Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Schafer & Sons VS Hallet Davis --- help me buy my 1st piano

SCHAFER & SONS
used upright (2 pedals!!)
unknown year (but continental style, so I'm guessing it's not more than 10)
ebony high gloss, well kept
$500

HALLET DAVIS
used upright
2002
mahogany high gloss, well kept
$1900

I'm only a beginner student, and I plan to resell the piano next year since I'll be moving out to attend school. Which one would be a better investment for resell?

anyone?

Depends on their condition. Usually newer is better but it depends on the reputation of the manufacturer. You'd want the serial number from schafer to even begin to guess.
Even that Hallet Davis pice might be high. You'd want to find out what a new one goes for, in that particular model.
Trying calling local dealers and see hypothetically which they'd be interested in buying from you and for how much, assuming good condition.

Schafer & Sons was a private label piano built for Colton Piano & Organ retailer in So. Cal. This instrument could have been built by Samick, Sojin (Daewoo), or Young Chang. It may be as old as the early 1970's.
Two pedal continental style sound early Korean rather than later. These early Korean pianos were troublesome.
If you can get us a model and serial number we can help more.

Hallet Davis is made by Dong Bei in China. They are the middle of the pack of Chinese products today IMO. Any way to confirm that 2002 vintage? Comparable new pianos from China are available at close to $2k.

Assuming both pianos are free of technical problems, if you just need it for a year, it may be easier to unload the cheap piano. Even if you take a loss of $100, no big deal.
But trying to get your money back on the $1900 piano may present a challenge.

I am striclty speaking about the resale condition, I am not saying that the Schafer is a great instrument.

I'm not sure of the model of Schafer, but the Hallet Davis is this one
http://www.halletdavispianos.com/specs_chippendaleconsole.html

what kind of 'troublesome' things do these early Korean pianos have?

how about getting a digital that you can take with you when you move.

Price seems ok, if condition checks out by tech.

Distinctive styling and off brand name may be difficult/slow to sell down the road.

Early Korean pianos had major problems with curing the wood moisture content for this climate. Every aspect of the instruments was rough by today's standards of Korean or even most Chinese pianos. If it is in fact early 70's piano that makes it nearly 35 years old at this point. Too old for this catagory of instrument to have decent performance characteristics.

lol, yea, that's what I thought at first when I purchased my current one. It's a casio PX110 designed to feel like an acoustic. However, after playing it for months now, the sound quality is still a digital, and I love the sound of an acoustic

those digitals can never mimic the sound of a real piano, it's a shame

it's too bad that I haven't got a hold of the owner to ask for serial number, but I don't think this piano is that old to be early Korean pianos

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/msg/461135032.html

too contemporary

I guarantee Schafer & Sons pianos in that cabinet style were being sold in the early 1970's. This style has been around for decades!

no, I have given up hope on that, on another hand, this one caught my attention

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/msg/455400056.html

does anyone know what year is this model? and hopefully not 30 years ago

Discontinued in 1988.
Get the actual serial number from the seller and we can look it up and tell you how old.