UK Piano Page Piano Forum

If you only need the instrument for a few lectures a week, would you not consider something more portable or light weight such as a Yamaha P-155? Ah, no. The amplification is inadequate for more than practice use, and we don't want something that will go walkabout, so something substantial is bette...

Having got my acoustic piano requirements nearly sorted, I'm also tasked with finding a suitable digital piano for our music technology dept. This will sit in a small lecture theatre (c.65 seats, low ceiling, little bigger than a typical UK school classroom) and humidity/temperature variations plus ...

Just to say I appreciate all of your opinions. I'm off to view some pianos this weekend so will see what my eyes and ears tell me about the various Japanese imports.

Al

I'm in the South-East, so London is a definite possibility. The 3-mil cutoff seems to be Jan 1980, and coincidentally most of the U3s that aren't over-budget are just older than this (looking at the various reputable dealers). Disklavier is an interesting idea, although all of our students should be...

I am a university lecturer in a Music Technology department. I have persuaded the powers that be to allocate £2750 (possibly a touch more) towards an additional acoustic piano. There may also be funds in somewhat less than a year for a better grand piano. We need something that will cope with regula...

Zenders? I think all the ones I've played have had an oddly low keyboard - one had to be seriously chocked up. They were rather thin in tone. I'm also worried by the comment that it has never been tuned - if this means for all its life, this may mean it can never be decently tuned. Like Barry says, ...

As there are no other problems yet, and the tuning seems very stable (allegedly three years and two moves, and was in better tune than the 2005 Kemble it's sitting near to while it acclimatises) I'm inclined to think the bridges are fine. Fortunately it turns out my boss knows an ex-tech and we may ...

Thanks for your thoughts. mdw, am I right to presume that an unglued treble bridge would result in tuning instability? As everything looks normal, is there an easy test to determine whether this could be the case? Would the isolated brighter note support or scotch this theory? jackg, that was my tho...

I've recently picked up a cheap baby grand (Challen, 1974, 5' long) as a stop-gap second departmental piano until we can afford something really good. As far as I know it hasn't been played much recently, and was previously in a domestic situation and has probably never been regulated. The hammers h...

Thanks all. In the end I decided not to go for it, as it appeared to have been stored somewhere cold and there was surface rust on the large screws inside the top plus a small amount on the strings - they sounded well enough, but two had clearly been replaced very recently and I didn't fancy a compl...

I'm contemplating buying a Young Chang G185, roughly 10-15 years old, at a good price. The reason for this price is that the polyester on the sides of the piano (particularly the left, but all the way round) has a few horizontal cracks and the piano is thus cosmetically poor. Inside and underneath t...

Thanks for the tips - very useful to bear in mind. If I move I hope my neighbours are as understanding as my current ones - they never notice and have even asked if I ever play the piano!

Al

Does anyone have any tips or experiences to share about acoustic (i.e. non-digital) pianos in flats (apartments, tenements, condos etc.)? My particular piano is a 1920s Broadwood 5'2" grand, if that flavours your thoughts. I don't have a particular flat in mind yet, but this is all in the UK. I...

I'm not sure if this should be here or in the history section, so please move if appropriate. I have a 5'2" Broadwood grand, serial 54863, which dates it to late 1925 if I've read things right. It has clearly had an "interesting" life, but I like its sound and it wasn't expensive. The...