Help Required

[Yorkshire]

I want to buy piano and begin learning how to play, however, I have been given mixed advice. My budget is small - 200 pounds maximum. There was a piano locally which I was going to buy for about 30 pound, however, a local piano salesman said that it would undoubtedly be full of woodworm which would destroy all my furniture and that it would be no good to learn on.

In fact the gentleman went as far as to say any piano less than 400 would be useless. he said overdamped / overstrung is also useless.

I am now very confused and demotivated. Can anyone advise whether his comments were valid. Is it not possible to buy a cheap upright piano which plays well, is good to learn on and will not rot my flat?!

Any help on what I should be looking for would be appreciated.

Thankyou.

[Barrie Heaton]

I want to buy piano and begin learning how to play, however, I have been given mixed advice. My budget is small - 200 pounds maximum. There was a piano locally which I was going to buy for about 30 pound, however, a local piano salesman said that it would undoubtedly be full of woodworm which would destroy all my furniture and that it would be no good to learn on..

First of all 200 pounds is not going to get you much in the real world however, you can pick up some gems privately last month I went to see a piano that a client got for 25 pounds it tuned out to be a Barrat and Rob in mint condition they would have paid 900 + from a retailer but in most cases when the general public buy blind they get stung.
As to the woodworm with out looking at the piano how would he know he was just trying to panic you it to buying from him, get your local tuner to look at any piano you buy even form a dealer

In fact the gentleman went as far as to say any piano less than 400 would be useless. he said overdamped / overstrung is also useless.
.

No they are not; I tuned a Sames over-damper on Friday swung it up a semitone 3 passes and it is now on pitch, the piano is a little cracker better than some of the rubbish coming out of far east. However, I did condemn a no name piano the day before all depends on the pianos. Overdamped straight a strung piano on the hole are getting a bit long in the tooth but you can still get the odd good one and if you are on a limited budget they are often the only piano available

I am now very confused and demotivated. Can anyone advise whether his comments were valid. Is it not possible to buy a cheap upright piano which plays well, is good to learn on and will not rot my flat?!

Any help on what I should be looking for would be appreciated.

Thankyou.

Talk to your local tuner he/she may have a client selling a piano some were close to your budget

If you live near Sheffield give this guy a call Tel: 0114 2745665

Barrie,

[Melodytune]

I have a few over-damper pianos on my rounds that are adiquate for the customer's needs, some are quite good infact.

I agree with Barrie on all the comments he's made. Don't be miss-led on what 1 sales person says, a qualified tuner will be able to give you truly independant advice about this.

[Yorkshire]

Thankoyu for your advice. i must admit I think I will strugle when it comes to buying a piano. It seems it is innevitable that I will end up purchasing something useless, which as a beginner is confusing - one would have thought that any piano which works will enable a person to learn on??

This may seem like a silly question, but is it possible to learn on an electronic keyboard of some sort? This would help in terms of the space required for a piano and would eliminate any problems of buying a redundant piano. I have been told that a keyboard would not suffice because you need to getused to the pedals - can this be overcome some how??

[Melodytune]

It would be possible to learn how to play the piano on a keyboard but this isn't really recommended, and some teachers insist you have (or have access to) a real piano as this will give you a true reading as to the sound you are making (in terms of tone that a particular peice of music requires you to produce).

Where many keyboards are touch sensitive these days, and the keys are weighted also helping to create that real piano effect, you can play loud and soft but with an accoustic piano you have so much more control over the tone you are producing.