Grand Piano Brands. How Much Does a Piano Cost?

Grand pianos are the most expensive because they require the largest amount of materials and their manufacturing process is the most laborious.

On the other hand they are the ones that have a more powerful sound and tend to be made with the best materials. Evidently they’re not for everyone.

When it comes to having a grand piano, you have to take into account that they take up a lot more space, so you’ll have to have it so that it makes sense to buy one of these fantastic instruments.

I’m sure you’ll be interested in…

• Ranking with the best digital pianos in quality-price ratio
• The cheapest musical keyboards for beginners
• Learn piano by yourself and for free

It should be noted that there are brands that enjoy a great reputation for being old manufacturers but it does not mean that their pianos are the best. Some brands aware of this have thought that this reputation is enough to continue selling without necessarily betting on quality.

How much does a grand piano cost?

Grand pianos are usually expensive for the reasons explained above. On the one hand, we have low range grand pianos from €10,000, medium range pianos from €20,000 and the high range that could be considered in pianos from €40,000.

What are the best brands of grand piano?

There are many brands of grand pianos, but if we base ourselves on criteria of renown and historical reputation we can name the following brands.

Steinway And Sons

An original brand from Germany for more than 200 years, he also founded another factory in America in 1853. Historically it is one of the best known manufacturers and for a long time were the most purchased pianos. His models during the nineteenth century were exported throughout the colonial world of the time. It has a cheaper brand called Boston that’s manufactured in China.

Yamaha

Yamaha is today the largest manufacturer of musical instruments on the planet, was founded by Torakusu Yamaha in 1889 and is one of the most reliable brands that exist. Their quality systems are tremendously reliable. There are few brands that maintain this consistency and reliability in all their instruments.

Schimmel

One of Europe’s largest manufacturers, founded in 1885, is famous for introducing numerous innovations to its pianos. He makes expensive, high-quality pianos

Bechstein-Zimmermann

Beschstein of 1853 is one of the best-known high-end brands in the world. But under the name of Zimmermann or Hoffman it makes more affordable but good quality grand pianos.

Petrof

From 1864, it is the largest piano factory in Europe. It manufactures several ranges but is famous for also manufacturing parts for other brands.It is important to bear in mind that nowadays many piano parts are manufactured in China; it is another matter that the assembly is produced in another country.

The truth is that all these brands have numerous product series and there can be a lot of difference from one to another. So it’s not easy to judge a brand without taking a look at its entire catalog.

Yamaha Vs Bechstein Vs Petrof vs Steinway and Sons

Well, if we wanted to make a comparison of the brands this is not at all easy as we have commented before each one of the factories articles of various qualities and ranges. But we could talk about one factor and that is: who maintains more constant proportional quality in each of its products?

Answering the previous question we decided without a doubt for Yamaha, because not only do we know her from the world of the grand piano, but we also know that she makes wonderful instruments of all kinds. These instruments come out of the factory perfectly tuned and usually don’t need adjustments until after a while.

A good example of a Yamaha piano can be the Yamaha C3X which is usually around 28,000 euros, this is one of the most balanced pianos that can be found for its price and is one of the best selling in the world. Here we leave you a video to listen to its sound.

Although of course if your budget is much larger, you can already go to other models in which certain brands are unmatched. It is true that Yamaha seeks more to give a professional product of high quality but with less luxury.

If you are willing to pay more than 100,000 € you can find the tremendous Steinway Grand Series D, evidently this will be an unmatched piano and the quality of its materials tremendous. A real luxury, then we leave you a video in which you can see how this marvel of technique sounds.

Yamaha also manufactures models to compete for over €100,000 but there the truth is that the Steinway Grand D series is difficult to beat. If you know English, this video review is very interesting; the Steinway model is compared to the high-end Yamaha S6. A good video that can clear up many doubts if you want to see an option in Yamaha.

Buy a second hand grand piano

Well, this is a very interesting option. You can save a lot of money if you do it well but you have to be very careful if you don’t know a lot about pianos. Even if you have a medium level piano you can lose a lot of money if you buy a second-hand high-end piano and it has a very broken mechanism.

Be prudent, it makes no sense to be willing to spend more than 50,000 on a product and not properly check your purchase. If you want to value the purchase of a second-hand grand piano do so by following these steps.

• Look for three or four that might interest you in your city or surroundings. Find out the price of that piano firsthand or how much it cost in your day.
• Once you have the list find yourself a piano luthier or an experienced private teacher. If he is a teacher ask him if he is able to evaluate the state of a piano and its credentials. Agree to pay for a few hours of your time to accompany you to check the pianos.
• It is true that you may pay for these services without finding the piano you want, as they may not recommend the purchase if they are in very poor condition. But you will win in two ways: you could have lost a lot more money and if you have really found a good offer you will know for sure and you can have a wonderful piano by investing a little in its restoration. To consider it a wonderful purchase we must think that the purchase plus the restoration should come out for 60% of the original price at most.

