Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum I have an announcement, LOL...

Just wanted to let you all know that my grand piano hunt is just about over. I've decided on a new Kawai GL-20. Played it yesterday and it's perfect, I love it, end of search. It's taken me a looooooong time to get to this point, and I haven't even been in active search mode during the pandemic. I just happened to go visit a good friend yesterday who owns a lovely shop, thinking I was innocently auditioning an older Mason & Hamlin, LOL. I did, plus two older Steinway S grands, and then wandered over to the Kawai. It's a wonderful piano! The action is fantastic, it did everything I asked and more, and the sound is SO beautiful. I think we'll have a great friendship over the coming years.

Thanks, everyone, for your input over the past several years. It's been quite a journey! Pics when we get to that point...

Take care, everyone!

Congratulations on your new Kawai!

Congrats! Post pics and audio when it is delivered

Congratulations! How exciting!

Wishing you much happiness with your new Kawai GL-20 grand piano, for many years to come!

Rick

Oh how exciting!!! Looking forward to photos! When do you take delivery?

Also, may I ask what the name of the shop is? (you could pm me if you prefer?) I have friends in the area (I think I mentioned before that my mother used to live in Buffalo).

Thanks everyone! I’ll find out in the next few days when delivery might be. I made an offer just this morning. The shop is (removed at OP request), the same shop where I got my upright. They were longtime dealers of Steinway, and started selling Kawais about three years ago. It’s a fantastic shop, the owners are very good friends of mine, really wonderful people and I highly recommend a visit if you are in the area.

Of course, this morning I am measuring like a fiend, all a bundle of joy and excitement! It’s been a really long journey! I’ve been feeling more and more, in the last year or two, that I needed an instrument I can really grow with. My repertoire has gotten more challenging over the years and I feel that a grand will motivate me and help me play the way I want to, sound wise. The GL20 is so responsive, and the sound coming from the piano is just so soothing. Uprights are great, but the sound emanates in a very different way. This grand is exactly what I hoped for!

I am soooo excited for you!! I had owned acoustic uprights for a long time, and they are wonderful instruments. But the experience of playing a grand, and having that be my daily instrument, is absolutely wonderful. And amazing. It's just so different and is motivating in a way I hadn't anticipated.

The other day I made a recording (to share in the ABF themed recitals, hint hint), and after I finished, I said thank you to my piano. I don't think I've ever done that before! I just realized how grateful I am to this instrument.... It might sound cheesy, but this instrument really feels like a partner to me in a way no other piano has before....

I'll stop there before I get too sentimental!

Also, thanks for the name of the shop, I'll pass it on!

Great choice, Lisa. And you won't have to change your PW Member name.

Well, bad news, my offer is a no go. I thought it was really fair, but I'm not a dealer so what do I know?

Oh well. Maybe I'll just stop looking. It's not worth the stress and disappointment.

Oh no!!!!!!!

Did they counter offer?? Is there some agreeable middle ground?

Well that's unfortunate. Yes - the process can be very stressful. Are they willing to budge at all?

As I understand it, you started out with a Yamaha U1, then purchased a Kawai UST-9? Is that correct?

They did counter offer, but it's more than I am comfortable with. We're not wealthy, just average middle class people trying to save for retirement even though we won't have a retirement, LOL. The UST9 offer I made a few years ago was with tax and delivery included and was accepted, but not this time. The tax and delivery priced me right out of it, even with my trade in, because they didn't move from the MSRP. I just can't manage that much.

Yes, I had a used U1, which was nice but older and I wasn't crazy about the action. The UST9 is a very nice instrument. It will have to be good enough.

So sorry to hear it was not a done deal. This kind of thing happens, more often than not, most likely.

Just a side story here... years ago I made an offer on a farm tractor, private sale. The seller said he'd think about it and let me know. He called me back the next day and said he'd accept my offer. In the meantime, after sleeping on it, and thinking it over more myself, I had second thoughts and changed my mind about the offer.

When the seller called and said he would accept my offer, I told him I had reconsidered and withdrew the offer. He seemed a bit angry and kind of scolded me over the phone and said I was not a man of my word, because once you made an offer, that meant you were going to buy it at that offer. Had he accepted my offer immediately, things may have been different.

Well, all I could do was eat crow and apologize. But I found a better tractor, and more what I really wanted a few weeks later.

So, these things happen.

Don't be surprised if you hear back from the dealer with a counter offer you can live with, or not.

Don't lose hope!

Rick

Maybe things are different in the USA. Here in the UK we normally find out the sale price first then start the haggle. Did you make an offer so low thinking that 'your friend' would acquiesce? Sorry to have to say it but 'counting your chickens before they hatch' comes to my mind.
Ian

No, absolutely not, I've been around these forums for a long time and I've done a ton of research, so I know what this piano has sold for new in other areas. My offer off MSRP was actually quite a bit higher than other buyers I've seen on here. Sitting here calculating, I actually made almost the same offer, percentage-wise, that I made on the UST-9 3 years ago. The only difference was my trade in, almost to the dollar. I guess it's true that trade-ins don't really act as currency, and you are better off selling it yourself if you want to get a decent deal. More fool me.

Also, the number my friend gave me yesterday was off by $2000, so that didn't help either.

Sorry to hear that.


SMP is 18190 USD. Fine says a discount of 10% to 30% might be possible from SMP depending on the dealer.

Don’t give up. There might be other options. You deserve a grand and I am sure you will be delighted by one.

Yeah, their number today started at 19,000. That's basically MSRP.

Lisa,
You have learned a lesson that will help you avoid this pitfall. Think of it this way. You have lost nothing but have learned that the GL20 has met your present requirement. If it takes you a further year then it is not a wasted year, only a year that gives you time to gather more funds and possibly give consideration to comparing the GL20 to other Kawai models new or used. I'm sorry if my response appeared negative. I look forward to hearing about your piano journey.
Have you read Perri Knize's 'Grand Obsession' book about her journey to find a replacement piano?
Ian

Well, I wonder if the pandemic and accompanied surge in at-home hobbies has anything to do with it.

Nevertheless, don't give up your piano search (although you will likely benefit from a little break!)

You also might consider buying used? My C2 was 20 y/o when I bought it in summer 2019, and it is a fantastic piano. There's no way I could afford a piano of this caliber if I were only looking for new instruments.

Again, I'm so sorry about this development!