Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Buy a new budget piano, Yamaha or Feurich?

Want to buy a new piano for my daughter who starts to practice piano. And I want to control the budget around 4000US$ , which one should I buy , Yamaha B1 (Indonesia) or FEURICH F115 (China) ? In term of durability, I have more confidence on Yamaha, but in term of the sound quality , seems FEURICH got a rich tone across the keyboard ( just listen from YouTube). Would anyone who have experience could give me some advice?

Can't compare directly, but the entry-level Yamahas are nothing to write home about.

Stay away from the B1. Any digital piano above 1000€ makes more sense. The Yamaha B2 or the Kawai K200 are where acoustic pianos start to make sense in my opinion. Cannot say anything about Feurich since I have never played one.

Here's a past PW thread regarding the Feurich 115. I'd certainly be curious to try one of these myself.

http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/1952521/1.html

I'm curious - why are the Yamaha and Feurich the only pianos being considered thus far? Are you unable to personally audition either of these instruments?

a used Yamaha U1 is a good one.

If you buy a piano for your daughter who is just starting to play the piano and you are unsure if she stays at playing the piano, then buying a used piano makes a lot of sense. Buy from a dealer (i.e. not from private) and there shouldn’t be any surprises. Stay with a well-known brand and buy something that is less than 20 or so years old and you won’t have much trouble selling it again if she loses interest. Makes probably more sense than buying entry-level new.

So, yeah, just like skylertangchen said. Add to the U1 also U3 and the P121 (has a different number in the US) and maybe the b2 and b3 from Yamaha, and K200, K300 and K500 from Kawai (earlier models may have somewhat different numbers) and you have a bunch of solid choices that will be within 4000USD.

Antonio - if you haven’t done so, you may find the Pianobuyer.com website to be very informative. They have many articles related to various issues about buying pianos. If possible, I would try to keep an open mind to more pianos than just those two. I would also consider starting with a digital piano, as has been mentioned, and I’d also consider lightly used, pretty young pianos.
I think with your budget, you should be able to get a decent acoustic upright piano. I spent much of my young learning years with a Yamaha M306, which was a model that was a similar size to the B1 but with a different cabinet. It was more than adequate to take me through many years of piano learning, so if you feel the B1 is your best option, I am not nearly as negative about this as some of the other folks on the thread. The Feurich has the advantage of being 2 inches taller. The difference between 43 and 45 inches may be quite significant in terms of being able to produce a nicer sound.
Again, keep an open mind, and try to look at as many options as you can.
Also, are you in the US? My understanding is that Feurich does not have an active dealer network in the US, in which case I would find it surprising that you have found a new Feurich upright (I would definitely ascertain that it is indeed new).

I think there is a shop in or near Chicago that carries them.

Interesting. There’s a 2012 review but no other Feurich article/entry in PianoBuyer, as far as I can find. I think in a former thread, this had been attributed to lack of a dealer network. I guess there is one but it’s too small to warrant a PB entry…

Both the Feurich and the Yamaha are good choices. I do prefer Yamaha products in general and IMHO I think the model b1 is fine. Properly preped b1s are surprisingly fun to play and they are very versatile for a small piano. It is a small piano. I'm curious if your daughter has a preference?

None is a bad choice but I would prefer Yamaha because of the durability. You know it's for a small girl and the piano can fall down anytime. Yamaha product is more rugged

Have you actually heard of a piano falling down? There have been no reported cases here.

Really. A small girl is likley to be unable to topple over a piano (on a sensible level floor) even if she tried. Now if we were talking about hulking great weight lifters or sumo wrestlers coming back drunk and with a death wish that might be more of a risk :-)

However what might be useful to look for if safety is a primary consideration might be a 'soft fall' fallboard.