Buying upright, lost in the labyrinth of all the brands...

[benjaminb]

Hi,

I'm new here , i've been playing the piano for a decade now and would like to buy myself a decent piano to study ragtime pieces, stride piano, boogie woogie, chopin, debussy etc...

Until now I played a bit on my grandfathers young chang, on my digital yamaha P90, my  awfull old decorative piano from 1920 that is unplayable now :p (some notes couldnt be tuned anymore :p) and the Blüthner grand were I practice on at school

I live in Europe and my budget is +- 7500€ (approx. 10'000$ )

Problem is i'm a bit spoiled by practicing on a grand (the blüthner), so far, all uprights I played on didn't move me like the Blüther does :-/, not a single upright has that bright correct sound I like

- I definetely wanna skip the chinese, korean and cheapo brands.
- Wanna be able to sell my upright in the future FAST so I can upgrade to a grand.
- Need medium to heavy keys

And most of all it should move me emotionally when I play it, like the Blüthner grand I play on where I take lessons... brightest sound I ever heard in my life

The Brands I can choose from :

Ritmuller (it sounded nice, but the highkers keys kept sounding to long when i released em, when I played fast it was a disaster + it's chinese :-/ )

Bösendorfer : definetaly out of my price range

Petrof : didnt play em yet, but the 125 and less tall are in my price range

Yamaha : in my price range, I played a P116 but was not convinced of the sound, it didnt move me emotionally + the keys were too light when i pressed em.

Schimmel, Seiler & Wilh Steinberg : I could only afford myself the 116 type, didnt play em yet...

A store told me Zimmermann is very good and made in a german factory of bechstein or bösendorfer, not sure about the brand anymore... problem is I find no info about this brand on the net, so i'm having doubts this is a real good piano...

2ndhand, i'm a bit afraid of buying one... and they are very expensive i think, I saw a wilh steinberg q-22 for 5900€ of 12 years old...

Is it true I should buy the tallest piano I can afford because the sound will be richer ?
If that's the

Tomorrow I will go and test the Petrof, Schimmel, Seiler, Wilh Steinberg & taller Yamaha's ....

Until then, advice is welcome

[sleepingcats]

If the Yamaha upright touch was too light, you may like the Petrof.  I liked everything about the Petrof except for the firm touch.  I ended up buying a Yamaha Disklavier upright (which I love!).

I liked the Schimmels as well, except the touch.  It was as if there was a spring, or some kind of delay - hard for me to explain, but it was something I just couldn't get used to.

Good luck!

[atticus]

Have you considered a Mason and Hamlin?  They have a fairly heavy action.

Good luck with your search!

-atticus

[benjaminb]

Well, I went to 4 stores and played lots LOTS of piano's ;-)

and the 2 winners are :

Petrof 125 & Schimmel 120 I

If I could I would combine them, I would take the heavy keys of the Petrof and the nice bright sound of the Schimmel...

But I think I will stick with the Schimmel. it 'll cost me 7600€ roughly 9750 us $
Free delivery on the 1st floor , free piano bench and 2 free tunings , so that's cool !

I didnt like yamaha U1 & kawai , neither steinberg, kemble, seiler

I played a schimmel 130 but I found the sound to be duller than the 120

[a440]

Hi. If you like Bluthner (which is understandable) have you tried the Irmla, they are made by bluthner and are very playable and yet affordable. Check out www.headingley-pianos.co.uk for details and lowest prices I have found.