Buying a concert grand

[hirencanjie]

Hello everybody! I've already owned and used a Yamaha C1 in my HK apartment for over 10 years. Since I'm getting married and moving to my new home (Sydney) the next year, now thinking about buying a new/used grand or shipping my old one. As I'm currently a postgraduate student of Royal College of Music in UK, I really need a good piano for practising. I've asked the shipping cost is ca. AUD 4k, but wondering if my old grand would be deteriorated. If buying a new/used one, I'm not sure about the selling price and good piano shops in Australia.   My budget is ~ AUD 30k (less than 30k would be much better), any brand doesn't matter, the quality is my exclusive determinating factor. Could anyone give me suggestion: ship my piano? buy a new/used one? which brand/model I can afford? any good piano shop recommended? Sorry for my poor English, hope you may understand. Thank you so much.

[allthumbs]

Hello everybody! I've already owned and used a Yamaha C1 in my HK apartment for over 10 years. Since I'm getting married and moving to my new home (Sydney) the next year, now thinking about buying a new/used grand or shipping my old one. As I'm currently a postgraduate student of Royal College of Music in UK, I really need a good piano for practising. I've asked the shipping cost is ca. AUD 4k, but wondering if my old grand would be deteriorated. If buying a new/used one, I'm not sure about the selling price and good piano shops in Australia.   My budget is ~ AUD 30k (less than 30k would be much better), any brand doesn't matter, the quality is my exclusive determinating factor. Could anyone give me suggestion: ship my piano? buy a new/used one? which brand/model I can afford? any good piano shop recommended? Sorry for my poor English, hope you may understand. Thank you so much.

Greetings

Welcome to the forum.

While the C1 is a decent music music school practice piano, at your level you need a much bigger and higher quality instrument.

I wouldn't bother shipping the piano that distance and to another climate, they don't always survive the move very well.

I would take the money from the sale and what you would save in shipping as a start in financing a better instrument.

Assuming your new residence in Australia is much bigger, you should be thinking of an instrument in the 6' to 7' range, the bigger the better.

Have a look at the Australian maker Stuart & Sons.

https://www.stuartandsons.com/

Good luck with your search.


Cheers

allthumbs

[dana_minmin]

wow you live in HK and you own a grand. 

[lostinidlewonder]

I agree don't bring over your grand to Australia, too many variables that could go wrong is just not worth the money. Unless the instrument has great sentimental value, that's another story.

I would buy a grand in Australia. You certainly will not find a cheap 2nd hand one from the stores, you would have to go buy privately. I am selling a few pianos, one of my Kawai 7ftf5ish grands are also up for sale for a fraction of what you could find in any store, if you are interested you can message me.

It is always important to see the instrument yourself before buying it. However often if you cannot be in person to inspect the instrument you can always call on one of the accredited piano technicians in Australia to go have a look and appraise the instrument for you. I have asked many technicians to look at pianos for me around Australia because I can't get there myself, they cost less than $120AUD usually to inspect the instruments that that comes with a full written report on all aspects of the piano, very handy for us to use when making a decision.