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0:00 Intro
1:13 Opening Playing Demo
1:48 Used Is Better Value Than New
5:16 Buying Based On A Discount
8:41 Underestimating The Piano's Volume
11:26 Not Measuring Piano Size Correctly
13:21 Allowing For Acclimatization
16:23 Not Considering The Mechanical Sounds Of A Silent System
18:39 Buying Based On A Country's "Sound"
22:52 Assuming All Grands Are Better Than Uprights
25:21 Not Considering Uprights Under 48 Inches
28:41 Shopping Dynamics

#Piano #Shopping #Music

Welcome to the Merriam Pianos YouTube channel. In today’s video, we’ll be highlighting some of the common mistakes people make when purchasing a piano, and what you can do to avoid said mistakes.

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Mistake #1: Assumption that Used is a Better Value than New

There are also many situations when the overall piano marketplace has already factored in the value of new vs used, and the actual street price a new piano can be had for represents an equal or better value than used.

Pianos are really an example of the classic “You get what you pay for” heuristic. A used Yamaha U1 in a certain age category has a particular market price point based on how it performs compared to a new U1 or a used U1 of different age.

All pianos degrade over time, so there’s no such thing as a 20yearold piano that is as good as a new piano, aside from the extremely rare scenarios.

Mistake #2: Allure of Large Percentage Discount Off of the List Price

This is an old sales technique that stretches across many industries, and the piano industry certainly isn’t immune.

MSRP is dictated solely by the manufacturer and is not measured against any type of objective standard.

There’s almost an inverse relationship between a piano’s reputation for quality vs how high or low the MSRP will be. The better and more established the piano, the closer MSRP will be to the actual street price of a piano. Some instruments actually have no daylight between MSRP and actual street price.

Lesser known and lesser quality brands will often dramatically inflate the MSRP to create an artificial equivalence with more established brands, and to create the illusion of a huge discount between MSRP and street price.

Mistake #3: Do Not Underestimate How Loud a Piano Is

There are a number of times each year when we get a call from a recent customer who was originally thrilled by a piano purchase but is now overwhelmed by how loud the piano sounds in their home.

Whether it’s a neighbor or even family members, people can often underestimate just how loud the piano is going to be in their home.

Be sure to consider the size of the instrument before buying.

Mistake #4: Piano Won’t Fit

This one comes up a lot when folks are looking to place their piano in a basement, or up on the second floor of a home.

We can’t stress this enough, make sure you measure ahead of time. If you’ve got an inch or less of clearance, odds are your walls or the piano might get banged up.

Mistake #5: Acoustic Pianos Need to Acclimate to Their New Environment

Pianos are made of many materials that react to changes in temperature and humidity. When a piano arrives at your home for the first time, it’s going to take some time to settle in and acclimate.

Keys might be sticky or stiff, dampers might be off, and there could be temporary distortion. Certainly, notify your piano dealer if this occurs, but odds are your piano is going to go through something like this before the piano settles in and the issues go away.

Mistake #6: Acoustic Piano Actions Are Loud

With the increasing popularity of silent acoustic pianos, some people are dismayed to find out how loud mechanically an acoustic piano action is once everything else is silenced.

If the expectation is 100% silence, you might be quite disappointed, as there’s just no way around the mechanical noise of an acoustic piano action, so definitely take note of this if you’re looking at a silent piano.

Mistake #7: Don’t Let Preconceived Notions Get in Your Way

Some customers think only a European piano tone will satisfy them when in reality, there’s an incredible amount of variety in the tone of pianos made in Germany for example.

Instead, countries generally have quality standards that most manufacturers adhere to, which is the big determining factor in sound quality.

Mistake #8: Grand Aren’t Automatically Better Than Uprights

There are many instances where the quality of materials and design on an upright will produce a more preferable experience to a grand of the same price.