Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Why do people not favor uprights??

I can understand your reason to query this. A baby grand is much more a compromise than a good sized and quality upright, short strings, short keys etc. I've yet to play even a reasonable "baby" grand.

Well, to each his own..;). My Novis is probably my last piano anyway.

And I am yet to play an upright I would prefer to my baby grand. No matter how long the strings and how good the repetition, the upright design that affects the touch, pedalling and sound projection is still there. If you like it, then no problem. If not, then a baby grand is probably a better option.

Yes, I'd agree as far as a Tier 1 piano like a Blüthner is concerned - I haven't had the pleasure of playing a baby Blüthner - no dealers here.

I was mainly referring to more consumer grade pianos, as that's where the OP was talking initially.

Ok, I’m probably going to get thoroughly blasted off the Forum for saying this but there is a chunk of piano buyers that accept the “shortcomings” of baby grands and love them even though their piano techs remind them that they’d be better off with a quality upright.
I remember when going to the Yamaha website years ago that the GB1, 5 feet in length, was their most popular grand. It might still be. Sorry LadyBird, but I think small grands look decidedly better than a big upright. It sure won’t sound anywhere near as good as your Sauter or a YUS5, but piano makers sell quite a few baby grands. **My apologizes but a large squarish wooden box against the wall with a keyboard and two legs sticking out just isn’t as pretty or sexy as the curves of a grand, even if it is too short. Apparently there’s a market.
I’ve descended from my soapbox 😁

Well... I personally hate the way grands look...I only tolerate mine because of the tonal and playing properties...I do not like curved things in general and luckily my grand is very much in line with the communist esthetic: No extra decorations and quite bare in design

outo- isn’t it great that the acoustic piano market has enough options on size, sound, dynamics, color, and aesthetics that we can all find something we love? From sleek modern designs to art case beauty. If I was rich enough I’d have a fleet of fabulous pianos, including some stellar uprights, sitting in a stand alone gigantic studio. I could pick a piano to match my mood.
Which reminds me, my odds might improve a teeny tiny bit if I actually start buying lottery tickets. 😁

I have a dream too...to be one day retired and have the time and space to get all sorts of old pianos, also historical ones such as fortepianos and chlavichords, and learn to work on them as well as play them

I have a similar dream. I have once played a number of Erard grand piano's from the middle of the 19th century and they are utterly wonderful. So wonderful that at times I consider trading in my piano for such a grand. The only caveat is that it is less suitable to improve my control of dynamics due to the very shallow keydip. The shallow keydip allows you to play much faster in a controlled fashion than on you're average upright or grand piano.

There's another slight inconvenience...those old pianos do not tend to keep their tuning the way we are used to. So one should learn to tune as well

Yup, and parts are difficult to source and so on and so on. Another upside though is that these instruments are incredibly beautiful, almost all of them have cases in exquisite woods without looking "over the top", they also tend to be much leaner than the current beefy grand pianos.

Who would choose a digital over an upright for action? Doesn't make a lick of sense.

I kind of don't care too much about a pianos aesthetic. I'll take a sun spotted, chipped up, re-painted Kawai U model over a polished Young Chang any day of the week.

I go to great efforts to keep the humidity constant in my piano room. My square piano responds by staying in very reasonable tune for months.

I only got my own piano when I was I was nearly 12 years old .An old aunt gave us a pre-war Seiler upright.It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen ,and the tone sang like something I have never heard before !
In those days people had uprights not grands.Somehow there was never anything so wonderful as having a piano in the home.
Of course I understand the appeal of having a grand piano in a home
They are more pretty and look more dramatic.Even a communist age
Grand has this aspect to it.
But SORRY J&J my piano does not look like a big black box,at least not to us.

The best digitals have a grand like action while uprights don't, that's why. Have you tried any?

I have. I went to or local Yamaha dealership (purely to salivate) and checked out a few. I've played on a few Clavinovas as well, nothing higher end than that. The tonality, dynamics, and even action just don't feel the same to me. I know many love them but they always feel off to me personally.

The action on well made uprights is superior to any digital I've played.

Many lower priced digitals do have keyboards that feel "feeble" but some have a really good action, imo superior to most uprights. The sound however of course isn't the same. If one is used to an acoustic, I can see how any digital feels inadequate. But if one has to practice technically difficult music a lot, good digital action can be a good substitute for a grand. If I practice too much with my upright (Yamaha) I get hand problems. Never so with my grand or the digital. As I mentioned before, playing close to the fallboard tends to be hard on uprights and this is not avoidable with advanced music.

Really??? Do you believe every bit of marketing you read ?I have one of those digitals that supposed to have a "grand like action" I can say no it does not! I have tried many digitals that supposed to have this magic action.No they do not!
Perhaps the silent mode on your upright is affecting the action.

I have played many other uprights, not just my own and so far all of them have had limitations in their action. Also I have played many digitals, so I base my opinions on experience, not marketing.

I spend years looking for a new piano and tried A LOT of different instruments. I never said the digital action is "magic", just that they sometimes make better practice tools than an upright. I find some of the posts here almost fanatically proposing uprights for all needs and I don't want anyone to fall for that trap either, but select their instrument based on their individual needs.