It’s a classic tale. You’ve decided to enroll your child in piano lessons. You want to give them the gift of music, and you’ve read in parenting magazines that it helps with memory skills and builds a higher IQ.
You look online and find cheap upright pianos everywhere. There’s one not too far away from you.
Should you say: Yes?
When you find these “good deals,” a part of you questions why. How can anyone offer a cheap piano? What’s wrong with it? Glad you asked.
Moving fees
Let’s start with the most basic item first. If you find a cheap upright piano, you’ll have to move it into your home. If it’s a long distance, that means there will be shipping costs. If it’s closer by, you might be tempted to do it yourself.
Pianos weigh hundreds of pounds, depending on the size you get. They’re big and bulky, top-heavy in some areas while delicate in others. Dropping it will cause extensive damage at best. Or worse, you might find yourself with an injury.
The person selling it for cheap is just trying to get rid of it. Are you factoring in the cost of moving it?
Repair and restoration
When people advertise a “cheap upright piano,” it’s usually for one reason: they just want it out of their homes. It’s sat there in the corner accumulating dust for years. Maybe it was moved to the basement or a garage to get it “out of the way.” Now, they want it gone.
While it sat there, it was also neglected. Zero maintenance. Zero tuning and repair.
Tuning is required to keep a piano playable, with a voice you fall in love with, that sounds good to you and others. Imagine playing a song where several of the notes fall flat. Makes you shiver without even hearing the note.
If a piano falls way out of tune, it may no longer be tunable. That requires extensive repair work to ensure it’s playable once again. That can involve changes to the:
- Pinblock
- Strings
- Soundboard
- Action
- Keyboard
The more extensive the damage, the more the repair bill adds up.
And that makes your “cheap upright piano” purchase not such a good deal.
There is a better way.
Select a new or used piano that is ready to play to give yourself every advantage of learning how to play. It’ll be moved to your home, set up, and tuned. You’ll have the best chance of success from the moment you say “yes.”
Isn’t that better?
