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Greetings,

A good family friend asked for advice that is outside of my knowledge as we have gotten pianos above range (i.e. Avantgrand). They are just starting off brand new and have a budget of $850. They are thinking of used acoustics but at that price.


Question:
1. Would it be better to get a touch sensitive digital piano?
2. And if so, what would you recommend for $850 and under, accounting for maximum discount possible if they shop?
3. Or perhaps a used digital piano as there is depreciation- what model then?

Thanks!

Buying accoustic piano with $850 budget is a sure way to loose money on something that can be then only given away for free.

I would definitely steer them away from $850 for an acoustic, they will get junk almost for sure, not worth moving or maintaining (which is going to cost them much more over the years.) They have a lot of great choices for digital pianos with that budget, even with nice stands and such. Here's one search showing what they could get between $750 and $850.

https://www.kraftmusic.com/digital-pianos-and-keyboards/home-pianos#/filter:final_price:750:850

Of what is shown there, the "forum favorites" are:
- Kawai ES110
- Roland FP30
- Yamaha P125
- Casio Privia PX-S1000 or Privia PX-160 (the former are brand new models, I don't know much about them but they look good)

There's a lot of personal choice there, I'm not going to try to sway you one way or the other, I think any would be great honestly if they don't really have any preconceptions. Best would be to try any first though.

Not so! Acoustics are so very hard to sell that even the good ones don't fetch much money.Yes, there are plenty of cheap junkers. But there are good cheap pianos, too.

To get decent money for a used upright you'll likely want to put it on consignment at a piano shop. If not you'll get peanuts.

Here where I live pianos are listed for free because it cost few hundred just to take it to out to thrift shop. And you can easily find good free ones - it requires to pay someone who knows how to check it, pay someone who can transport it, pay someone who will tune it... and the free piano at the end turns into a good chunk of money and still has value of practically zero.
I just don't see how $850 would give you anything more. Maybe there are good shops somewhere with nice used pianos for that money that also have free delivery - definitely not here though, nobody would bother with a piano that will earn the shop few hundred bucks at most.

If money is tight, "total cost of ownership" must be considered. That includes one or two tunings per year. The "free" acoustic has significant maintenance costs.

The list, above, of current-production DP's in the right price range, is what I'd work from. They don't go out of tune, and if you use headphones, they don't disturb the rest of the family or the neighbors.

They don't sound exactly like acoustic pianos, and they don't feel exactly like acoustic pianos. But they're close enough so that you can learn a _lot_ of music with them.