There are also high quality rebuilds in this price range, Steinway’s, Bechstein’s, Bluthner’s, generally rebuilt to a greater or lesser degree, depending upon age and wear. Higher end Chinese uprights (which can be very good, we sold the Hailun brand which are excellent value for money) Yamaha’s, new and secondhand (a secondhand Yamaha U3 in good order is a great piano) Kawai, new and secondhand, the K-300, K-500 and K-600 are all superb instruments at their price points. It covers good quality modern uprights, things like Kemble’s and Knight’s, secondhand, young Japanese pianos like Atlas and Apollo and the odd Kawai or Yamaha if you’re lucky, extensively rebuilt older English and German pianos and we start to see the cheaper end of the new pianos from China, pianos like Bentley, Waldstein, Steinhoven and lots of pianos with ‘Stein’ in the name! In this price range you should get some pretty decent pianos.
It would be the price point that most people would look to as their ‘second’ piano, a move up from the old banger to something that you can really get on with, up to or beyond the grade 5 level.įrom £1500 – £3000. It was easily the most popular price band when I was selling pianos and it included modern uprights, rebuilt 1960’s/70’s pianos with some action work, older quality pianos with some more extensive works and the odd grand piano. Still in the secondhand pianos, this price range covers a multitude of ages, conditions styles and qualities. The next price range is the £500 – £1500 pianos. Buyer beware and try to do a little homework, have a look at my piano list for an idea of quality, have a look at the piano in person (never buy blind) and give someone like myself a ring to get some insider knowledge. This is the most popular area for beginner pianos and the easiest price range to get burnt.
Most pianos up to £500 will be of an older type, in varying stages of decay, nearly always needing something doing to them. We’ll quantify this by saying there are always bargains to be had in most secondhand markets, but with pianos, most people have no idea what they are buying, so here are some generalisations. Well, that depends on your view of what a piano costs and how much you want to spend! You can spend well over £100,000 on a Steinway grand piano if you wish, but lets give some sensible advice here… Many problems lurk beneath the pristine casework of even the finest piano and you are sometimes spending a lot of money, so get it looked at! It may save you a lot of money. You need it to work, it needs to be even touch across its range, it needs to sound reasonably in tune when you see it (it shows the owner has made effort to keep it in good order) it needs to make a nice sound and if it looks the part as well, it may be a good piano to buy! Depending on the price of the piano, I would always recommend a technician like myself to visit the piano to assess its suitability and condition. I’m not saying you should spend a fortune, far from it, but at least be reasonable about what you are buying. You will be getting precisely what you paid for, a piano that is probably the most unsuitable for beginner instrument you can think of. I’m afraid I don’t hold with the ‘suitable for beginner’ purchase off of a well-known auction site for £1. I would suggest you also need the best piano you can afford.
So, the main things you need to bear in mind when buying an upright piano are Has it got an iron frame? Is it an overstrung piano? Has it got an underdamper system? Is it from a known manufacturer? Once these are ticked off you can move on to the next advice.
#YOUNG CHANG UPRIGHT PIANO REVIEW TRIAL#
The piano has been developed over 300 years to what it is today by trial and error and there are many types of instruments out there that were in the golden age of experimentation. There are different types of pianos in terms of their construction.