Yamaha B / Schirmer

pacunnette · Post by **pacunnette** » 29 Dec 2006, 21:26

Hi Everyone,

After restarting piano lessons for the past 6 months, I am now ready to buy a piano for myself. I have read many other posts on here about various brands.

I went into a local piano shop today and they had a Schirmer E138 (from China) for £1,358. The Yamaha B1 which was the one I was originally interested was 1,999. Two questions:

1) Would the Schirmer be a good buy?

2) Are there any other brands suitable for a beginner that comparable to a Yamaha b? My budget is 1,800 tops.

Thanks

Post by **Barrie Heaton** » 30 Dec 2006, 12:28

Well first of all the big discounter are selling B1 for £14000 or less including a free stool and del. Quite a few dealers are doing a price promise so I would look around for your B1.

As to other makes there are some very good pianos coming out of fair east in your price range and are serious contenders to the B1 if you intend keep them

worth looking at
Moutrie 122 £1500
Schumann 122 £1799
Wendl & Lung 122 price ??

Barrie,

PianoGuy · Post by **PianoGuy** » 31 Dec 2006, 10:16

The b1 is 2k in mahogany, but 1.9K in black. The mahogany finish is really nasty, so go for black if you buy one, and save yourself 100 quid. As Barrie has pointed out, they are available for less, but also try and find examples of:

Perzina /Carl Ebel/ Eavestaff/ Gehr,Steinberg/ Richter (all essentially the same piano)
The excellent Kawai K15 is possibly within your reach too.

I think the 121/122 cm pianos that Barrie has mentioned are usually around the 2k mark, but I can't say I've seen a recent Moutrie. The originals were some of the first pianos ever produced in China.

Post by **Barrie Heaton** » 31 Dec 2006, 12:45

PianoGuy wrote: I think the 121/122 cm pianos that Barrie has mentioned are usually around the 2k mark, but I can't say I've seen a recent Moutrie. The originals were some of the first pianos ever produced in China.

The Moutrie have a new factory they are using Renner hammers German bass strings and quality control is overseen by Ibach They are very good for the price for me I would buy the 122 Moutrie over the B1

The Schumann is made in the same factory so you are just paying more for the name

The 186 cms Grand Piano is also very good for the price but there are some things I don’t like, the *action is a tad noisy and there is a steep incline from the agraphs to the bearing bar that will cause a lot of drag down the road. You can tell Ibach have had a lot of input in to the design of this this piano

Barrie,

*Rollers are too hard and the key slap rail felt is too hard

pacunnette · Post by **pacunnette** » 31 Dec 2006, 13:32

Thanks so much for your replies. I will definitely see have a look at your suggestions. Is it true that Kemble is the only British piano available ?

Post by **Barrie Heaton** » 31 Dec 2006, 14:01

Well yes but… you could count Ladbrooks who make Broadwoods and Poletti & Tuinman Makers of Left Hand Forte-Pianos but they like a few others only make them to order

Barrie,

PianoGuy · Post by **PianoGuy** » 01 Jan 2007, 16:08

Barrie Heaton wrote: The 186 cms Grand Piano is also very good for the price but there are some things I don?t like, the *action is a tad noisy and there is a steep incline from the agraphs to the bearing bar that will cause a lot of drag down the road. You can tell Ibach have had a lot of input in to the design of this this piano

You mean like the infamous Ibach grand string-drag rendering them tuneable only by tuners whose schedule is so slack they can take the time to spend the necessary 3 hours on them?

Yeah! That's Ibach design input alright!

Post by **Barrie Heaton** » 02 Jan 2007, 00:40

Yip great fun - did one once most of the keys had splints on them and the treble strings were Heinz 57 variety

All the best for 2007

Barrie,