My wife wants a piano, I’m not so keen and wonder if she’ll really use it so wondering about first going for something electric to keep her happy. Are there some good options out there?

Get her a free one from Freecycle (they are always on there) – it’ll cost you no more than the cost of a removal man and a tune-up.

My FIL (a pretty decent pianist)swapped to an electric (yamaha) and loves it.
Don’t know what model it is,but has weighted keys and(he says)has a really nice sound.

Assuming it *can* be tuned. They’re often so far gone that they can’t be tuned, or they go out of tune almost immediately. That’s why old (upright) pianos are worth nothing.

They’re also effing heavy so I don’t recommend, for example, trying to get one into the small second bedroom of a fifth floor flat. Go on, ask me how I know this…

FWIW my wife has a Clavinova now. Smaller, never goes out of tune, and you can use it with headphones so you don’t disturb the rest of the house. A bit more expensive but I bet you could buy a s/h one and sell it on in 6-12 months for minimal loss.

The better electric ones play nicely, take up less space, don’t need tuning, can be moved easily, allow practice with headphones and can be hooked up to a computer for playing around with that if you wanted.

My mum moved to a Clavinova several years ago and is really happy with it. I’m not a serious player (stopped learning when I was still young) but it feels and sounds great to me. Almost everyone I know know who plays owns an electric, although that’s probably swung by living in London and the practicalities taking precedence.

Clavinova would be my recommendation as they are very good imitations.

does your wife have any keyboard experience or is it one of those ‘I fancy learning to play the piano’ moments?

That’s why old (upright) pianos are worth nothing.

Our out of tune one now holds up photo frames

I’ve got a Roland digital piano. It’s great.

Next door has a baby grand in the front room. She’s an awful piano player.

Get an electronic one so your missus can plug her headphones into so you can watch the telly in peace…

We got a second hand Casio Celviano from ebay. While it’s not as good as a proper (ie, expensive) piano for sound it’s very good and so much easier for all the reasons already stated by others above.

Jeff

Gents …. any one got an electric “full” upright or maybe even an electric mini grand.

Because those Clavinova, and similar, look more like keyboards as opposed to a piano … and on the basis that if I get one (and maybe every chance the same will be for the OP) it may well end up a dust gather so I’d at least like it to look good …. 🙂

OK sounds viable, I don’t want to be disturbed with her plink-plonking when I’m listening to my Hi-Fi so hopefully I can convince her that one of these is a sensible starting point.

Get an electric one. My old upright was never in tune and weighed an absolute ton. They’re also not very sociable if you live in a semi. I ended up buying a keyboard and the piano became a massive ornament. Eventually I tried selling it, then giving it away. No joy. In the end I broke it up and put it in a skip (not as easy as it sounds)

You’ll be surprised at how loud an electric piano can be when played through headphones. The keys on the better quality ones are weighted so they feel like a real piano, and have a loud hammer sound.

What’s the budget?

Yet another vote for an electronic piano. eBay has loads

Can vouch for a Casio Privia PX series (can’t remember which exact model) for a learner. Nicely weighted keys, fits in the corner out of the way and a very decent sound through headphones or a decent speaker system. Added a sustain/damping pedal. Only downside was losing the mains adapter…that wouldnt happen with an upright acoustic :/

We asked advice on here, and ended up buying a Roland electric piano from a fellow forumite. Weighted keys, sounds good, can be practised with headphones on. According to piano teacher and my FIL, it’s second only to a (very) expensive Yamaha to play.

+1 for the Roland.

We have an RD 170 stage piano and it is ace.

It lives next to the upright piano in the dining room which never gets played

If you go for a piano.

You want:

Under-damped
Overstrung
A full iron frame
Tape action Langer, Schwander or Renner if possible.

This will dictate a piano from about the 1930’s up until today depending on how much money you have to spend!

Look out for pianos that have a reputation for taking a beating like Knights K10 (were made to be moved about and stay in tune much longer) or a good quality German usually expensive though.

