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Hello,

I'm looking to purchase a used spinet or console piano for practice. What are your recommendations for best bang for the buck on a tight budget of $900 or less?

I'm considering the Baldwin Acrosonic. Obviously some Yamaha would be great but not sure if I can find one for under $1k. But you guys are the experts, please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks!

Honestly, $900 won't buy you much except a PSO -- "piano-shaped object". Most consoles are in frustratingly poor shape.

I'd rather buy a decent digital with that money myself (you might want to increase your budget to ~$1000-1100 USD for a nice pair of headphones as well). Listen to some demos of the Yamaha P155, Kawai ES100, older Yamaha CLPs, and used digital consoles.

If you have your heart set on an acoustic, I recommend saving up some money.

If you have your heart set on an acoustic for $900, then a used console is your best bet. Even the best and most well-maintained examples, however, don't excite me too much. Still, you can coax a nice sound out of any reasonable-condition instrument. Play it and see if you like it.

I'm not sure if it's worth it at this price point, but you might want to hire a technician to see if the action is capable of being regulated and whether it can hold a tune. You can easily pour tons of cash into improving it and not see much.

EDIT: if you check out the Piano Buyer's acoustic database, the cheapest instrument there (by SMP) is a Cristofori 42.5" at $3500 USD. Maybe you should search for used models around the same size, rather than the 36" Baldin Acrosonic console.

http://www.pianobuyer.com/

Look for a studio upright, about 45 inches tall.

It is rarely feasible to buy an acceptable piano for less than $900. My advice is to buy a keyboard, or save your money until you are able to spend two to three times that amount.

There are plenty of uprights around $1000. A lot of people are moving or need the space and are more interested in getting rid of it than chasing an extra $200.

Older pianos, especially in that price range, is more about age & condition than brand. I'd look at the lesser brands, you might find something newer (e.g. Young Chang).

And you can fairly easily get a 30 year old Yamaha U1 for about $1500, but I might go with a newer No-Name-Piano-That-Sounds-OK if I could find it.

It is always best to judge a particular piano on its own merits, but with a limited budget, some generalities may help.

The Baldy Acros have proven themselves to be very well built and long lived pianos. When considering used spinets or consoles, they are a very good place to start. You might see if any dealers near you have any for sale. The advantage of buying from a dealer is that the sale might include delivery, in-home tuning, and warranty.

Of the many brands available from the 50's through the 70's, the Acrosonic would be my choice. But remember, all pianos of this size have inherent limitations.

I am sometimes surprised what kind of deals can be had on the used market. People are often under time constraints to move a piano out. Moving sales, divorce sales, estate sales.... There are always deals that come up, you just have to be on the lookout and be ready to pounce when the opportunity presents itself.

Not long ago I tuned a hardly used 1980s Kawai 108 (109?) which was better than any N.American consoles I have encountered, never mind spinets. The owner paid 600.

I agree with Jurgen, there are deals to be found but you have to educate yourself on what to look for and then watch for a deal to pop up and be able to check it out right away. Tell your friends you are looking. They may have or know someone with a decent piano that would love a quick sale just to avoid the hassle of listing it somewhere. But be sure to do your homework first, plenty of threads to read though here on PW that should help as well as other outside resources. Good luck!

There are definitely deals out there to be had. This is a tough time to be selling a second-hand piano. A piano, like anything else, is only "worth" what someone will pay for it. I recently bought a beautiful baby grand piano for just double what you're looking to spend (click my signature below if you want to read the story).

I've heard nothing but praise for the Baldwin Acrosonics. And when I was shopping, I saw them regularly on Craigslist for less than $1000. This may depend on your location, but I see four on Craigslist now for less than 1000, one for 1200, another for 2600.

If you haven't already, educate yourself a little on what to expect, and how to look a piano over (you can find several web pages that discuss inspecting pianos yourself). A professional inspection is great, but in your price range, paying for inspections will quickly eat up your budget; they tend to run about $100, give or take. Play as many different pianos as you can, so you know what a good one feels like and sounds like.