We hope that you have used these tips, if you think this post can be useful to someone do not hesitate to share it on social networks 🙂 Thank you for reading it!

 

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Care and maintenance of grand and upright pianos

The Cheapest 6 Upright Pianos

Upright Pianos are designed to take up less space in the house, as Grand Pianos often take up so much space that they are not suitable for use in any home. If you are trying to buy an upright piano, you probably have an intermediate budget – say between 2000 or 3500 euros. Evidently, the title of this article says “cheap,” so when we talk about these figures, we are already moving a bit away from that term. But don’t worry! we’re going to teach you options in that budget and much less. You just have to keep reading to the end.

I’m sure you’ll be interested in…

• See this section for possible discounts and offers
• Ranking with the best digital pianos in quality-price ratio
• The cheapest musical keyboards for beginners
• Learn piano by yourself and for free

Does Chinese manufacturing mean poor quality?

This is one of the first myths that must be denied. Today, in this country, there are manufactured pianos of high quality and low quality, indistinctly. It depends on what you’re willing to pay for.

Today, most beginner’s and mid-range pianos are manufactured in China, and this happens in almost all brands.

And haven’t you thought about a portable digital piano? They are cheaper and have many advantages. Don’t miss our selection of the best Digital Pianos from BuscarInstrumentos.com:

Today’s best-known brands are in a position of superiority in marketing by brand value, but today that no longer has to be guaranteed. Although for us it’s Yamaha.

Is a piano worth more than 2500 Euros only for the first few years of study?

Well, it’s true that pianos, because of their technical and mechanical complexity, are instruments of a more expensive nature; but to say that something that costs you 3000 € is going to sound bad and that it will only be worth you for the first years of study… that’s a trick for people who can afford to spend more money and renew the piano. It’s about “creating the need,” pure marketing.

Another important option is to buy a quality digital piano. Current technology has made the touch of the keys almost the same as that of an acoustic piano.

Normally the classical music world is very conservative, but more and more modern and conservatory teachers are recommending digital pianos because of their many advantages, such as being able to study in silence.

Digital pianos have many advantages, if you are going to buy a good one it will be worth it for many years, and in addition it’s very portable. Aside from all the money you’ll save on maintenance. Although for the touch to be sufficient to study, it must be one of the good ones; in the list we have included some very recommendable ones.

The ideal would be for everyone to study with a €20000 grand piano, but as that can’t be and budgets don’t usually exceed €3000, the quality digital piano option is increasingly recommended instead of a low-end upright piano. And by being digital and being sure that each one will sound the same, you can save a lot of money by buying them online. We hope we broke some taboos about the world of the piano. Here is our selection:

Best Upright Pianos on Price and Quality

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Yamaha B1 PE (Acoustic)

Made in Yamaha’s facilities in Indonesia, this is an interesting option – usually around 2800 €. Although, it is always possible to look for second hand. The good thing about Yamaha is that they are very scrupulous in the process of fine-tuning and quality testing. Yamaha instruments are famous for being totally ready to play right out of the box, perfectly tuned and without the need for minor adjustments.

If you’re looking for a second-hand piano, don’t skimp on paying a private teacher to come with you to try out the piano. It will cost you about 40€ and two hours of your time, but will save you a lot of headaches later.

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Yamaha Arius YDP 144 (Old Yamaha YDP 143)(Digital Piano)

A really good option for around 700 €. And now you have the new model Yamaha YDP 144. The only difference for the Yamaha YDP 144 vs Yamaha YDP 143, is the sound quality that is a new sampling technology.

It has features below:

• 88 keys – Yamaha keyboard with Hammer Action GHS 88  system with top of matte black keys
• Pure CF Sound Engine (improved in Yamaha YDP 144)
• Intelligent Acoustic Control (IAC): A system that mimics even the vibrations of an acoustic piano so that the experience is totally real; all this acts together with the acoustic optimizer
• 192 voices-polyphony with which you can play any work of medium and higher grade at conservatory
• 10 Piano sounds with good quality
• Reberv and Chorus effects
• Recording function
• Split mode to make one sound on one half of the keyboard and a different sound on the other half (usually the combination is usually piano + strings)
• Duet and layering mode to mix two different sounds
• Triple Pedal: It is necessary to have the three pedals for certain works of higher grade at conservatory
• Appearance of upright piano with very nice finishes
• Dimmensions of 1357 x 815 x 422mm and weight of 38kg

The way you see it, it is a very complete piano. It also has a double helmet outlet so that you can even give a piano lesson with the teacher in silence. Or practice a duet on the same piano.

