Purchasing a Piano
• In beginning your search, one must realize that unlike a car, pianos last for decades and are not often replaced or upgraded. Considering that the piano you choose may well spend the next 100 years as a fixture in your family and house – special care should be taken in its selection.
• Note also that pianos are designed to make and enable music, so style and color must take a secondary role to function.
• Of utmost importance: you and your money are best served by employing the expertise of a Piano Technician. Once you locate a piano of interest, have an experienced Technician visit the piano to evaluate its current condition, needs, value and inspect it for structural issues. This essential service will ensure you do not purchase a defective piano.
• As a general rule, the taller the upright and the longer the grand piano – the better the tone and action will be.
→ Very small pianos (spinets, consoles and grands under 5’ 07) have compressed mechanics, altered geometry, smaller soundboard area and shorter strings. These design compromises diminish the piano’s musical potential.
→ You should generally select upright pianos from 45 to 52”.
→ You should generally select grand pianos from 5’ 10 to 7’ 04 (grands longer than 7’ 04” are best suited for a stage).
• Older is not generally better. A piano is not like a fine French wine or cheese – it does not get better with age, only older.
→ For the purposes of rebuilding, certain decades can represent better quality pianos, but new pianos are in many respects superior and the “better” buy.
Moving a Piano
• As a general rule, moving a piano yourself or with the muscle of your willing friends is simply not advantageous. What might take hours of grunting and piano destruction could be effortlessly accomplished in a few minutes by professionals.
• Most piano moves are not difficult for experience movers – but this is due to experience, not muscle.
• It is also a myth that simply moving a piano puts it out of tune! You could move your piano around your house all day and not alter its tuning (assuming you don’t ram it into walls or drop it down flights of stairs). A piano goes out of tune during the move if it encounters a different climate (temperature & humidity).
• Protect yourselves, your friends and your piano by calling professional piano movers.
• You may contact me for further information about moves – as I have personally moved hundreds (thousands?) of pianos.