Any piano experts available

  • Thread starter Thread starter RandyW
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i have a sorta inline question here;

i have a (pretty) new upright in my living room, but it needs a tunin'. whats the average price for a piano tuner guy person? im too lazy to go look at the brand, but my dad paid around 2k new for my sister. pretty piano, black on a white room.

another question;

what companies make decent baby grands, in the cheaper end of the piano spectrum?

sorry for the hijacking, but i'd rather not make a whole new thread for small insignificant questions.
 
TragikRemix said:
i have a sorta inline question here;

i have a (pretty) new upright in my living room, but it needs a tunin'. whats the average price for a piano tuner guy person? im too lazy to go look at the brand, but my dad paid around 2k new for my sister. pretty piano, black on a white room.

another question;

what companies make decent baby grands, in the cheaper end of the piano spectrum?

sorry for the hijacking, but i'd rather not make a whole new thread for small insignificant questions.
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In my neck of the woods Michigan the going rate is around $100 for a basic tuning requiring no parts your mileage may vary.
 
Well it's gonna be different in different parts of the country but in Baton Rouge the going rate was around $65-$75. That a straight tuning .... no repairs.

A brand new piano for 2k is gonna be Chinese. Now 10 years ago I would have said that's bad but their quality has really come up in the last 4 or 5 years.
Good baby grands in the cheap range ......Samick makes a decent grand which they sell under their name and also make grands for other companies ... Wurlitzer is now made by Samick or at least was last time I checked.
The absolute cheapest would be chinese which are sold under a zillion different names. I'm not too fond of them because they tend to be built cheaply ..... I'm talking about pedals snapping intwo and that sort of thing. But there are some that I've recently seen that would be decent.
It really depends on the usage ..... if it's light use a Chinese axe'll be ok ..... they just don't hold up to hard use for 50 years which is what you expect out of a piano.
 
thanks for the info. the piano i have is a Kohler and Campbell, and i may be mistaken on the price, it was about 4 years ago that we got it.
 
TragikRemix said:
thanks for the info. the piano i have is a Kohler and Campbell, and i may be mistaken on the price, it was about 4 years ago that we got it.
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Yeah ...... retail on a US made Kohler would be around 4 grand .... maybe more although no one pays retail. Plus I don't really sell pianos ... I just work on them so I'm not always up on what they go for.
Also I think that Kohlers are starting to be imports ..... possibly Samick.
 
My Steinway sometimes buzzes depending on the weather, but most of the time it doesn't. You can't get too crazy about that unless it's a concert or recording studio instrument, or it buzzes constantly. Definitely check it out, but it's not necessarily a huge problem. It's also possible that when hit hard the key doesn't release quite right and "zings" the strings before it drops back. But that might be different than the "buzz" your daughter heard.

As has been stated, those cheap Yamaha's are in general voiced bright and have a light action. Add a wood floor to that and you really have a much louder sounding piano. Chances are once you put the Steinway in that same room with the wood floor you'll be able to hear the better quality of the tone, even though it may take a little getting used to at first.

I generally prefer a somewhat heavier action for my practice piano. That makes it easier to play any piano I might come across in my work. If you practice on a light piano and then perform on a heavier action you can fatigue quickly and run into trouble. But the opposite is an easier adjustment. Those light action pianos can also be deceiving, as they make you seem a little bit better than you really are. Not what you want in a practice piano.

It is also possible to adjust the weight of the keys when changing hammers and having the action worked on. It can be made heavier or lighter by the choice of hammers and other factors. I have mine adjusted just a little heavier than average.
 
Lt. Bob said:
Yeah ...... retail on a US made Kohler would be around 4 grand .... maybe more although no one pays retail. Plus I don't really sell pianos ... I just work on them so I'm not always up on what they go for.
Also I think that Kohlers are starting to be imports ..... possibly Samick.
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LT BOB, just curious if you ever worked on a Cameron & Sons piano. They must be a chinese import as you can get a baby for around 6K new.
 
don't really recall that name. But a lot of chinese pianos are what we call 'label' pianos. You could design a RandyW logo ..... go to a manufacturer and pick one of their standard pianos and they put your logo on it and bolt one to the plate. For more money you can get them to meet you specifications and even design what you want it to look like.

So there are a lot of pianos that will only show up in certain parts of the country.
 
Lt. Bob said:
don't really recall that name. But a lot of chinese pianos are what we call 'label' pianos. You could design a RandyW logo ..... go to a manufacturer and pick one of their standard pianos and they put your logo on it and bolt one to the plate. For more money you can get them to meet you specifications and even design what you want it to look like.

So there are a lot of pianos that will only show up in certain parts of the country.
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I don't think I would worry about the quality of the workmanship as much as I would the quaility and the seasoning of the wood the product is made out of.
I had someone out bid bid me one the Steinway and talked to the piano tech that did the appraisal on it. He said that it has definitely lost some sustain due to the flatness and quote about 6K to rebuild it. I don't think I want to put over 14K in to it maybe I should but I don't think I will. The couple are willing to give me a shot at it but I don't want to get in a peeing match over it.
 
I don't think you should . You can start talking about getting a decent new piano for that much. I don't personally buy into they hype about old Steinways ....... I've seen plenty of them that weren't that good.
With the problems that piano sounds like it has .... I think you're better off that someone else got it.
 
This is all very interesting. Unfortunately many of the pianos at my college are in terrible condition. Never get any love, or are just cheap to begin with. Many are low-end Kawai pianos, and break down within a year or so.

And then there's the evil baby grand Kawai that is used in most recitals. The action is the heaviest I have EVER played, and supposedly the piano techs have been trying to fix it.

Last Christmas, I performed the Vince Guaraldi transcription of Christmas Time is Here for a concert. I played it just fine on a light upright, but I only got out about 75% of the notes on that piece of crap...
 
Lt. Bob said:
I don't think you should . You can start talking about getting a decent new piano for that much. I don't personally buy into they hype about old Steinways ....... I've seen plenty of them that weren't that good.
With the problems that piano sounds like it has .... I think you're better off that someone else got it.
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You mean a decent new piano for the 14k price, not the 6k price, right? If you mean 14k, then yes that is basically the starting price for a decent new piano, as long as you shop around and compare a lot of pianos.

Despite modern manufacturing techniques, a piano is still a musical instrument and every piano is different. Doesn't matter whether piano "A" came off the assembly line 10 minutes before piano "B", they are still going to sound and play differently.

So what's most crucial is to take your time and try out as many pianos as you possibly can in your price range. I recently helped a friend of mine pick out a piano, and I was struck by how different they were from instrument to instrument. Even the same model from the same maker.

Ipersonally prefer the sound of older pianos, if they are in good condition. And I also am a Steinway guy. But as far as concert instruments, I've also played some great Baldwin's and Yamaha's.
 
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