Please help on choosing a piano

[corienne]

Thank you everyone for reading this post.

I'm looking for a piano at my new home.  I studied Piano when I was young for all my elementary school years.  So I guess I can say I had basic training.   

I went to a music school as a violinist and quit soon after freshmen year. So I was still around music buddies until my college.  Pianos were there everywhere always.  So I didn't completely lose my touch, but it's not like I am a piano major.  I can only read music and play.  I can't do slurs and dynamics, although I can pretend doing them.

Anyway, I enjoy classical music and enjoy being able to read music and play along.  But I can't do dynamics. So however I play, the music always sound the same to me. But I don't play Piano for others, I play for myself, so it doesn't really matter.

Now I'm in the mid-20's and got a new home (I live in America).  And I was looking for a used piano in my area, but because the place, which has about 250,000 in whole county, (It's a rural area but 2~3 hours from Chicago.) there didn't seem to be many choices for decent used piano. 

So I turned to the only piano dealer store in town.  There were many new Yamaha pianos and some pearl river.   Since my budget is around 4000 US dollar, only pianos available to me was some M series and P22 and T116.  The U1 they had has a price tag of 8,000.  So I don't even want to think about it.  In this store, I'm still waiting how T116 sounds like, because they didnt have this on their showroom.   I did look at some 48'' Pearl River Yahama and it was being sold around 4300?   

Unfortunately, I didn't have previlege of having read Larry Fine's book before I visited the dealership.  But since I'm waiting for T116 to see what it's like anyway, I'm going to read that book thoroughly next few days.   

A few days ago, I found another local piano store I didn't know of its existence, was going out of business.  They had a 48'' Kawai K-25 for $4300 US.  And the person who was there were telling me that that's how much it costs to make and how he's not making any money.  K-25 seemed a fairly very good piano.  But because I'm not professional pianist, I didn't have to jump in and buy it.  I contacted my local piano teacher and she was too busy to come with me into the piano stores this week.

My question is what do you think? between Pearl River Yamaha 48'' (don't know model number) and Yamaha T116 (45''), and Kawai K-25 (48'') ?  I found them in similar price range, although this Kawai K-25 might be gone by now.  But I'm still curious what people think. All the models I looked at, are not decorative ones.

I talked to 1 piano technician casually and he only recommended Yamaha.

I wish I could afford a grand, too, but I don't know how long I'm going to be living in this town, so I can't purchase the big thing as freely as settled down people.

[Axtremus]

No such thing as a "Pearl River Yamaha" in the US. If the key cover says "Pearl River," it is a Pearl River, not a Yamaha. Plain and simple.

Most places in the US would sell the U1 in the $6k range, not $8k.

For Kawai K-25, the lowest price I know to have been paid in my area (US North East) was $4400, and that was a year ago. I would expect the T116 and P22 to be around the same general price range as the K-25. So your numbers look pretty good to me. Just pick the one you like best, however your subjective your preference may be.

Good luck.

[intermezzi]

Like Axtremus said, the piano you looked at that probably said "Made by Yamaha Pearl River" is definitely a Pearl River, made in a factory that also produces Yamaha pianos. From my experience these Pearl Rivers are an improvement on those not made in the joint factory, but still nowhere near a Yamaha.

I really like the T116 and its sound, maybe even a little better than a P22 even though they are practically the same piano in different shaped cases. That would be my recommendation for your budget.

I've never tried the K-25, though the price sounds pretty reasonable for a piano like that.

[jolly]

Simple reply.

Buy the K25. Better piano than the T116 IMNSHO.

The price is good.

[alzado]

You should be able to get a very good, used, reconditioned piano for much less than $4300.  If the new price of an upright is in the $4000 range, a similar USED piano just a few years old should be more like $2500.

I would say, only buy a used piano from an established store with a good reputation -- one that has been serving the area for at least 20 years.  Get some sort of warranty, if possible.