German

Bluthner
Bechstein Model 9
Kaps
Grotrian Steinweg
Ibach
Ritmuller
Schiedmayer
Hohner
Ascherberg or Asherberg
Seiler
Steck
Reisbach
Weber

British

Knight K10 – K20
Chapell Hs
Challen 988
Welmars Model C
George Rogers
John Broadwood
John Brinsmead
Hopkinson
Brasted
Kemble Cambridge
Danemann (be careful very variable quality)
Barrat & Robinson
George Russell
Bentley *NOT with Bentley Check action or a Richard Harley action*

Condition is king some sold for good money are absolutely clapped out/damaged, won’t hold tune, need new hammers, felts and jack springs replacing.

Good luck.

Funnily enough I was literally just sat trying to teach myself Jingle Bells (simplified kids version) on the little upright in the corner of our kitchen.

We got it free from the house next door – though as others have said even shifting it that small distance, with all the panels taken off, still took three of us with a lot of sweat and swearing, and involved taking the back door off its hinges!

Still, I’ve never been musical and never played before, but there is something about just having it there, always ready to play, that has made me give it a go (trying to stay a couple of lessons ahead of my 6yo as she does her Piano for Kids book 🙂 )

I don’t think I would have been as interested if it was just a keyboard. Not sure why though. Something about the immediacy, the tactile feel, and the analogue honesty I think.

Gents …. any one got an electric “full” upright or maybe even an electric mini grand.

Because those Clavinova, and similar, look more like keyboards as opposed to a piano … and on the basis that if I get one (and maybe every chance the same will be for the OP) it may well end up a dust gather so I’d at least like it to look good ….
If appearance is more important than playability, I’d respectfully suggest that having the instrument is really only intended to impress visitors…
There’s a really good reason very, very few musicians cart full-sized pianos around on tour, keeping the bloody things in tune, along with the space they take up being key.
Elbow use an upright piano during part of their concerts, doing a sort of pub singalong around it, but it’s an upright she’ll with the guts taken out and an electronic keyboard replacing the original keyboard.
In which case you might just as well buy a good Roland, Yamaha or Casio which will take up a fraction of the space.
Even the Yamaha electric Grand pianos they introduced a couple of decades or so ago take up a lot of physical space.

@GrahamS. I just had to check my dining room to make sure our piano hadn’t been stolen.

That looks identical to mine.

Here you go this will give you idea of what to aim for.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0oSBgIp-bI[/video]

Our Roland is ‘proper’ wood, not black Bontempi plastic…. If that matters.

@GrahamS. I just had to check my dining room to make sure our piano hadn’t been stolen.
That looks identical to mine.

Are you northern?

Ours has a badge saying “Binns Ltd – Newcastle-upon-Tyne”
Apparently they were a big department store that eventually got bought over by House of Fraser in the early 1950s.

For the sake of chestercopperpot, the main badge says “Berry, 14 City Road, London”. It also says “overstrung” and I’m pretty sure it has an iron frame cos it weighs a ton.

No idea if it is any good or not? Think it is just s standard piano of the time. Been tuned by a professional but it does sound a little “twangy” on some notes.

There’s a really good reason very, very few musicians cart full-sized pianos around on tour

Good to see that Regina Spektor does things properly…

A 900lb @SteinwayAndSons grand piano in road case carried up 3 flights stairs earlier today! #Manchester Albert Hall we're ready for ya! 💕💪👊 pic.twitter.com/fkBZ1jteko

— Regina Spektor (@respektor) November 10, 2016

Because lots of people now use a mac and a midi keyboard there are loads of high quality electric pianos about for very little. We got a mint condition Technics for £200 which was over £1000 six years earlier. Have a look in Gumtree.

I’ve got an Eavestaff Pianette going free, as used by her majesties Princess Elizabeth and Margaret. It’s small but is still a damm heavy piece of kit.

No way I’d choose a real piano. In fact we have one now, left by previous owner, up a spiral staircase that (we are guessing) was rebuilt with the piano in place. It’s not going anywhere now. Had to hide my disappointment when the seller said “and as a special gift, we’ll leave you the piano”. Negotiations were a bit fraught so didn’t really want to turn them down…luckily we’ve got the space and occasionally visitors do play it.

A relative plays the piano properly. He has one but prefers the always in tune, nice sounding, headphonable electronic version to the old honky-tonk that sounds like a parody of itself.

Mrs Pondo plays a bit, so we bought an upright piano (a Chappel, dunno which model) – lovely sound, looks great, and the shop we got it from fitted a damper thing so you can play it quietly at night. I’m sure electric FTW for the convenience, but I wouldn’t swap our piano for one.