Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Lovely old piano wanted
Our daughter has just started piano lessons and so we need a piano ! If anyone has a working piano that looks decent and they no longer want we would be interested to hear from you. Happy to hand over some cash too.
Alternately, does anyone have any tips about buying a second hand piano. ?? We've spoken to Reid's but they start at £900.00 which is a bit much......
Thanking you in my piano ignorance....
Liza
Tags for Forum Posts: piano
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gen on
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Possibly not what your daughter or her piano teacher would say but at this stage I would get her an electronic keyboard - cheaper, easier to maintain, takes up less space and easier to get rid of if she loses interest, which happens a lot!
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Permalink Reply by empyrean_aisles on
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Speaking as a former piano teacher, PLEASE don't buy her an electronic keyboard. Piano keys are weighted differently to keyboard keys (unless you buy right at the top of the keyboard range, in which case you will be spending much more than you would pay for a decent secondhand piano) and so you would be setting her up to develop poor technique.
Not hating on keyboards more generally - they're great for bands etc - but in the first years of learning they are a bad idea.
Got my piano for ca £200 off eBay, but went round to the buyer's to try it out first.
Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Lauren on
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There was one for sale a few weeks ago in Raising My Voice Foundation. It was a locally made one, Hornsey Rd I think. It was about £125 as far as I can remember.
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Permalink Reply by Liza on
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Thanks all. Have been looking at keyboards but decided we wanted a proper one.... And good to know that's the way to go....will look in raising my voice foundation, thanks Lauren. Empyrean.... As I am completely clueless, any makes to avoid if we go down the eBay route , or is it all about condition ?
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It is all about condition, and that can be judged by the tone, which I'm sorry to say is going to be fairly difficult for you to judge if you are not a pianist yourself. You need to listen out for a sound that is not tinny or inconsistent from one note to the next. The best I can suggest is that you play every single note on the piano carefully, one by one, and listen/feel for keys that are very different to others. You may find one or two dodgy notes in the very highest or lowest registers, which is not too much of a deal-breaker for a beginner's piano, but if there are some keys in the middle registers which get stuck, or which don't sound until your finger has gone almost all the way down, that is a sign of other problems that you would do well to avoid.
As for eBay tips: most people selling on eBay seem to assume that their buyers are mostly interested in the piano as an item of decorative furniture ("Lovely colour!" "Will look beautiful in your living room!" etc when the poor instrument is in a terrible clapped-out condition inside) so I would completely ignore the photos, and go and play the thing. Better yet, see if you can take someone with you who can play the piano who will be able to give you an indication of whether or not any of the keys are sticking, or there are any problems or inconsistencies with tone.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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We had this dilemma a few years ago and bought a piano from eBay. It has done us very well so far but I think with hindsight we would probably have spent a little more - but you don't know at the time how you're going to get on with it so its hard to justify. My husband did lists of research, will see if I can tempt him to post something!
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Thank you Alison . I am a research demon, but this feels daunting as I have never played the piano !
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Hi Liza, this is Alison's husband John. I started to learn piano, from absolute scratch, about a year and a half ago. Personally, I would prefer even the most clapped-out upright piano rather than a weighted keyboard, unless you have thousands to spend on the best keyboards. They just don't sound as nice, and also touch is so important when you are learning. I went to Reid's too! Out back they have a line of old piano's waiting to be smashed up! These are the sort of pianos on eBay, or which people might give you; actually, some of them might do you a job, but could never meet Reid's exacting standards. Pianos are very expensive to refurbish, and they just don't think it's worth it unless it's a top brand.
Anyway, we did buy on ebay, and got away with it. Spend about two hundred. It is a trashed old thing to look at, but I love Mr Steck (would you ever need a name for your keyboards?). It holds its tune well, but is below concert pitch. Concert pitch is the tuning standard. So, my piano is in tune with itself, but slightly out of tune with, say, my son's guitar. Mr Steck is a bit lower. Old pianos get lower if they aren't tuned, and then, the tremendous stresses inside the body mean it is tricky, often impossible, to raise the pitch up to concert pitch. As luck would have it, I have my tuner coming next week, to try to do just that. I have lessons in Wood Green, on my teacher's concert pitch piano; that's a problem, it confuses my ear. And now my son is learning, it's important he starts on a piano at concert pitch.
Sorry! That's a a lot to digest, I know.
I have suggestions. Camden Piano Rescue sometimes have a reasonable piano, and will deliver. Bear in mind, London to ground floor in London will be about a hundred quid, minimum; and you need pro movers; crack the soundboard or the frame, and you will have junk that Reid's will move for a fee. If you browse Ebay, concentrate on the one in a hundred listings that mention concert pitch. Also, look for ones that look modern. Pianos don't get better, or even stay the same, unless they are looked after every year. "Just needs a tune" is not enough information. An old school piano from the seventies might be a good bet, a Barrett and Robinson, or a Danemann.
I hope this is helpful Liza. I have given my "Buy a real piano! " advice to half a dozen people, but perhaps you will buck the trend and actually take it! A real piano, even something that's a Reid reject, as I'm sure mine would be, with annoying quirks galore, sounds lovely, and my feeling is that children respond to that more than they do to a keyboard.
- and now... I must do my piano practise! Any more questions, just ask. John.
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Supplementary! That piano in the charity shop is a nice looking old thing, but has not been tuned in many a long year. A basic tune costs £60 quid; bits of repair, more; sorting this... Who could say? I shouldn't want to actually pay money for a piano in this condition. John.
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John that is so very kind. I really appreciate you sharing your own experience. Sounds like you have a nice time with your new friend......am sure we will too when we get there.....
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Permalink Reply by Bethany Burrow Atherton on
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Liza,
I got my piano from Reid's (he's called Johannes because he's German) about eighteen months ago - I was fortunate enough to get him as a very generous wedding present from my parents, so I was lucky not to have to think so much about the price. However, I had been considering buying one myself prior to that and weighing that plan up against getting my childhood piano moved from my parents' house and decided that it would be more cost effective to buy a "new" piano (read: slightly less clapped out) than move the old one, which had already spent 40 years in Swansea, moved to Coventry when I started learning and then moved to Derby when my parents moved. That piano had been in our family its whole life and had been looked after - it ended up being below concert pitch, but was good enough for me to get beyond Grade 8. I started learning on a keyboard (not a weighted one) and my playing improved rapidly once the piano arrived and I now have a possibly slightly over the top hatred of weighted keyboards as piano substitutes - as Empyrean says, they do have their place, just not in my house! The best thing to do is to ask how regularly it is played. If they say it hasn't been played for years, it's unlikely they've kept up with the tuning while it hasn't been used and, as others have said, you need one that has been properly maintained or you'll just have a list of problems that require money and effort to solve (or a pile of junk that you then need to get rid of). If it used to be played regularly until little Johnny gave up playing last year (or until someone passed away - that's often a reason people get rid of pianos, sad as it is to say), then it's worth going through the exercise that Empyrean suggests of playing each note carefully. As long as you bear these things in mind, it is worth keeping an eye out on freecycle as well as eBay, but be aware that some of them are on there because they are only worthy of Reid's scrapyard.
Good luck in your quest!
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If you search the Ebay local bargains option, you'll see pianos going for 99p. The only thing is you have to collect the piano.
I quite agree, for heavens sake NOT an electronic one.
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