I would look for a used Yamaha or Kawai in good shape.  One that looks -- at least from what you can see -- that it has been well taken care of.  We have a Samick-made grand that we are very satisfied with.

Many families sell the piano if their child quits lessons or if they decide to move up to a grand.  There are many very good used pianos out there.

And yes, READ the Larry Fine book.  Good luck to you--

[corienne]

Thank you everyone for your inputs. 

I'm still waiting for brand new Yamaha T-116 to arrive in the local dealership.  K-25 is gone now for that dealer had gone out of business last weekend.  Although I did like Kawai sound better than Yamaha in similar price range, I wasn't sure about not getting service from local dealer.  I really wish I could have compared T-116 and K-25 at the same time, but I didn't get to have a chance.

There's a local piano restorer/rebuilder/technician in the area and he's selling Yamaha U10-BL for $4500.  He claims it's built better than U-1.  I plan to check this piano, but it seems like it's a piano shipped from Europe, cuz I couldn't find any info about U10-BL in English in Google.  And it seems priced quite high for 15 year old piano.  But I do plan to check it out soon. It's 25 miles away T_T.

Has anyone seen or heard this Pearl River piano (with Yamaha)?  It's model number UP-125M1.  In Larry Fine's annual supplement, it says Pearl River (with Yamaha). Haha.. It has a sticker placed on the right hand side of keybed (?) place.  It's 49'', a little taller than U1, and it seemed good enough for a person like me.  (not professional pianist, just enjoying producing notes off of music. ^^; 

At this point, I'm still waiting for T116 to arrive in the local store. I've found much heated debate about similar kind of issues in pianoworld forum. I feel I have wasted your precious forum space ^^;;  Thank you so much everyone again for your advice.

[helga]

I owned a 48" Kawai upright at one point and I liked it a lot. IMO upright Kawais are very solid instruments with pleasant tone. Well made and excellent customer service. By the way, if I remember well, Kawai offers full warranty on new instruments and their warranty is transferable. So check it out.

[jolly]

You snooze, you lose.

You had a good piano, at a good price - the K25. It does not bother me one whit that the store was closing...Don over at Kawai heads up a very good service department, and Kawai ranks high in pleasing their customers.

Used pianos are very region dependent. In some places like the Eastern U.S. coast, good verticals are easy to find. Likewise, you can buy decent used grands in Los Angeles for chump change if you know what you are looking for, have the cash, and are prepared to act quickly.

But when you get into the less populated areas of the Heartland, you may go months before finding what you want...in the case of grands, years.

Get educated. Get ready. And pull the trigger when you find what you want....

[corienne]

Thank you everyone for your comments.

It's true I found out too late Kawai K-25 was probably the best deal within the price range I had for and I should have acted quickly.   But since I was new at piano buying, I don't feel bad for taking a long enough time being careful.   The only thing, though, I wish I had asked the owner, 'what bank is coming to get your pianos back?'  cuz the guy said the bank is coming to move the pianos away on the 9th. 

Anyway, yesterday, I looked harder on the piano forums and learned about Charles Walter piano.  And the factory is barely 15 minutes away from my home on a nice country road drive. So I took a drive today and played 2 nice pianos at high 5k range.   They were both nice pianos, but still out of my price range. But the guy in the showroom told me, sometimes they buy back pianos of the dealers who go out of business and they sell for less than the brand new pianos.  So I might wait for one of those. 

Sometimes, with so much information now on my hands, it just makes me feel I don't want a piano anymore. haha;;   I do wish I were in big city area where Petrof or Perzina pianos are also available.  (Although Petrof distributor is located in Chicago, I don't feel like driving 3 hours with traffic one way! haha;  I thank you everyone who post in the piano forum and your helpful opinions and advices.  Without everyone who posts with your sincere help, I wouldn't have learned much as I have now, even with Larry Fine's book. 

[alzado]

Reply to Jolly--
 
You say "It does not bother me one whit that the store was closing."

What a foolish thing to say.