I want to buy a piano but...?

[klavier76]

Is it realistically possible to buy a decent upright piano (preferably new), as well as pay for it to be moved to my house and be tuned if it needs tuning, with a budget of around £3000? This is the most my parents would be able to afford. I've done some searching on the internet, but I'm not sure roughly how much money would be left over to buy the actual piano with that budget? Also, any advice on what brand/model piano would be affordable. Obviously I would have to try out as many piano's as possible, but it would be great to have a starting point.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[john90]

As no one else has answered yet, I will chip in. £3K sounds too little for a good new one. A good second hand one can be had for that. I would say ignore names.

The last upright I bought was a Schiedmeyer from about 1920, It had already had new strings, new hammers and very substantial new dampers fitted 5 years before, and had hardly been used since. The touch, control, power and damping were superb. In terms of power and control it was a bit over the top until it settled down. I paid about 750 pounds for it from a dealer. The dealer had paid about £350 a few days before from someone who was moving and had not advertised it yet. Delivery was another 80 or so. I saw complete junk with good names for £3000, some good quality pianos for £2000, that played almost as good as mine. Some really usable pianos for £350 to £400, and yet worse ones for £1400+. Asking price is no guide to quality. I like to forget names, see what they play like, and literally try hundreds. I also played one piano with a 1cm misaligned crack in the iron frame. Amazingly it played really well. Never quite figured that out. After I saw the crack, I was afraid to stand near it, let alone play it.

My previous piano to this upright cost £15 from Oxfam. It was really very good, but looked horrendous to most people. I sold it for £55 to a man who was buying one for his girlfriend as a surprise. He said he had been looking for ages, but all the other ones he played were terrible, but most looked gorgeous. I found a photo of it the other day and it brought back fond memories.

[richard black]

For that sort of money you should be able to get something really quite nice, second-hand. New, you'd be looking at something not very good and I personally would certainly go the second-hand route. Some decent-condition old British or German piano (I gather you're in the UK so you should find plenty of both) - Welmar is a good make that doesn't fetch much money.

[keys60]

I agree with John and Richard. 3K is a bit low for a new piano, but you could get a much higher quality piano in the 5-8 year old range lightly used and reliable enough. At best, a regulation in a few years could be on the investment list for a few hundred, but unbeknownst to too many owners, that's part of basic maintenance. A reputable shop might have regulated it prior to sale anyway.  Take your time, do your homework, listen, learn, ask a lot of questions and try to find someone more knowledgeable than yourself about pianos to help you out.