In your price range, if a specific piano interests you, it may be worth following up on if it:

• has no obvious flaws
• makes no strange noises
• has a good action, meaning
  • all the keys work,
  • none stick, are mushy or have a weird resistance when pressed, and
  • all require a uniform amount of pressure to actuate
• sounds nice
  • each key produces a pleasant note
  • all the notes, other than pitch, are relatively uniform (volume, tone, etc)
  • it's in tune (relative pitches between notes)
• all pedals work properly
• it brings a smile to your face when you play it

The "in tune" issue is important. If it's not in tune, you can't know if it will hold a tune, and if it can't, you don't want it. If it is in tune, but was tuned very recently, you also don't know if it will hold a tune (although playing forte fortissimo can quickly knock it out of tune). If it's in tune, but hasn't been tuned in a while, you can probably assume it can hold a tune.

I wouldn't recommend the above inspection "rubric" for an expensive piano, but for something less than 1000, you can reasonably rely on yourself to check it out. In fact, you almost need to, because the cost of inspections will quickly eat up your budget. If you have 5 inspected, your $900 becomes $400. But, if you narrow your search down to "the one," you may want to have it inspected.

Oh, and don't forget to budget a couple hundred dollars to move it.

Also, as some others have pointed out, you can get a nice digital piano in that price range too. At the same time, it's not the same as having an organic, acoustic piano in the house.

Agreed with Retsacnal. If you know someone play piano too, then you can ask he/she to come along with you to give opinion.

Update: I heard some demos of Baldwin Acrosonics on YT, and they actually do sound pretty good. I'd try to get one that's 40"+ instead of the 36" size, but they all sound much better than I remembered.

Here's an Acrosonic in Ruston, LA for $250:

http://monroe.en.craigslist.org/msg/4267861475.html

However, playable is always a good idea and a music rack is very helpful. Any brand of piano can be neglected or abused to death.

This is a great example of what not to look for on CL.

Greetings,
If you are going to check one out for yourself, there are several things to look for. Most of these pianos have been sitting for years, so it is not uncommon for a certain amount of sluggishness to be present, particularly near the extreme ends of the keyboards. Press the damper pedal, and while holding it down, push down about an octave of keys at a time and let go. If you see a lot of keys that are slow to return, grab one of them and press it from side to side. Test again. If it is measurably faster, this will often let you know that the key bushing is tight, and that is something that will loosen up with play. If the sluggishness remains, there may be more expensive problems farther back in the action.
Look at the evenness of the keys by looking down the keyboard from eye level. If the whites are erratic, some higher and some lower, something might be amiss farther back in the action, (moths, water, rodents, wear, etc). Listening carefully, play each note with a staccato touch, listening to the damping. Also play chromatically from bottom to top, as softly as you can, and keep that level of play in mind as your minimum touch with this particular piano.
As was mentioned, it oughta be in tune. Otherwise, you don't know if it can be tuned and all these other considerations are just idle talk. If you have to, split the tuning fee with the owner, if you don't buy it, that tuning will help with their next seller,and the tuner should be able to tell you after tuning what you are buying.
There are millions of consoles out there, I recommend them over spinets, because I have seen the build quality reach its lowest point in the spinets, and the consoles have more string length, which gives some hope of tuning them beyond what most spinets can provide.
regards,

I found a console 1994 or 1996 42" Acrosonic when I first started playing again. Not a bad way to get back into the swing of things either. I sold it for the same amount ($650) I paid for it 3 years later.

Staying away from spinets is probably best. Spinet actions are extremely difficult to service and repair, and most of them are at the age where action service is important.

Played a Baldwin Acrosonic the other day at a dealer that looks like they cleaned it up pretty well. It was so bright it sounded like a harpsichord. Is that how they all sound or was this one an exception?

Update: I went and played the black Acrosonic I had my eye on.
I actually wasn't too crazy about it mainly bc it was too bright! I like more low end and softness to the sound, this was a little harsh and bright.

I'm wondering if saving up a little more for say a Yamaha U1 (as someone here suggested) might be a better way to go?? I think I saw one for $850 or so recently.

Yes

I got an electric keyboard, Yamaha P-105, for less than $700 last year, and it's been great. The keys are weighted, and when I plug in the headphones, it's easy to imagine I am playing a grand piano.

You might want to consider something like that.