I bought a refurbished '75 Yamaha concert grand for $10K and it's the best purchase I've ever made in my life, including various cars and houses. I'm only an intermediate-level piano player, but its sound blows me away every time I hit a chord. I can just vamp on it for 15 minutes and all my stresses from the day drift away.
What a very fair and kind explanation about the realistic cost of pianos! Here you are, a piano dealer and a concert pianist, and you are still giving people alternatives with honesty and fairness -- I hope, because of all of this especially, that you get a lot of business as a response to your presentation.
The upright piano that I had as a kid and in my teens was one that I and my parents bought for something like sixty to one-hundred dollars (back in the 1950s). The local piano technician brought it increasingly up to snuff over a period of a few years, gradually raising it to standard pitch, repositioning the action, and various other adjustments, finally making it to attain to Steinway standards (the best, as he saw things). The piano became so good that I wept when I finally had to part with it. It had gone from clunker to a real gem with all of the loving care that it got, step by step.
I currently own a 100-year-old Richard Lipp Grand (180cm), bought it for 4000€, which is almost 5000$. It's not perfect and all but I just could not spend more and I needed a grand. The tone is very good, and everything is more or less functioning. My overall conclusion: Spend as much as you can, it will be worth it.
We got our Kawai used for about $2,500 or so. In Southern California, it's in a rather stable environment, and so it actually seems to hold its tuning rather well. I wasn't the best about tuning it for a while, so I'd got years without it… but after binging on several of these LivingPianosVideos, I've made sure to tune it (and occasionally voice it) about twice a year!
We got a Shultz upright grand for free, providing we could get it up out of a basement. Not the easiest thing, since ductwork had been installed since the piano went down there. The cabinet is a mess, and some keytops were missing, but it was actually more fun to play than our grand, because the player can hear the base coming right back at them. Of course, I am married to a piano technician. We did haul it on the back of a pickup. We are currently looking to replace our grand, an AB Chase 5'6", because of intractable action issues, and for once in my life I want a piano that doesn't fight me. Our budget is about $50-60K. I have been spoiled by playing both an incredible Bechstein and a Steinway. Of course one has to play a piano before buying it, but do you have any suggestions?
Robert, I have some requests. Please, if you can find one, present an Ibach piano. If you can find one, a Playel piano as well. And, maybe you'll get in a CX Yamaha, C3X or larger. It's so much different than the C and I'd like to hear you play one. Also, do you ever come across any Sauter pianos, Steingraeber or August Försters? And Shigeru Kawai has been out for about 17 years, hopefully you'll present one soon.
I think with 70k you could nab a really good quality Steinway B .. although in showrooms they sell for at least 80 normally around the 90k mark brand new
Like the old saying goes "You get what you pay for ". I practlly lived my life with free pianos. I even almost restored one. That old 1914 HP Nelson sounded like a parlor grand piano when it was tuned I spent all day practicing on it after it was tuned. My tuner was not.afraid to tune that piano it sat on a closed in porch room. Heat in the summer and very cold winters. He first detuned each note before raising it to A 440. There was rust on the bridge pins that's where the detuning came in it broke the rust. I had one blind tuner that refused to tune the piano because of its age. But my second tuner said the piano is not getting any younger and he tuned it. The piano was a whole step off. If you played the A 440 you got a G one whole step lower. He knows neglected pianos and even restored a model A3 steinway. I got to play on that piano and the sound was outstanding. I made one mistake and brought my HP Nelson piano to florida and the moisture destroyed the piano strings broke in the night, I decided to scrap the piano because I could not find replacement dampers because the original were very large. I could have replaced all the bass and tenor strings but with bad dampers the piano had notes that kept going and going. The replacements did not do their job. I have another free piano that needs action work and one or two notes missing a string it's one piece that goes to two notes. The piano is playable and just needs action work. Maybe this one is worth my time. Not the best but better than a keyboard.
Robert thanks, I thoroughly enjoy your videos. I thought this was a very interesting one. There are many pianos out there for free. I just picked up a 1921 Steck baby grand with a Duo-Art player. It has been in storage since 1985 and the owner was moving. I love the old pianos especially with players and enjoy restoring and saving them. I'm not sure if this one is restorable yet, but I love the challenge.
