a Daewoo piano personally, but I would imagine it is a decent piano. Korean made pianos from the late 1980’s and early 90’s are of decent quality (IMHO).

And, I don’t know the exchange rate for Australian funds and US funds, but the price (4K) sounds reasonable to me too. Some folks can find the “steal of a deal”, but I seem to always have to pay the going rate. The price seems like the going rate.

It would be to your benefit to have the piano examined/inspected by an independent piano tech. Also, keep in mind that a real piano needs regular tuning and service/voicing, which your piano teacher may not have mentioned.

Sometimes, the odd-ball brands can sound and play pretty good. Here is an example… this is my odd-ball Japanese made Tokai grand from the late 1980’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cioP4J50IUY

Hope this helps.

Rick

I remember reading recently that there was a connection between Ibach and Daewoo which lasted a few years until Daewoo quit making pianos.
This is old info from the "Bluebook of Pianos":
Daewoo Precision Industries exported Sojin brand and private label pianos to the United States from 1980 to 1991. After Daewoo purchased a 33 percent interest in prominent German piano manufacturer Ibach, Daewoo replaced Sojin production equipment with copies of Ibach’s piano-making machinery. Daewoo now exports Korean-made Ibach brand vertical and grand pianos to Canada, but not to the United States.

Here is a more detailed Daewoo piano history written in 1999:
http://www.royalepiano.co.kr/company/company.htm

So you might play the piano, and if you like it a lot, then take your time to find out about it and see where the journey leads you.

Friends of mine, a married couple, VERY well known in the piano trades for the tools they make for the trade, used to raise two pigs for slaughter every year on their little farmer-stead in Northern California. They named the pigs Daewoo and Sojin so they wouldn't feel bad about killing them in the fall every year. I thought it was a very appropriate set of names. Are you getting the general picture here? There is a clue as to the quality of said brands contained in this little anecdote.

Well, I reckon the content of this thread just goes to show that everyone here has an opinion and they can all differ, widely.

Never heard of naming the pigs for slaughter after a piano brand though…. Of course, if that was indeed a common practice, there would be pigs named after every brand under the sun, with some very popular brands included.

Just for the fun of it, I went back and found an old thread in the archives on Tokai pianos. Maybe I need to remove the name on the fallboard and replace it with “sausage”.

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/317477/1.html

Take care,

Rick

Actually one should not be tainted as for the quality of the Daewoo/Sojin pianos post 1999. Up untill maybe 1991 ish Daewoo/Sojin grand pianos were designed by Lothar Schell an acclaimed scale designer.His influence was probably to the same extent as Klaus Fenner,Pramberger or ? to Samick or Young Chang. In that era they(Sojin)was not any less quality than Samick or Young Chang which is not saying much.
It was unfortunate of the the legal contractual disputes which led to a multimillion dollar litigation between Daeewoo/Sojin and a major US piano importer dealer. It kind of left a bad taste to Daewoo as for dealings with the US piano industry. A friend of mine was of legal representation to Daewoo at that time in this legal dispute. Thats probably partial reasoning in Daewoo exporting to Canada only.

In this day and age with the better Chinese pianos on the scene,I think the piano in question may be a bit overpriced but hey! maybe not !I've never played or had any newer Daewoo pianos post 1999.