It also has a USB MIDI output so you can connect it to your computer. This allows you to do things like record a track and then with a single click export what you played to a score… very powerful. The speakers are designed for the studio. With 6 W they are good for home study or a small rehearsal room. As for its dimensions;

Here’s a video review in English for you to get to know this top seller. You can also read our full review of the Yamaha YDP 144 where we explain what is new in the Yamaha YDP 144.

 

Yamaha YDP S54 (Old Yamaha YDP S52)Digital Piano Arius

​Our favorite from afar, because we’ve tried it and it’s great. Its feel is… simply amazing. Voucher for beginners and professionals.

The price is usually around 1000 € (around 1200 USD), but it is the perfect combination between the price of an acoustic vertical and a digital one.

It’s good for everyone, it’s very durable, and as we’ve said before, Yamaha is always such a reliable brand that you can buy it online without any problems, knowing that it will arrive in perfect condition and ready to go.

Don´t miss my review of this digital piano where with compare it with several options.

Korg LP180 Digital Pianos

The Korg brand has been a reference in musical instruments for a long time. This model excels in its Hammer Action Grand Piano system, a natural weighted hammer system to simulate the touch of an acoustic piano, and you won’t notice any difference. It usually costs less than 600 € and we have met many elementary and middle grade students studying with it. It’s also used by many professionals for its enormous portability and low weight.

Don´t miss our review of this piano.

Pearl River 118 Digital Piano(Acoustic)

Chinese manufacturing is one of the largest producers today. Highly demanded and with a great value for money in the lower-middle range, usually around 2500 €. If you decide on a vertical acoustic and you are willing to invest a little in tuning it from time to time, and keep your pieces, it is a great option. As we recommend before, try to find it second-hand and pay a couple of hours of time to a teacher to accompany you and give you a diagnosis of how the piano is, you can save a lot of money!

Digital Piano Casio Celviano AP-470 (old AP-460)

This is the new model of the Casio Celviano AP460. It brings back:

• Two new piano sounds
  • Steinway D
  • Steinway Boston
• 4 New accompaniments for layering and playing encuma
• Spatial audio
• Key on and key off simulations
• Best speaker system
• Best HALL simulations

This piano is the latest and most expensive of all the digital pianos we have selected. It is not the most bought, but it is a real hidden jewel at a good price.

The Celvians are much appreciated by many piano teachers for their students. Casio has overcome itself with the sound of this piano. It’s a tremendous sense of reality because it has one of the most advanced digital Hammer Action systems out there. Don’t be fooled by its modest appearance, it’s one of the best digital pianos ever.

It has strings and sticks to simulate a real piano, and the digital sound that comes out of your system doesn’t lose quality in compression. Its price is a little higher than the other models we have presented, but its proximity to the feeling of playing a real piano is tremendous.

It has MIDI support, synthetic ebony and ivory keys, recording and USB port, metronome, three pedals, 20W speakers, and headphone outputs. They’ve worked their way up to the top so it doesn’t get dusty. Apart from all the features that a digital piano of this price usually has, what is tremendous is its “Tri-Sensor II” system of massifs and velocity sensitivity. For now, the most powerful digital acoustic Hammer Action system on the market. We summarize its features here:

• 88 action keys Scaled Hammer Action II (Tri-Sensor) ebony/synthetic ivory
• 22 piano sounds with the new ones we have shown you before
• Multi-Dimensional Morphing AiR
• 256 polyphony voices (very powerful)
• Partition and layer functions
• DSP, chorus, ‘Brilliance’ and ‘Hall’ simulation
• 2 track sequencer
• It has a resonance effect and a hammer effect to better simulate the sensation of a real piano; imitating the vibrations you feel when you touch a real piano
• Cover and key deactivation simulator
• Audio Recording/Playback
• Of course it has metronome, transpositor, etc, etc, etc.
• Triple pedal for play in any level
• 2 headphone jacks
• USB to Host (this is the MIDI)
• USB to device
• 2 line outputs (L/Mono, R) with what it is worth to play live if necessary, although it is a little heavy compared to the portable digital pianos of the beginning
• 4 x 2 x 20W 2-way speakers (better than AP 460)
• Dimensions including music holder: 1417 x 427 x 861mm (height x width x depth)
• A weight of 43 kg compared to 150 that normal upright pianos can weigh; includes score book, music stand, headphone hook and AD-E24250LW power supply – although it has to be said that it doesn’t come with a stool.

 

 

The best place to buy this piano is Thomann Europe and your Amazon website:

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