I wish I am rich that way I can buy a big black piano I want one all I have is a small keybord. Huhhhhhhh.... it's hard to get things that you want when you don't have money left to spend I always have to use it for rent and bills
put some mony on side and buy used baby grand.... do not smoke and go to starbucks and u will make it. it will take some time but it is worth it. i am saving from my highschool even now on collage 100 $ every mounth it is not alot but enough i live in croatia it is cheeper but still pricey to liv in Zagreb. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE RICH TO HAVE GRAND PIANO IT IS MITH. ALL is possible
Most wooden pianos here in Canada are hard to even give away, and it is sorry to see all those great old pianos go down like that.Most new pianos are crap in comparison but folks would rather wack at their cell phones, rather than commit to learning the piano in the 21st century.
Thanks Robert! Would you recommend a expensive upright or a entry-level baby grand? The Boston UP118PE (upright) and the Samick SiG54 (baby grand) for example sale for about the same price on European market.
This reply may be a bit late, but he made a video a few years ago about this subject. In summary, he tended to prefer the baby grands even over more expensive uprights. Reasons included more consistent key length (the touch is more similar between black and white keys on a grand), the horizontal action in a grand (gravity helps the action repeat faster), and the pedals (the una corda pedal in a grand changes the color of the sound rather than just dampening the sound).
An interesting topic indeed. I have always wondered about those free pianos, free grand pianos at that. Being an optimist, I think it might even be worth putting a couple thousand in a free grand and ending up with a fine instrument (unless its an absolute wreck). Could one ever get a grand for a couple thousand? no. So its almost always worth it with the free stuff.
There is a great deal to consider. It's like asking whether a $5,000 full size sedan is a good deal. The condition is really important! Here is more on this subject for you: livingpianos.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-restore-a-piano/
I once had a student get a high end studio upright in immaculate condition for free just because the owner was downsizing and wanted it gone. Opposite to that, I had a student waste thousands on a worthless piano simply because they wanted the name on the fallboard.
Robert is losing his buttons! Well, just one of them actually ;) Great advice as usual, Robert. As you point out, there are so many pianos out there in the online marketplace listed for free or several hundred dollars that the sellers describe as "in excellent condition" just because it doesn't look like a bomb went off under the lid. Do yourselves a favor and have a Registered Piano Technician check the instrument out for you before you seal the deal. It will cost you some money up front for that educated assessment, but could save you thousands in headaches and heartache down the road. It delights me that Robert and Living Pianos manages to save at least some once-glorious American made pianos from the landfill and gives them a new life under appreciative hands.
You can get a German made fine upright piano for around 14 k new. Schimmels are wonderful. Much better than entry level pianos and most Yamahas and Kawais
Many thanks, I have been researching "how do i open the virtual keyboard in windows 10?" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Have you ever come across - Penaycer Rudimentary Preponderance - (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? It is a smashing one off guide for discovering how to play the piano easily minus the headache. Ive heard some pretty good things about it and my buddy got cool success with it.
40000-50000$ relativly afortaball 30000$ entry level 50000- 80000 expensive 100000 $ and up premium 9' grands. this is my List. i menchend grands only butit realy depends on the brend ex. 60000 $ is a realy good "cheep" steinway b or s it is not alot for steinway but for yamaha it is too expensive ofcorse steinway is much better. But why shuld i invest in expensive? yes i will have it for the rest of my life but i will never pay it off. you must fix the hammerst, tune evry 3 mounths. enyway i love my ibach upright but i will definetly buy sk2 one day or steinway b. mby used because of ivory keys. thenk u for replay Robert
I got braintwists reading your comment lol. I will also buy sometime a steinway B. They aren't so pricy as you said. You can get one refurbished from a used piano store from 35- 45'000 it depends on the age of the instrument and the condition andhow good the pre owners cared.
I bought a refurbished '75 Yamaha concert grand for $10K and it's the best purchase I've ever made in my life, including various cars and houses. I'm only an intermediate-level piano player, but its sound blows me away every time I hit a chord. I can just vamp on it for 15 minutes and all my stresses from the day drift away.
How do you get that money help
@@xiaocomehome5201 lol true
10 grands is huge sum.
@@xiaocomehome5201 press x to relate
wow cool is it a full size or baby?
