Piano Buying Tips New and Used Pianos

New Pianos

A new piano can cost anywhere from $2000 for an inexpensive starter upright to over $80,000 for a Steinway concert grand. Thus, a piano purchase constitutes a major investment and should be done with care and as much preparation as you can do. Unfortunately, just as in car showrooms, many salesmen in piano showrooms are not knowledgeable and will sometimes try to steer you in the direction that leads to the largest commission for them. Your best defense in this situation is preparation and knowledge. It may well be worth your money to pay a piano technician to go with you to the showroom to help you evaluate the choices and prices. Investigate carefully the seller's warranty and ability to back the warranty locally. Check if you can "trade-up" a starter piano for full credit later on a better piano. Find out if you can return the piano to the seller for a full refund if you find the piano doesn't work for your needs after you get it home. Consider both the space you have available and the acoustics of the room you plan to place the piano in. A bright-sounding piano might be great for a heavily carpeted and curtained room, but sound terrible in an acoustically brighter room. An excellent and relatively inexpensive book that the new or used piano buyer should consult is Larry Fine's The Piano Book.

Used Pianos

Grand Pianos: It's worth the extra time and effort to seek a grand piano made prior to World War II, and, if it has not been reconditioned/rebuilt, have this done. Brand names to look for: Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, Baldwin, Chickering. A good place to start looking for the older pianos is by contacting reputable dealers in pianos and making your desires known or consistently looking in the newspapers for these pianos. Also, estate sales can be a good source of piano treasures. A rebuilt classic piano is generally substantially cheaper than a new piano and, if properly rebuilt, may well be a better instrument than many new pianos. Rebuilt pianos of name manufacturers like those above have been increasing in value at as much as 50% per year recently, so they represent a good financial, as well as musical, investment.
Smaller pianos: Brand names we would recommend include the above mentioned pianos as well as Walters, Sohmer, Boston. We do not recommend grand pianos from the last three manufacturers. When purchasing any used piano, it is well worth your while before making any final purchase to get a technician to look at the piano, especially the guts of the instrument: the pinblock, sound board, strings, felts, pedals, etc. A piano that might look like a dream might need some major work done. If you are looking to play it immediately, then you might need to keep looking for a piano in better shape.
Determining the Age and Value of a Used Piano: To do both of these, you'll need the manufacturer's name and the serial number of the piano. The manufacturer's name is usually readily visible on the outside of the piano just below the keyboard. If not visible there, it can usually be found decaled on the sound board and, often, on the underside of a grand and on the back side of an upright. The serial number on an upright piano can usually be found engraved on the metal plate inside the piano and/or engraved on the pinblock. On grand pianos, the serial number is normally engraved into the portion of the plate nearest the keyboard, on the pinblock, and/or on the front part of the keyframe, though you will probably have to remove the keyslip to access this last location. Once you've found the manufacturer and serial number, you can find out the date of manufacture from references like the Pierce Piano Atlas, The Piano Book, or online at How Old Is My Piano? Piano World.
We cannot, and will not, tell you the value of a used piano, because many factors (manufacturer, date of manufacture, condition, location, method of sale, availability of qualified buyers, etc.) go into a realistic estimate of a piano's value in a given local market. Your best bet for determining the likely value of a used piano is to hire a qualified piano technician (i.e., a member of the Piano Technicians Guild) to appraise the piano for you, taking into account your local market. The books indicated above also provide useful information on valuing a piano. Your money will be well-spent in acquiring either or both of these books, if you're planning to buy a used piano in the near future.