Buying a new or used piano can sometimes be confusing. Nobody wants to buy a piano that needs hundreds or thousands of dollars in repairs before you can play it, and nobody wants to spend thousands of dollars more than they need to on a new piano.
In the video below, Ron Moore provides some valuable tips on things to consider when buying a new or used piano:
Appearances are not everything when it comes to buying a used piano. Most often any cosmetic items you see, scratches, broken keys or key tops missing are a fairly inexpensive repair.
One of the most expensive and detrimental things that can damage a piano is not caused by abuse (knowingly anyway). High or low humidity can cause significant problems internally. Much of this damage cannot be seen from the outside, and requires an experienced eye to spot.
Every piano is made up of thousands of tiny wooden and felt parts. If any of these parts are broken or misaligned it can cause the piano to not play or not play correctly at least. Continued use of these items will probably cause further breakage.
Most of these problems remain hidden to the untrained eye and ear.
If you are interested in buying a used piano from someone other than Moore Piano, you need to know the instrument that you are thinking of purchasing. With Moore’s Piano Service you can make a confident and informed decision by having us inspect the piano before you purchase.
Even if you do not use our service we highly recommend that you have a trained technician inspect the piano before purchase.
If you would rather inspect the piano yourself (not recommended) then I would purchase The Piano Buyers Guide by Larry Fine or contact us to purchase a copy of How to buy a Good Used Piano by Willard Leverett R.P.T. for $15.99. These books go through some inspection steps to help insure you get a good piano.