I currently have a 2020 yamaha baby grand for 23K
What a very fair and kind explanation about the realistic cost of pianos! Here you are, a piano dealer and a concert pianist, and you are still giving people alternatives with honesty and fairness -- I hope, because of all of this especially, that you get a lot of business as a response to your presentation.
The upright piano that I had as a kid and in my teens was one that I and my parents bought for something like sixty to one-hundred dollars (back in the 1950s). The local piano technician brought it increasingly up to snuff over a period of a few years, gradually raising it to standard pitch, repositioning the action, and various other adjustments, finally making it to attain to Steinway standards (the best, as he saw things). The piano became so good that I wept when I finally had to part with it. It had gone from clunker to a real gem with all of the loving care that it got, step by step.
I currently own a 100-year-old Richard Lipp Grand (180cm), bought it for 4000€, which is almost 5000$. It's not perfect and all but I just could not spend more and I needed a grand. The tone is very good, and everything is more or less functioning.
My overall conclusion: Spend as much as you can, it will be worth it.
We got our Kawai used for about $2,500 or so. In Southern California, it's in a rather stable environment, and so it actually seems to hold its tuning rather well.
I wasn't the best about tuning it for a while, so I'd got years without it… but after binging on several of these LivingPianosVideos, I've made sure to tune it (and occasionally voice it) about twice a year!
Another helpfull and true explanation. Thank you! And keep it coming...
We got a Shultz upright grand for free, providing we could get it up out of a basement. Not the easiest thing, since ductwork had been installed since the piano went down there. The cabinet is a mess, and some keytops were missing, but it was actually more fun to play than our grand, because the player can hear the base coming right back at them. Of course, I am married to a piano technician. We did haul it on the back of a pickup.
We are currently looking to replace our grand, an AB Chase 5'6", because of intractable action issues, and for once in my life I want a piano that doesn't fight me. Our budget is about $50-60K. I have been spoiled by playing both an incredible Bechstein and a Steinway. Of course one has to play a piano before buying it, but do you have any suggestions?
Robert, I have some requests. Please, if you can find one, present an Ibach piano. If you can find one, a Playel piano as well. And, maybe you'll get in a CX Yamaha, C3X or larger. It's so much different than the C and I'd like to hear you play one. Also, do you ever come across any Sauter pianos, Steingraeber or August Försters? And Shigeru Kawai has been out for about 17 years, hopefully you'll present one soon.
i have an upright ibach from 70s needs restauration
I think with 70k you could nab a really good quality Steinway B .. although in showrooms they sell for at least 80 normally around the 90k mark brand new
More than 200 thousand dollars ??
What am I buying ? A Ferrari ?
You're buying art in its purest form.
No. Your buying something x100 better than a piano.
Like the old saying goes "You get what you pay for ". I practlly lived my life with free pianos. I even almost restored one. That old 1914 HP Nelson sounded like a parlor grand piano when it was tuned I spent all day practicing on it after it was tuned. My tuner was not.afraid to tune that piano it sat on a closed in porch room. Heat in the summer and very cold winters. He first detuned each note before raising it to A 440. There was rust on the bridge pins that's where the detuning came in it broke the rust. I had one blind tuner that refused to tune the piano because of its age. But my second tuner said the piano is not getting any younger and he tuned it. The piano was a whole step off. If you played the A 440 you got a G one whole step lower.
He knows neglected pianos and even restored a model A3 steinway. I got to play on that piano and the sound was outstanding. I made one mistake and brought my HP Nelson piano to florida and the moisture destroyed the piano strings broke in the night, I decided to scrap the piano because I could not find replacement dampers because the original were very large. I could have replaced all the bass and tenor strings but with bad dampers the piano had notes that kept going and going. The replacements did not do their job.
I have another free piano that needs action work and one or two notes missing a string it's one piece that goes to two notes. The piano is playable and just needs action work. Maybe this one is worth my time. Not the best but better than a keyboard.
Why a Ferrari when I can buy a thing that I’m not sure that I can play that well 😁
Robert thanks, I thoroughly enjoy your videos. I thought this was a very interesting one. There are many pianos out there for free. I just picked up a 1921 Steck baby grand with a Duo-Art player. It has been in storage since 1985 and the owner was moving. I love the old pianos especially with players and enjoy restoring and saving them. I'm not sure if this one is restorable yet, but I love the challenge.
Great video.
Amazing video good job!!
