Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Looking to buy a piano $12k-$17K Range: A Neophyte's odyssey

Well, you see that part of the patio where it's not quite as even as the rest?.....

Woot woot, oh man the piano is getting dropped off Saturday morning! I needed to get a cleaning service to clean the house for Chinese New Year and before the piano gets here. I cant find anyone available by then so i have to spot clean the house after work tonight and tomorrow. Well worth it. I’m glad none of the holidays that I grew up with in Mexico involved deep cleaning, but then again we didn’t get red envelopes with $ either. But I digress, the point is Saturday = piano!

Woot, woot 😸😸😸🎉🎉🎉

Congratulations, so excited for you!!!🤩🍾👏❤️

That's fast!

There's nothing better than taking delivery of a grand piano!!

Chinese New Year? Do I sense an impending performance of Chopsticks?

Congratulations! Enjoy, enjoy!
Pictures of the piano delivery?

For sure, I'll play for however long they want to listen. Haha

I'll post pics as soon as the piano is here on Saturday.

A new, satin Kawai GL-40 for $20,500 in this market? Wowee. Congratulations!

No, it was lower than that still. If anyone wants to know the price pm me. Yea, I couldn't pass the deal up.

Goodness gracious, that may be the deal of the year, and it's only January.

Make room for the Kawaii. You will never regret getting a 7 footer for that glorious bass. I learned that during my piano quest several years back. I had the room but was after that lovely bass anyway. It's always good to have a piano that makes you sound better than you really are. It's inspiring. You'll play more. Avoid anything very old. My tech recommends newer over older for maintenance any day. Those German pianos are out of your price range, but a good Japanese could be just the ticket. I would avoid the Korean and Chinese pianos. I ended up with a new Yamaha C7 that I love. There are a good number of them on the market. Go with your ears and hands. Read "Grand Obsession" by Perri Knize. Enjoy the ride!

Maybe in the future if I move to a larger house. But I think 6 feet is enough for now. I honestly don’t think I can outgrow this piano. I also wanted to save a little so that I can get a digital like a Roland lx708 or better. Maybe a novas 10, if the m3 action feels good on it.

well you sound like a younger family and maybe this won''t be your last piano like mine most likely is. My wife was every bit as supportive as yours. Congratulations on your new family member. Teach the kids to respect it and not eat or drink around it. Read Grand Obsession anyway... a fun read.

Regarding young children around acoustic pianos, I have tried to teach my grandchildren not to abuse my pianos. The two oldest have gone through that "fist pounding, elbow pounding keys and toy hitting the keys, stage", but my youngest two grandchildren are going through that stage now.

When they come over for a visit, they love to sit and play on the keys, and I let them. But when the fist pounding, elbow pounding and hitting the keys with a toy starts I have to scold them. I tell them, "if you break granddaddy's piano, next time you come over, you won't be able to play the piano because it will be broken".

My pianos have taken some hard licks on the keys with fists, elbows, and toys over the years, but no apparent damage so far. Fact is, they've taken a pretty hard pounding from me over the years.

Rick

I don't know why, but I had the free time and went to check out a used GX2 just a few minutes ago; one of the piano outlets called me that they had just received it and it was prepped and ready for playing. He said he had a few other people interested that were going to go check it out today. I thought he was lying but sure enough another gentleman got there as I was finishing up. I don't know why I went to check it out since I'm waiting on the delivery of the GL40. I guess I was curious to see how good the GX series sounds. Personally, I didn't hear that much difference to the GL40. The action did feel nicer, but like others have said that's probably just better prep work since they use the same action and the pianos are the same size. . Whatever the case, both pianos sound quite similar. I obviously couldn't play them back to back, but the GX2 didn't pop out at me making think, ahhhhh I need to get my money back and spend a few extra grand on this used GX piano. I'm glad I got to play some of the pianos in the next tier up: C2, G2, GX, Boston, etc. And as nice as they are, I'm happier that they didn't make much of a difference for me because it means extra cash in my pocket. I know ya'll keep repeating it on these forums but the secret sauce to buying pianos is just to play a whole bunch of pianos until you find something that you like within your budget.

How does the GL-40 action compare to the GX-2, stiffer?

The gx2 felt a little easier to play but I could just be splitting hairs here. The GL felt a tiny bit stiffer/sluggish. Perhaps the better way to put it is that the gx2 action felt a little more refined. Then again the gx is used and fully prepped while the gl40 was just tuned but the action was as it arrived from the factory. In terms of sound I don’t think one is better than the other, they are both a little different but nothing worth spending even $2k over. I know they say there’s better material on the gx2 and yada yada, but in terms of sound and touch they are very similar to me. I found a bigger difference between the gc2 and c2 and that difference was not much either.

You've certainly done a really good job of comparing, evaluating, contemplating, analyzing, debating, contrasting and coming to a firm conclusion/decision about buying your GL-40! A fantastic job, really.

In fact, I think sharing your experience here helped all of us more than we helped you!

Congratulations again!

All the best!

Rick