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Well that was interesting - based on coins our current piano dips under 38g weight and that's without the sustain pedal coming into operation at all! I think there's no doubt we need a new one! I think I'm going to just go with one of the two pianos she really likes, the early 80s Yamaha U1 and late...

We have carried on searching, and daughter has now tried a range of pianos, but one thing I wanted to ask you knowledgeable people is about touch/action. Everyone says, let her try lots of pianos and go with what she likes - but my problem is that she is used to an old English 130cm upright piano wi...

Thanks Barrie - and Colin, your webpage was brilliant for explaining it clearly. Sounds a tad out of the range of what we might be looking at paying for so I think we'll need to just choose based on the piano as it's set up in the shop. Thanks!

Thanks for this. I'm sure you're right, that you can only expect so much from a cheaper piano! We will carry on searching - but all the advice has been really helpful, thanks!

Ok, I have actually managed to find out what voicing is. It sounds highly technical and quite time consuming, I can't imagine a shop doing that for you unless you are going to buy a very expensive piano! If we were to pay someone to do that once we had bought a piano, how much would it cost? And do ...

Ok, I've heard a few things now about getting a piano 'voiced' to your taste but what is actually involved in this? What do you adjust to get a different 'voice' and how difficult is it to do? Is this the sort of thing a piano tuner might do or is this a piano technician only? And what kind of diffe...

Also, having done a bit of googling, it seems Kawai are noted for having a heavy action. I think this would rule them out for my daughter, we'll have enough trouble getting her to accept a medium action, never mind heavy!

Well, I had heard some good things about Kawai - they do them in The Piano Shop in Bath so maybe a trip there might be worth making. But the K15 is quite short - would a small piano like that be OK for going up to diploma level?

Hi, we're looking for a piano for my daughter (I started another thread about Reid-Sohns, but this is a separate topic really so thought I'd start a new one). My question is, Yamaha U1s and U3s seem universally liked but piano technicians and a lot of players, but so far my daughter has really not l...

We went to see the Yamaha and in fact my daughter didn't like it - the action was very soft and the sustain was non-existant. She also felt that it had no 'character' (one of the problems we've had is that she is just 13 and it's hard to translate her rather inarticulate assessments into something w...

Thanks both of you - that's really helpful. I'm leaning towards the yamaha now - but I'll see what she thinks and try a few others out at the shop too. Will let you know!

Hi, I'm looking to buy a piano for my daughter to take her to Grade 8 - I had been thinking of a secondhand yamaha U1 from a dealer (which seem to be about £2,800 upwards) but we've seen a secondhand (1988) upright 131cm Reid Sohn locally for £1300 as well as a 1993 yamaha U1 for £2100 and since we'...