Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to talk about the best and worst pianos to buy. This is a big subject, so where do we begin? I’ll start with the worst pianos to buy, then I’ll go to the best pianos to buy so we can end on a happy note!
What are the worst pianos to buy?
Upright pianos have all different heights. Go back far enough, and they were really tall. They got shorter and shorter over time. There were a whole breed of pianos referred to as spinet pianos. Spinet pianos are no longer made, but they were popular because they were very small and inexpensive. In the 1970s, you could get a brand new Kimball Whitney spinet for a few hundred dollars! Can you imagine? So they were popular for that reason. This was before digital pianos existed. So if somebody wanted something really inexpensive, a spinet was an option.
What’s so bad about spinets?
Let’s break it down. Why is the sound so anemic on a spinet? The piano is so short, the strings don’t have much length. Everything in the low register is really lacking. There isn’t much richness even in the high register because the soundboard is so small. Worse than that, in order to fit the action into such a small case, it didn’t have a full length key to reach the back of the action. So the keys were very short, and there were connecting rods to the rest of the action. This is called an indirect blow action, or a drop action. If you open a spinet at the top you can see the keys end right at the end of the fallboard. There are rods connecting the keys to the rest of the action. So they’re not as responsive. They’re also easier to play, which may be a benefit to some people who have hand problems. But generally, it’s not going to prepare a serious pianist to play other pianos. The repetition is also really slow. There are some spinets that are better than others. The Baldwin Acrosonic was the best of that breed. So that’s one kind of piano that generally you want to avoid.
Sometimes a big old upright can be an absolutely glorious instrument.
In fact, you can get a bigger sound out of a tall upright than some smaller baby grands. Old uprights have long string length and big sound boards. They’re formidable, wonderful instruments. But the problem is, most of them were made over a hundred years ago! What you don’t want is to buy an old upright piano just because it looks pretty, because it might need $15,000 or $20,000 worth of work. This is no joke. These pianos get worn out. If the strings are old and rusty and the felt, hammers, and other action parts are worn out, you can get into hundreds of hours of work trying to restore one of these instruments. When you’re all done, you’d be lucky to sell it for a few thousand dollars, because they’re not as popular anymore.
Occasionally you’ll find an old upright that has already been restored. And if that’s the case, it can be a wonderful experience to have an instrument like this. But I wouldn’t buy one to restore. You can find free uprights, mostly the big, tall, old uprights, on websites like PianoAdoption.com. If you look at enough of them, maybe you’ll find one that doesn’t need everything. But generally, if you’re looking for a quality instrument and it seems like a good deal, check with your piano technician before you commit to it.
What are the best pianos to buy?
So now let’s get to some of the pianos that are worthwhile, and that would be restored American pianos or late model American pianos. Steinway and Mason and Hamlin are the only American piano brands left today. But if you go back to the 1970s, and even into the 1980’s, there were a number of piano manufacturers still making high quality pianos in the United States. Some of these instruments may still have good life left in them. More than that, the methodology of these instruments like Chickering, Knabe, and Baldwin was very similar to Steinway and Mason and Hamlin, which are priced astronomically high today. People are not aware of these other brands as much. Because of that they could represent phenomenal value. These pianos could be worth putting some money into if they’re structurally sound, because they are hand-built, top tier pianos. So it can be worthwhile checking out some of those instruments.
What about Asian pianos?
Older Asian pianos that need work should be avoided. These pianos are inexpensive to begin with, so you don’t want to put a bunch of money into them. Perhaps a late model Asian piano can offer good value if they have been well maintained.
So that’s the long and short of it. American pianos are of such high quality that looking for those in the used market can be worthwhile. Even if you have to put a little bit of work into them, they can be worthwhile to get an instrument of a really high caliber. I hope this has been helpful for you! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
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9 thoughts on “The Best and Worst Pianos to Buy”
OK, now I’m worried… We bought what we thought was a really good deal and our local piano tech said was a great deal, but you said to avoid older Asian pianos that needed work. This is a 1963 Kawai Model 750 7’4″ semi-concert grand. It sounded “OK” when we bought it, although really bright, knowing it needed at the very least action work and a few replacement strings as well as some case work… but it was only $1200. We bought it and spent about $4500 getting the action completely rebuilt, 3 bass strings replaced as well as re-voiced and regulated as part of the action rebuild. Now is sounds really nice (to our untrained ears at least) and it seems to play nice (again, just learning, not very good at playing)… The case on it is in decent shape but needs some refinishing as the finish has been “polished” over the years with furniture polish and if you wipe it with a cloth a dark sludge comes off and leaves a semi-gloss like shine that was probably shiny once upon a time but has been messed up after so many years of someone thinking furniture polish was great for a piano. The strings sound fine, but they are old and show some corrosion so we will likely want to replace those someday. The sound board is solid with no cracks to be found. The tech said that a couple of the bridges looked like they might be starting to crack but were not affecting anything right now and he said could last for years with no problem. Anyway… knowing that re-stringing the piano as well as bridge work is going to cost another $6k-$8K… did we waste our money on this? Should we cut our losses and look for something else? Thanks!
The good news is you paid very little for the piano. Japanese companies didn’t start exporting pianos in a big way until the 1970’s. So there are instances of pianos where the wood weren’t seasoned to withstand a great variety of climates. The quality of Japanese pianos has also steadily improved through the decades.
As to what to do now with the piano, the one saving grace is that it is a semi-concert grand. Getting a good late model Kawai of that size in the used market would be very costly. As for restringing, perhaps that could be worthwhile. You will have to tune your piano more often for a year or two after that. You may want to investigate if the furniture can be professionally cleaned up since the value if you were ever to sell the piano is affected greatly by appearance.
What can you tell me about Estey Baby Grands?
Back before there were Asian production pianos or digital pianos, there were some American manufactures that serviced the more affordable segment of the piano market. Estey, along with many other companies, provided pianos people could afford for their homes.
This vlog almost was an “ouch” for me, until I got to your recognition of the value of older Baldwin Acrosonics, my high school piano which is still in great shape and playing order. During the Pandemic I re-discovered my love of music and started lessons on what I had to play: this spinet. I loved…and still like…the tone and light touch for my “senior” hands. Yes, I could elicit thrills and chills from my spinet when I started to learn my preferred-lyrical romantic pieces, and not having the budget (yet) for a grand piano, I carried on. Someone could likely buy my spinet for about $500 today — quite a value for a new or returning student who doesn’t intend to become a concert pianist, if you ask me. While I eventually decided to spend no more than$15,000 for my first (and last) baby grand (rebuilt of course, or much older), my eventual budget more than doubled—I was fortunate to be able over two years to find the budget for that, but how many can afford this, if we are not going to earn any kind of living making music or as older seniors, have limited means but also love music? I’m certain you want to encourage the love of music and the piano in general, as I do, thus I’d prefer to have seen a vlog title: “Various options of pianos to purchase, the pros and cons” rather than call spinets the “worst” kind of piano. For certain budgets, preferences, and purposes, a spinet can be the best.
One size definitely doesn’t fit all. Spinet pianos can be the perfect piano for someone with limited space who suffers from hand problems and can benefit from a less formidable piano action.
My very first piano was a Baldwin Spinet. That piano sounded great and was a tank. I only needed to have it tuned twice a year and I played it to death. If I could find it, I would trade my Cunningham Grand for it!
Some of those old Baldwin spinets were remarkably good for spinet pianos!
Agreed. Spinets usually have a glorious amount of resonance. After tuning them I play and enjoy myself thourougly. My clients are equally enthused. Not true of a lot of Asian pianos which have a much ‘cleaner’ sound.