11 Plus Exams Forum

We bought a digital Yamaha piano which has served us really well, but now my daughter has shown she will def carry on with piano we want to invest in an upright model. My DD is G3. Where do we start? Budget up to 2K as impending purchase of other instruments also looming! Any advice on makers gladly received.

This is a job for your piano teacher to do! my piano teacher called me up one day to say she saw a piano she'd tried out for £2.5k and she thought it was good. I wouldn't know where to start and would have probably spent double!

I bought a Kemble upright from a local piano tuner, which was also recommended by my DS's piano teacher. It was £800 and it's not a good looking piano and have lots of defects on the surface. But it's sound is very good and should be able to last upto grade 8 without the need to change another piano again.

Phone up some nearby piano tuners or piano delivery company may be helpful.

Good luck

Bristolmum

Our piano is a Kemble. It's been moved three times and is delightful.

Ours is also a Kemble, lovely instrument, although I don't believe there are any more made in the UK any more.

We found ours in a lovely music shop in Oxfordshire, can't remember the name now, but they had loads of new pianos and also reconditioned old ones.

The piano teacher is a good starting point, he or she should be able to point you in the direction of a good local music shop who should be able to help.

Mine was in Cheltenham so maybe it's a west(ish) county piano!

The best makes by repute are german - Steinway, Bechstein and Bluthner. I once saw a Bluthner pianola which had belonged to Winston Churchill's secretary sell on a well known auction website for £2,000; I wish I'd bought it. Broadwood also has a good reputation.

I once bought a piano from these people: http://prelovedpianos.co.uk/?page_id=51" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; The prices are very good and they have been recently serviced, which means you're not taking the risk you would with a private sale. But watch the delivery costs on pianos if you're not buying locally.

Thanks Loopy will take a look.

Can't really advise, but just to note to be careful as for under £2k you can find plenty of pianos which would not be so good as a Yamaha Clavinova.

It's always worth having a trained piano technician and valuer look it over before you do the deal; if you have central heating it's better to go for something relatively modern as they survive it better than very old reconditioned pianos.

I'd buy Schimmel if it were me - but I think very few go on the secondhand market.

So we went to our local dealer today, feel a bit nervous about a private sale. Dealer is very helpful and un pushy. We liked a Yamaha U3, made in 1970. Anyone have any input?