I wish I am rich that way I can buy a big black piano I want one all I have is a small keybord. Huhhhhhhh.... it's hard to get things that you want when you don't have money left to spend I always have to use it for rent and bills
put some mony on side and buy used baby grand.... do not smoke and go to starbucks and u will make it. it will take some time but it is worth it. i am saving from my highschool even now on collage 100 $ every mounth it is not alot but enough i live in croatia it is cheeper but still pricey to liv in Zagreb. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE RICH TO HAVE GRAND PIANO IT IS MITH. ALL is possible
Gosh! Upright pianos (even the cheaper ones) in India cost more than grands in other countries.
Most wooden pianos here in Canada are hard to even give away, and it is sorry to see all those great old pianos go down like that.Most new pianos are crap in comparison but folks would rather wack at their cell phones, rather than commit to learning the piano in the 21st century.
How do you tune really out of tune pianos?
Tune them
What they said^
Thanks Robert!
Would you recommend a expensive upright or a entry-level baby grand? The Boston UP118PE (upright) and the Samick SiG54 (baby grand) for example sale for about the same price on European market.
This reply may be a bit late, but he made a video a few years ago about this subject. In summary, he tended to prefer the baby grands even over more expensive uprights. Reasons included more consistent key length (the touch is more similar between black and white keys on a grand), the horizontal action in a grand (gravity helps the action repeat faster), and the pedals (the una corda pedal in a grand changes the color of the sound rather than just dampening the sound).
go with used kawai or new entrylevel gl10 baby grand
An interesting topic indeed. I have always wondered about those free pianos, free grand pianos at that. Being an optimist, I think it might even be worth putting a couple thousand in a free grand and ending up with a fine instrument (unless its an absolute wreck). Could one ever get a grand for a couple thousand? no. So its almost always worth it with the free stuff.
Hey I got an offer for a 6 foot 4 grand piano for 5k is that a good deal?
There is a great deal to consider. It's like asking whether a $5,000 full size sedan is a good deal. The condition is really important! Here is more on this subject for you: livingpianos.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-restore-a-piano/
Thanks
I once had a student get a high end studio upright in immaculate condition for free just because the owner was downsizing and wanted it gone. Opposite to that, I had a student waste thousands on a worthless piano simply because they wanted the name on the fallboard.
fivemonthslater I
Robert is losing his buttons! Well, just one of them actually ;) Great advice as usual, Robert. As you point out, there are so many pianos out there in the online marketplace listed for free or several hundred dollars that the sellers describe as "in excellent condition" just because it doesn't look like a bomb went off under the lid. Do yourselves a favor and have a Registered Piano Technician check the instrument out for you before you seal the deal. It will cost you some money up front for that educated assessment, but could save you thousands in headaches and heartache down the road. It delights me that Robert and Living Pianos manages to save at least some once-glorious American made pianos from the landfill and gives them a new life under appreciative hands.
Okay, this makes my dreams shatter....
The answer is, too much!!!
Wow a Phil Swift of pianos
You can get a German made fine upright piano for around 14 k new. Schimmels are wonderful. Much better than entry level pianos and most Yamahas and Kawais
It’s infinite dollars for a grand
*Nope*
Many thanks, I have been researching "how do i open the virtual keyboard in windows 10?" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Have you ever come across - Penaycer Rudimentary Preponderance - (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? It is a smashing one off guide for discovering how to play the piano easily minus the headache. Ive heard some pretty good things about it and my buddy got cool success with it.
40000-50000$ relativly afortaball
30000$ entry level
50000- 80000 expensive
100000 $ and up premium 9' grands.
this is my List. i menchend grands only
butit realy depends on the brend
ex. 60000 $ is a realy good "cheep" steinway b or s it is not alot for steinway but for yamaha it is too expensive ofcorse steinway is much better. But why shuld i invest in expensive? yes i will have it for the rest of my life but i will never pay it off. you must fix the hammerst, tune evry 3 mounths. enyway i love my ibach upright but i will definetly buy sk2 one day or steinway b. mby used because of ivory keys. thenk u for replay Robert
I got braintwists reading your comment lol. I will also buy sometime a steinway B. They aren't so pricy as you said. You can get one refurbished from a used piano store from 35- 45'000 it depends on the age of the instrument and the condition andhow good the pre owners cared.